Savage MSR in 224 Valkyrie

[Dawico]

I have been asked to review the rifle and round a few times so here is what I have found with just a bit of testing so far.

The rifle in general is nice. It is tight, has a nice trigger, good brake on it, free floated tube, and has an adjustable gas block from the factory. Everything you want and therefore expect it to be a real shooter.

I did swap the factory buttstock with a Magpul PRS stock. I don't have the proper adapter on it but the stock fits well enough and is tight. Beyond that it is a factory rifle with the 18" 1:7 twist barrel.

Recoil is just a bit higher than a standard 5.56 rifle as expected but not bad at all. It does shoot heavier bullets faster so naturally it is going to push a bit more but I don't even consider it a full step up from a 5.56 rifle.

All in all it's a good package with a round that will increase the usable distance of the heavier .224 caliber bullets.

MSRP shows $1500 but street prices look to be in the $800 range. Honestly I impulse bought this rifle used/ unfired as I found a great deal on it.

https://www.savagearms.com/content?p=firearms&a=product_summary&s=22939

 

[Dawico]

This review is a little difficult for me for a few reasons. One is the lack of great groups from factory ammo and two is I don't get too excited by ARs.

I have tried four different factory rounds and not seen the performance I expect from a Savage rifle. Anything more than 1 MOA from a rifle and round that stays supersonic past 1000 yards is just not interesting to me.

I fully expect handloading to show better groups but factory ammo should do better than this.

They did one thing right with this new round though, fairly cheap factory ammo that shoots well enough. The AE/ Federal 75gr ammo seemed to do the best and is available for about $0.50 a round. It isn't much more expensive than 5.56 ammo.

I am glad the marketers are seeing this as a way to help sales with new rounds. Only having expensive ammo available really slows adoption to new buyers.

The Match ammo is more expensive but not worth the extra cost from this package with what I have seen.

These are the rounds I tested and will show groups in seperate posts.

 

[Dawico]

I test all autoloaders single shot as I get trigger happy if I load up a magazine.

First the American Eagle/ Federal offering. These seemed to do the best which is nice considering the low price tag.

I plan on testing 75gr bullets as I have a pile of them so this is good news. I will document that when I do the testing.

As you can see, nothing great (in my opinion) but it is what it is.

The nickle measures 0.832" for reference.

 

[Dawico]

These are the Hornady Match 88gr rounds. They came in right behind the AE rounds for group size.

I did try these in a magazine on a previous outing and my rifle hated them. Feeding broke or deformed the plastic tips and caused failures.

I expected better honestly.

 

[Dawico]

This group is the Hornady Black rounds.

They usually perform right up there with Match ammo with a smaller price tag.

It doesn't seem to be the case with this rifle.

 

[Dawico]

And finally the Federal Fusion groups. Of all the ammo tested, these are the rounds you will probably most likely hunt with. Or not.....

I didn't try them from a magazine but feel I may have issues since their length is right up there with the Hornady Match rounds. They don't have plastic tips though so maybe not.

I hear many people having good luck with them.

Again, not impressed.

 

[Dawico]

On this same outing I shot this ten round group with my bolt action rifle.

While I admit I am not the best shooter out there, I think I can hold my own.

I really did expect better with the MSR. Hopefully handloading proves this rifle to be the shooter I expect.

 

[DyeF9]

Thanks for the initial review. I've been curious about those rifles and the caliber. Seems rumors are true the caliber tends not to play nice with factory and accuracy. Sounds like the rifle itself is fine though, just needs to be in a different caliber. Or maybe handloads?

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

 

[Dawico]

Thanks for the initial review. I've been curious about those rifles and the caliber. Seems rumors are true the caliber tends not to play nice with factory and accuracy. Sounds like the rifle itself is fine though, just needs to be in a different caliber. Or maybe handloads?

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

Handloading should really help.

As more factory ammo and rifles are released the accuracy should improve.

I haven't shot any other rifle in this caliber I can't say how others do.

Usually Match ammo is released and the rifles are designed to shoot it well. Sometimes though, as I suspect happened here, both rifles and ammo are rushed onto the market without developing the two together.

Federal developed this round and does have their GMM ammo available so maybe that will be the way to go.

 

[Dawico]

Well another day at the range failed to impress.

I picked up some Federal GMM ammo and it didn't do as well as I had hoped.

My attempt at handload testing was even worse. Seems the bullets I want to use (Hornady 75gr HP Match/ I have thousands of them) do not play well with the chamber of this rifle. To get them to feed I need to seat them very short which really reduces case capacity and to me that ruins the whole point of owning this caliber.

Honestly I am not sure what I want to do with this whole experiment yet. I may take it to the gun show today and send it down the road. I am just frustrated with the whole thing.

If I can't get a rifle to shoot under an inch (and that's big in my opinion) I lose interest fast.