Looking at building another coyote gun in the AR platform. I love SBRs (short barrel rifle) with a suppressor, for calling at night. Had looked into the .243 wssm but the barrel length needed for full powder burn was too long.
The .224 is a relatively new caliber and looking for input from anyone who has dealt with it.

I've been eyeing them too.

Whenever you enlarge the case to hold more powder, it pays to have the barrel length to be able to take advantage of of it and shortening the barrel is somewhat counter productive.

1 of the Diabled Vetsthat deer hunted our farm last season used 1 and shot 2 does at 140 and 180 yds and dropped them in their track with neck shots.
Another used a 6mm Dasher I had milled open the magazine for longer hunting bullets and he nailed 2 deer also...not sure if you considered the Dasher Brett.
Here's Patrick and his custom Valkyrie

I currently shoot a 300 blk which was designed to be shot out of a shorter barrel. Curious what a .224 would do out of a 12" barrel?

I wonder what barrel life looks like

looks like federal has a 60gr varmint round that has a MV of 3300fps out of a 24 inch barrel bc.277
running some numbers a 223 rem with 55gr bullet bc.255 at 3300fps

both with a 250 yard zero the valkarie has 1 inch less drop at 400 yards

and a touch more energy so one has to ask is the cost worth it , will the game have a clue it was a 224V and not a 223rem

http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2016...-cut-down-test/

here is a test with 223 rem I would expect the results to be similar

http://www.ballisticsbytheinch.com/223rifle.html

but for rough figuring take 25fps off for every inch , manufactuers use box MV from a 24 inch barrel

so if you took a 24 inch 224v and cut 12 inches off it 12x25=300fps but most test data stops at 16 inches and 25fps is and average of that data it could easily cost you 500-600 fps or more in 224v

as pointed out cases that are given greater capacity for increased velocity frequently need longer barrels to make use of that extra powder

so you might as well go 223 if your not going to have the barrel to burn it.


all the SAMMI data for 300 blk was taken on a 16 inch barrel intentionally , where most every other cartridge is based on a 24 inch barrel

The only feasible short barrel caliber in an AR platform is the 300 blk. Recently worked up a load using the 110gr nosler varmageddon bullet. using nosler's max data with win 296 i am getting 2150fps from an 8.3" barrel. Tested it on some water jugs at 100yds and it performed well. Found the bullet jacket base. It was all i found, the rest was in tiny pieces. Should stay in a coyote broadside shot, but havent confirmed that yet. All of the hot-rod ar calibers are best used with full length barrels to get the best velocity possible, which is the point of them. btw the barnes 110gr tac tx is a great deer round. I launch em at 2200fps so they should expand all the way to 350 yds. Have killed a couple at around 100yds and it worked well.

Broke down and bought a savage .224 Valkyrie w/18" barrel today. Should be in by March 1 , couldn't get a decent upper before April.
Ordered a flir pts233 for optics and reloading dies.
Looking forward to seeing what this combo can do.

I also have been eyeing this round. Has anyone had a chance to test out PSA's new Valkyrie upper? I have a spare lower and LPK that I'd been contemplating putting towards a Valkyrie upper.

Can't comment on psa but do know radical arms have had some issues. A friend of mine went through 2 different uppers from them. Neither would hold less than a 4" group at 200 yrds.
We played with different bullet setups and never could get a decent grouping.
He ended up getting a refund from radical and went with a dtech upper.
4 shots = 1 ragged hole

Yeah when it comes to Radical in any caliber, i haven't heard the best of reviews and stay clear of them.