Range Report 224 Valkyrie 90 gr SMK

[GLN305]

I was listening to the podcast today and heard that the 90gr loading offered by Federal was re-worked and the new loads being offered are performing better. Does anyone know where the lot numbers stopped for the preliminary load? I have some of the early ammo and some I recently purchased, would like to figure out which version of the load I am shooting. Thanks!

 

[craigos]

i heard the same ... did they change the bullet length?

 

[Twitchy]

No part of the 90g SMK has changed since Sierra started pointing them a few years ago. My guess is the charge or seating depth changed, if anything was changed. I don't shoot Valk, but do send a lot of 90g SMKs/VLDs down range via 223.

 

[craigos]

https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2018/07/13/valkyrie-sierra-matchking/

 

[GLN305]

I hadn't seen that letter, thanks for the link. They weren't shooting as well as I had hoped, so I held off shooting them in case there was a recall. The AE 75's shoot great though, love em.

 

[Eoddave27]

My guess is they changed something with their manufacturing. There were huge differences in seating depth in the boxes I tried. Maybe the new ammo is just more consistent. The 90 grain SMK seems to be a pretty tough bullet to dial in also. I was able to get 75’s, 80’s and 85’s to shoot great with multiple powders but the 90’s were a real PITA to dial in and I only found one powder that would group decent in my rifle.

 

[Defender63]

What powder was your best and what is your barrel ? The reason i ask is i am focused on 90 grain bullets to use for game animals and the fusion factoy ammo, so far produces to many flyers for my likeing and looking to load some to try and get more consistant.

 

[Eoddave27]

What powder was your best and what is your barrel ? The reason i ask is i am focused on 90 grain bullets to use for game animals and the fusion factoy ammo, so far produces to many flyers for my likeing and looking to load some to try and get more consistant.

I have been using 90g SMK’s and CFE223. I got the best accuracy right around the max load for the load. My barrel is a 22” 1:7 Criterion from Craddock Precision.

 

[Defender63]

I will have to try some 90g SMK's on paper and compare them with the 90g soft point boat tails. I have not used the CFE223 but am open minded to try a different propellent. My barrel is a Bison 22" with a 1:6.5 twist so i need to experiment to find out what she likes.

 

[Eoddave27]

It has been my experience with the Valkyrie’s I own and have developed loads for that the 90’s are just hard to dial in. I have built several 224 uppers for friends and developed loads for them. On one I gave up on 90’s and just went with 85’s. 75’s and 85’s have been easy to dial in with every rifle. With the 90’s the only powder I have been able to get enough velocity and accuracy with is CFE223. If I can dial a load in but it doesn’t have the velocity to stay supersonic out to 1000 there is really no point in wasting money on the 90 grain bullets. I have been able to get some pretty impressive velocities out of the 75’s and 85’s and for the ranges most of the guys I know shoot these are more than enough.

 

[Defender63]

I am definitely going to cook up some loads with the CFE223 but this rifle build was for animal shooting and it sucks that the 90gn bullet used in fusion rounds is still not able to be purchased. I can shoot a ground hog with a SMK and some long range target but i would like to have a better bonded bullet for deer.

 

[rangerlong]

With the original factory load I got about 1 moa, SD of 15 fps.
CFE223 is the only powder I’ve tried with the 90gr SMK. Better SD (5-10 fps) but groups opened up to about 1.5 moa.