Flight of the Valkyries! NEW Federal Gold Medal MatchKing 224 Valkyrie
The .224 Valkyrie cartridge has been around for a few years now to give distance shooters a smaller cartridge offering in the MSR (modern sporting rifle) platform to compete with all of the larger cartridge AR-10 shooters. To feed that niche of long-range shooting, Federal Premium has debuted NEW Gold Medal Sierra Tipped Matchking ammunition in 224 Valkyrie for all of the shooters launching that relatively new, hot-rod cartridge. All of the specifications for the NEW Gold Medal Sierra Tipped Matchking ammunition can be read below as presented by Federal Premium:
- Acetal resin tip maximizes ballistic coefficient and improves feeding
- Less wind drift and drop
- World-class long-range accuracy
- Gold Medal match primer
- New 77-grain 224 Valkyrie
224 Valkyrie 77 Grain Sierra Tipped MatchKing | GM224VLKTMK
This ammunition comes in standard 20-count packaging and has an MSRP of $36.99 per box. With so many people clamoring for .223 Rem/5.56 NATO in bulk for their modern sporting rifles, the year of 2021 could be the year that .224 Valkyrie finally takes off. Federal explains this new selection of ammunition below in their press release statement:
Watch your name climb the leaderboard with the new Gold Medal® Sierra® Tipped MatchKing®. The bullet is built like the original MatchKing, with a streamlined profile, optimized boat-tail and concentric jacket, but its polymer tip reduces drag, boosts ballistic coefficient and improves feeding in magazine-fed firearms. Now available in 77-grain 224 Valkyrie.
Find Federal .224 Valkyrie Ammunition
The Valkyrie cartridge is gaining more backing from bolt-action and modern sporting rifle manufacturers every day which is only fueling the opportunity for more shooters to jump in on this still relatively new cartridge. Have you fired the Valkyrie at distance yet? Do you own a Savage Arms MSR or Masterpiece Arms bolt-action? Would you send this ammunition through your rifle? As always, let us know all of your thoughts in the Comments below! We always appreciate your feedback.
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Yes, a smart investment for the half a dozen guys who shoot .224 when the rest of the WORLD can't get any .223!
I think we're going to see the .224 fade to obscurity soon, it's the new .40. Several manufacturers of uppers/barrels are already dropping it, including JP, Rainier, and others. The 6ARC is the new flavor of the year. Perhaps it could be a new toy for varmint hunters under 500-600 yards throwing very light projectiles very fast, but that's it.
The whole point of the .224 was to get a heavier bullet going than the .223 and it mostly failed. A 77gr gives up much of the long range advantage in the wind that the .224 was designed to offer. The problem was early barrels and ammo was abysmal and the .224 got a horrible reputation right out of the gate and it's never recovered, and with the 6ARC now the hot new caliber, it never will.
Let's look at Federal's gold medal specs on 3 rounds, 77gr .223, 78gr .224, and 88gr 224. (Federal does not have this new 77gr .224 on their website yet).
Vel -- Drop(500) -- Wind (500)
223-77gr -- 2720 -- 54" -- 28"
224-78gr -- 2850 -- 48" -- 25"
224-90gr -- 2700 -- 46" -- 17"
It's pretty clear from the above, that if you run a light 77gr .224 round you lose almost all of the wind advantage, and as the distances increase from 500 toward 1000, you are going to lose even more of that advantage with the lighter bullet.