Considering a bolt gun in .224 Valkyrie: thoughts

Jason_W · May 15, 2020

I know from browsing various gun forums that this is something of a maligned idea and that all new rounds in general inspire rage in a number of people, but here’s why I’m intrigued with the idea of this round in a bolt gun.

for a while, I’ve wanted to own one of the hotter .22s. In a bolt gun, the .22-250 seems like the obvious choice. The problem is I’m curious to experiment with heavy for caliber bullets and it’s difficult to find an out of the box .22-250 with a twist rate faster than 1:12.

Why not buy a .22-250 and change out the barrel with something custom? That sounds both costly and like a hassle.

If I’m interested in a round designed for the AR, why not just get an AR? I’m in California.

why not just go with a .243, 6.5mm, etc. bolt gun? I’m a hand loader and I like how inexpensive.22 cal bullets are.

You’re mostly going to be shooting targets, why not just get .223? I like having power in reserve if I need it. I can load a hot .22 down to the level of a .223 if I want, but I can’t load a .223 up to the level of a .224v or .22-250.

My hesitation stems from the fact that it looks like mossberg is the only manufacturer currently chambering the round in a bolt gun. I’ve heard very mixed things about Mossy bolt guns.

Also, with any new round, there’s a chance it won’t take and components will become difficult or impossible to find. That’s always a concern.

troy fairweather · May 15, 2020

From what I've seen people are very disappointed with the 224V. I'd go 22-250 think the ruger has a 1-9 or a 243.

Jason_W · May 15, 2020

troy fairweather said:
From what I've seen people are very disappointed with the 224V. I'd go 22-250 think the ruger has a 1-9 or a 243.

Interesting. Do you happen to know what people are finding disappointing about it?

redneck2 · May 15, 2020

Will the Mossberg have the level of accuracy you’re looking for? I would also be leery of trigger quality.

Personally, I’d look in a Savage so that you could get an accurate-trigger and it would be super simple to swap barrels. I don’t know for sure, but I strongly suspect you could get a proper barrel from a variety of aftermarket sources, and pretty easily sell the unfired OEM one. Or maybe you could get it less barrel. Dunno.

The only person you have to make happy is you.

gotboostvr · May 15, 2020

I'd grab a Savage in 223 and either buy a spare barrel, or rent a chamber reamer.

Varminterror · May 15, 2020

gotboostvr said:
I'd grab a Savage in 223 and either buy a spare barrel, or rent a chamber reamer.

This would be a lot of work for a simple Savage barrel. A 223rem/5.56 chamber will not clean up with a simple chase by a Valkyrie reamer - the 223 Rem case is longer than the Valk. So you’d have to turn ~16-20 thou off of the face of the barrel, extending the tenon threads the same, and THEN rechamber.

A hell of a lot of work when a properly chambered barrel can be readily bought.

troy fairweather · May 15, 2020

Jason_W said:
Interesting. Do you happen to know what people are finding disappointing about it?

I believe they were under performing and think there was other problems like chamber spec brass problems, even Hurd some accuracy problems. It seems it's the cartridge ar guys joke about.

Jason_W · May 15, 2020

Does anyone know of an out of the box .22-250 with a somewhat fast rifling twist?

This is a bit of a long term goal, so it doesn’t necessarily need to be a super budget rifle. I wouldn’t mind being patient until I can spend 1500 - 2k on something.

troy fairweather · May 15, 2020

Ruger

MarshallDodge · May 15, 2020

223AI would be my choice. It is a more popular boltface and you can easily rechamber a 223 to an AI.

You get about another 150 FPS over 223.

Bullets are inexpensive and so is brass, and very plentiful.

I have a 223AI with a 7.5 twist 22" barrel and it will send the 75 Vmax to 1030 yards. I've shot the milk jug challenge with it twice using less than 5 rounds.

You have to fireform but that's easy. I shoot my fireform loads out to 500 and don't see a big difference in accuracy. Trimming is never needed after that as the cases don't grow.

Varminterror · May 15, 2020

In a “non-223/5.56 bolt gun,” I think 22 BR or 22 Creed would be the two I’d consider today.

Nothing wrong with a 224 Valk bolt gun, especially if you are reloading, but I have to REALLY want something different before I pay more to feed a 22 CF than I’d pay for 223rem. Maybe that’s why I have so many 223’s, and so many 6mm’s, and don’t have a 220 Swift and only have one 22-250 any more.

horsey300 · May 15, 2020

Jason_W said:
Does anyone know of an out of the box .22-250 with a somewhat fast rifling twist?

This is a bit of a long term goal, so it doesn’t necessarily need to be a super budget rifle. I wouldn’t mind being patient until I can spend 1500 - 2k on something.

