Anyone Try IMR 3031 in 224 Valkyrie

[markr6754]

I just completed a 224 Valkyrie AR project. Now I'm looking at loads. Ammo is scarce and rather pricy, while I have nearly everything needed to load except powders.

The slowest powders I have, which aren't slow powders, are VV N130 and IMR 3031. Naturally, I don't see any Valk loads with these powders. I have a short .223 Rem which is why I have these powders, and I have long .223 and 6mm ARC builds underway, which do have at least IMR 3031 loads available.

Is it possible? Or should I give up and find some slower powders...and if so...is there a powder that works for all 3? Like Jack-of-All trades, vs ideal. I think the unobtainium known as Varget falls into the ideal camp for 223 Rem, 224 Valk, and 6mm ARC.

 

[9MMand223only]

http://www.natoreloading.com/valkyrie/

3031 is too fast of a powder for Valk. Not good choice. Of course it will work, but not optimum.

As a general rule, 224 Valk max charge is "near" 223 69 Grain SMK load data OR 5% or so more than max 223 data, OR very similar to Nato 5.56 load data.

Powders that work good in Valk, are either great for 77 grain 223, or they are powders they are "barely" too slow for 77 g rain 223 bullets. Such as Reloader 15.5, is ideal for Valk, but not ideal for 223.

Here is the best powders for Valk I have tried. In order
Shooters World Precision Rifle
VV N540
Rl 15.5 is pretty good too

Use the guiidlines above for coming up with your 3031 load. Its super easy to just USE 223 load data for the starting charge in your Valk, using same bullet. This will not be minimum charge, but closer to mid range charge. Max will be about 5-6% above that.

so I can tell you right now. max charge for 77 grain SMK loaded at like 2.160 is going to be very near 22.5-22.7 grains of 3031.

for 80 SMK its going to be around 22.5 max charge. Start 1 grain less, which is 223 Rem data for that bullet, and just work up. Its as easy as that.

 

[markr6754]

Thanks for the response. I’m convinced that it’s the wrong powder completely, but everything else I have is even faster. I can wait to find a better powder, or just buy factory for now. Either option stinks.

In this environment it’s better to wait for the right powder than waste precious primers playing around.

Yeah…I read through the natoreloading page…a favorite for 9mm. Happy to see a nice write up on the 224 Valkyrie.

 

[stagpanther]

If your chamber, twist and magazine COL can handle it--I found an excellent load using PP 2000MR with 95 gr MKs when the valk was first rolled out. The valk was another one of those "huh, what standards?" designs when first released.