Range Report .224 Valkyrie accuracy issues.

[Zack_va248]

Built a .224 upper with a aero precision stripped upper, Ballistic Advantage 22" DMR fluted 1:7 barrel, rubber city armory 6.8 bolt and absolutely no luck in the way of accuracy. lower has a geissele hi speed national match trigger. Shot two separate bolts, two optics. all four types of federal ammo were shot. 80 rounds total through the rifle. Rifle was bagrested off a 6x6 legged shooters bench. cleaned twice after firing over two range days. Pulled the flashhider to see a uniformed pattern on the crown so no issue there. Both days were clear with little/ no wind. Rifle cycles great, slightly overgassed as cases are going to the 2 O'clock position. Curious if anyone can comment on similar results, rifle produced a half minute group with match ammo but wouldn't replicate again. Average group, even with the smk 90s, was over 2". barrel temp was monitored and had no measurable affect on the groups opening up. cold bore didn't necessarily produce better groups. I know JP advertises their barrel having a matched bolt, just wanted to know how the interface/lockup of the bolt to chamber in an AR platform can be changed/ modified. what is ideal? Is this barrel just junk? potentially a high sd on the factory loaded federal ammo? looking for answers in the quest to make this .224 shoot well.

 

[roamin]

.....

 

[Zack_va248]

I want to be clear. The issue is repeatable accuracy. Not accuracy in general. These were the best groups produced over two range days.

 

[DynamicAccuracy]

Im curious as well. A guy that shoots at my club was shooting his valkryie and it would barely hold 1.5-2" groups at 100y. Hell my junk ARstoner 223 wydle barrel holds 3/4 moa 95% of the time

 

[XLR308]

Being overgassed is certainly not going to be of benifit to accuracy.
Have you gone back over everything again just to be sure all is tight ?

 

[Zack_va248]

Being overgassed is certainly not going to be of benifit to accuracy.
Have you gone back over everything again just to be sure all is tight ?

Yea I checked the barrel nut. 40ft lbs. pulled the muzzle device off to check the pattern on the crown, all looked normal with even distribution of carbon. Cleaned it off and going to refire without a muzzle device.

 

[Olen_4504]

all the factory federal ammo I've chrono'd is in the single digits for SD... which surprised me.

seems you've checked most everything, but...

Check that your gas block isn't too close to your handguard. my .224 and my buddies 6.5 grendel both shot like crap until we realized during the shot the barrel "whip" was making the handguard hit the gas block.

once I fixed this, my groups tightened up.

 

[Zack_va248]

all the factory federal ammo I've chrono'd is in the single digits for SD... which surprised me.

seems you've checked most everything, but...

Check that your gas block isn't too close to your handguard. my .224 and my buddies 6.5 grendel both shot like crap until we realized during the shot the barrel "whip" was making the handguard hit the gas block.

once I fixed this, my groups tightened up.

Great point! Ill pull the handgaurd and see if i can spot any wear or signs of contact

 

[lash]

I am sorry to hear about your issues with your rifle. I do not have enough experience with ARs to help you out or I would.

Being new at AR builds, I went the easy route and bought a heavy Rick Creek barrel with matching bolt from Craddock. I had great luck with it and am glad I spent the extra. Mine shoots really well. When looking into .224v as a possible build, I read that some companies had the chamber down and others obviously didn't. At this point, I'm believing that line, since mine works.

I do not know how much, if any, difference a matching bolt makes. Or a higher end barrel for that matter. It may be just that these things increase your chances of having a solid sub MPA shooter.

Have you tried the Hornady 88g ELDM factory yet? Or the 75g American Gunner?

 

[Ledzep]

Try lighter bullet loads first. If those shoot like crap it's more likely a gun issue. If they shoot great, you know it's ammo.

Lighter bullets with less bullet sticking beneath the neck seem to be easier to get to shoot well.

 

[Subwrx300]

Well a couple of points that could help: the 90SMK FGMM ammo is not producing the best results for lots of people. Federal even published letter to that effect. It seems to be highly barrel dependant though as mine shoots factory 90gr SMK well (.7-1moa) but not great.

Most here have had better results with hands though some are struggling even with custom loads. I'd do as @lash suggests and try the 88eld Hornady ammo or 75gr Am Eagle.

If that doesn't work and you can't handload, then you are unfortunately at the mercy of the major companies to produce a load in future that works better.

Lastly, while 80 rounds is a fair number, you could very well see barrel tighten up over next 100-150 rounds. My barrel shot okay but got significantly better around 125-150 rounds.

Hope you find something better soon but if nothing improves, I would definitely call AP and tell them what's going on. They may have you send barrel in for inspection. Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[Pvt.Donut]

I haven't got super hardcore on load development yet but I'm averaging about 1.0 MOA with my 224. It's been sort of underwhelming so far.

 

[jljr23]

Seems like several bugs still floating around with 224 Valkyrie. It's a shame Federal rushed that product out the door and now consumers are having to deal with these issues.

Hope you figure out what is wrong with the accuracy @Zach_va248.

 

[lash]

There was more to the hiccups than just Federal’s lack of quality control. To add to the issues, there was at least one reamer company using a bad reamer print that produced freebores that were way too long. Then throw in high volume rifle producers who did not try to get everything right and you have a mess like what we are seeing.

There are still more than a few people that have been having very good luck with this round, but it does seem to revolve around a few rifle producers who have this chambering down. It definitely sucks that so many people are having issues with this round since it is such a fun round to shoot when you get a rifle that shoots well.

 

[Lunchbox27]

Sucks you are having issues. Have you made sure your bipod mount screws aren’t hitting your barrel? I had an issue with an AR upper once. Low profile handguard and my key mod screw was digging into my barrel from preload and barrel whip. It was a clear as day mark on the barrel. After I trimmed the screws the groups shrank and were consistent.

 

[Zack_va248]

Sucks you are having issues. Have you made sure your bipod mount screws aren’t hitting your barrel? I had an issue with an AR upper once. Low profile handguard and my key mod screw was digging into my barrel from preload and barrel whip. It was a clear as day mark on the barrel. After I trimmed the screws the groups shrank and were consistent.

good look, but I did check that as well. no luck

 

[Jeffd]

Do not use the Federal Premium. Try the Hornady!

 

[wadebrown]

I would start with lighter bullets than 90's for a 1-7" twist rate as some have had problems with stabilization, the holes look round so the bullet may be stabilized. Instead of lighter I really should have said bullets with a lower BC but weight and BC are usually correlated, I put this caveat in so someone does not flame me for not understanding ballistics.

Having poor accuracy with just one bullet does not doom the rifle it just says it does not shoot that bullet well, that is not uncommon. Also remember they just started building Valkyries and the "recipe" is not as well known as AR's shooting 5.55 or .223 of which millions of rifles have been made in that caliber since the mid 60's. It takes a while before the conventional wisdom fully understands how to build a rifle with as many moving parts as an AR well.

Bolt actions being amazingly simple by comparison so the community can learn how to load and shoot a new caliber in an afternoon at the range.