You can buy a used Savage in any of the .308 family for less than 500 then buy a custom barrel, .22-250 ai 1-7 or 1-8 twist and still come in under 1200 to put the rest towards stocks/glass/components. Ballpark 750 on the cheap end. Eta, can come in under 650 if your timing and patience are good.
I'll second VT on the 22cm idea too.

dh1633pm · May 15, 2020

Jason_W can you keep us informed of you decision for this, if you choose to go forward? Interested in your choices. Thanks.

greyling22 · May 15, 2020

Varminterror said:
This would be a lot of work for a simple Savage barrel. A 223rem/5.56 chamber will not clean up with a simple chase by a Valkyrie reamer - the 223 Rem case is longer than the Valk. So you’d have to turn ~16-20 thou off of the face of the barrel, extending the tenon threads the same, and THEN rechamber.

A hell of a lot of work when a properly chambered barrel can be readily bought.

also, the 224 valk doesn't use the 223 bolt face. It's a modified 6.8spc case.

Jason_W · May 15, 2020

dh1633pm said:
Jason_W can you keep us informed of you decision for this, if you choose to go forward? Interested in your choices. Thanks.

Will do. It might be some time as I need to save up for this, but I’ll update when I have something in hand.

I might ultimately go with the custom barrel for a .22-250 route. It’s an established round with ample ammo, components and data available.

Maybe I’ll make something of a project out of it and get back into gun writing a bit. For fun.

Varminterror · May 15, 2020

greyling22 said:
also, the 224 valk doesn't use the 223 bolt face. It's a modified 6.8spc case.

The boltface isn’t the problem in that particular conversion, it’s the barrel.

Savage bolt heads for 6.8 SPC are available, suitable for 224 Valk. ~$100.

greyling22 · May 15, 2020

Right, I just wanted to make sure that nobody was thinking it was just an issue of rebarreling, that the bolt face would need to change as well.

Jason_W · May 15, 2020

greyling22 said:
Right, I just wanted to make sure that nobody was thinking it was just an issue of rebarreling, that the bolt face would need to change as well.

Honestly, a rebarrel would be as far as I would be willing to go for this sort of project. Maybe getting an aftermarket stock too.

Things like chamber reaming and changing out bolt faces are a little too involved for my tastes.

Maybe I’ll luck into a used gun somewhere with a burnt out barrel but a strong action.

Sneakshot92 · May 15, 2020

Jason_W said:
I know from browsing various gun forums that this is something of a maligned idea and that all new rounds in general inspire rage in a number of people, but here’s why I’m intrigued with the idea of this round in a bolt gun.

for a while, I’ve wanted to own one of the hotter .22s. In a bolt gun, the .22-250 seems like the obvious choice. The problem is I’m curious to experiment with heavy for caliber bullets and it’s difficult to find an out of the box .22-250 with a twist rate faster than 1:12.

Why not buy a .22-250 and change out the barrel with something custom? That sounds both costly and like a hassle.

If I’m interested in a round designed for the AR, why not just get an AR? I’m in California.

why not just go with a .243, 6.5mm, etc. bolt gun? I’m a hand loader and I like how inexpensive.22 cal bullets are.

You’re mostly going to be shooting targets, why not just get .223? I like having power in reserve if I need it. I can load a hot .22 down to the level of a .223 if I want, but I can’t load a .223 up to the level of a .224v or .22-250.

My hesitation stems from the fact that it looks like mossberg is the only manufacturer currently chambering the round in a bolt gun. I’ve heard very mixed things about Mossy bolt guns.

Also, with any new round, there’s a chance it won’t take and components will become difficult or impossible to find. That’s always a concern.

I'm just gonna drop the 221 Fireball in here because I can.

Swampman · May 15, 2020

Bergara has 1 in 9" twist 22-250's in several variations, all with a sub MOA guarantee.

https://www.classicfirearms.com/long-guns/rifles-for-sale/bergara-22_250_rem/

I don't own one (yet), but I've heard good things about Bergara rifles.

Jason_W · May 15, 2020

Sneakshot92 said:
I'm just gonna drop the 221 Fireball in here because I can.

That round actually intrigues me as well, but it would fill a very different niche.

I know CZ was chambering a rifle in it for a while.

Sneakshot92 · May 15, 2020

Jason_W said:
That round actually intrigues me as well, but it would fill a very different niche.

I know CZ was chambering a rifle in it for a while.

One other tidbit for ya. My cousin has a 221 Fireball necked up to 6mm (.243) on his XP-100 and it is a lights out 200yd deer gun with his handloads.

Ohen Cepel · May 15, 2020

I am an old guy so stick to what is out there now. I see little gain in something like the Valk vs the issue that you may well own a dead round in a few years.

If hunting, rarely do critters care about 100fps more or less.

Dustbowl · May 15, 2020

Ruger makes their American 22-250 in a 1-10 twist. Should handle up to the 62-68 grain bullets.

Varminterror · May 15, 2020

Jason_W said:
Things like chamber reaming and changing out bolt faces are a little too involved for my tastes.

Changing Savage bolt heads is easier than changing their barrels. And changing their barrels without a Smith is easy...

Rechambering a Savage 223 wouldn’t be easy, as I described, but ordering a new bolt head and new barrel would be.

Considering a bolt gun in .224 Valkyrie: thoughts

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