224 Valkyrie day

Attachment 37872

Nosler 80 grain Custom Competition and 24.6 of H4895 seems to be the winner

5 shot groups at 100 yards

Attachment 37873

No clear winner with the Nosler 85 RDF

What's your rifle specs?

Franken build. Bison Armory 224V SS barrel, 20 inch, 1-6.5 - it was a "blem" that I got cheap. BCM "blem" upper from a Holiday sale. Generic low pro gas block and rifle tube. ALG 15 inch free float tube from Holiday sale. AAC 51T flash hider. On my "target" AR lower with Magpul PRS stock and Geissele Gs2 trigger. Using a Vortex Viper PST Gen 1 6-24x50 MRAD scope.

Nice to see one that shoots. My PSA was worth about what I paid for it in terms of accuracy expectations. A Wilson barrel fixed that issue. Another buddy with a factory Savage had shitty accuracy out of the box as well, and required a new barrel from a boutique since the factory barrel was such garbage.

@ranger

Were you ever able to get the 85 RDF to shoot in your rifle?

I never put any more efforts into the 85s with 224V. Loaded up a bunch of the Nosler 80 Custom Competitions. I went to K&M Precision in Tennessee a few weeks ago for long range work - I have putting my focus on 6.5 Creedmoor in bolt and 6.5 Grendel in AR. I must say that the 80 grain projectiles are pretty anemic at 800 yards or more compared to 6.5 Grendel.


I will try the 85s again when I have more time - maybe a different powder.

I'm wondering if the 85 RDF needs to be seated into the lands.

I tried the 70 RDF in my AR and it shot okay but shoots beautifully in my $275 Remington 783 with a 1:9 twist when seated in the lands.

I have some 85 RDFs and am going to try them in my 223AI with a 7.5 twist.

So honestly, with respect to the 85s, it looks like a pretty good node between charges of 23.4-23.8 gr. I’d choose 23.6 as my charge weight and then start determining the best OAL. Rather than looking at the tightest overall grouping, I like loading at the center of a group of charges that all have the center of the group at relatively the same vertical location. There is the ‘sweet spot’ where changes in temperature, charges, etc, will have the minimum deviation in your point of impact. For a precision rifle, I feel this is more important than smallest group size at a specific distance. Then, I’ll adjust OAL from longest inward to find the length that gives me my tightest group at what we have determined to be an optimal charge weight. Best of both worlds.


Caveat: unless your overall goal is shooting the smallest group size at one specific distance (non-changing) over and over again. If so, rock on!!