With the ongoing additions of AR platform chamberings, I have tried to maintain flight ballistics comparisons of the various options. My primary goal is minimizing wind drift; my second goal is obtaining reasonable bullet drop. Most of the steel targets in my regional competitions are in the 300-600 yard ballpark, but target distances occasionally extend to 700 or 800 yards.

In most competitions I shoot an SI Defense AR-15 which has a 20” Krieger barrel that is chambered in match 223. This barrel shoots almost all factory match ammo well, but it does really well with Hornady 73 ELD-M ammo.

The attached spreadsheet compares my 73 ELD load’s drop and drift performance to some of the better factory ammo options for 224 Valkyrie, 22 Nosler, 6.5 Grendel, 300 Blackout, 6mm Creedmoor, and 6.5 Creedmoor. I have tried to obtain reasonable muzzle velocities for 20” barrels. Note that the 300 Blackout is for an 18” barrel, the 6 Creedmoor numbers are for 20” and 24” barrels (two options), and the 6.5 Creedmoor are for my 26” barrel rifles.

Ballistic data is from JBM Ballistics. I assumed 7,000’ Density Altitude and 2.5” sight over bore height. Drop and drift is in MOA. Drift is for a 10 mph cross wind. Mach number is bullet velocity at 800 yards. In my experience, the bullet is no longer competitive when velocity drops below Mach 1.25, which is roughly where transonic flight begins.

I will discuss performance at 600 yards with 10 mph winds – which is a relatively common scenario for matches held by Competition Dynamics – Team Safari and Team Challenge. Targets at this distance are often about 12” – diamonds, squares, or circles.

My 73 ELD drifts 4.4 MOA, or about 26.4 inches. I won’t go anal with the true MOA to inches numbers.

In 224 Valkyrie, the SMK 90 drifts 21.0”. The 88 ELD drifts 22.8”. The 75 HPBT drifts 27.0”.

In 22 Nosler, the 85 RDF drifts 21.6”. The 70 RDF drifts 22.8”.

The 6.5 Grendel’s 123 ELD drifts 23.4”.

The best 300 Blackout load I have drifts 46.2”.

Some competitions allow AR-10 chamberings.
For 6mm Creedmoor and a 20” barrel, the 108 ELD drifts 17.4”. With a 24” barrel (likely what I would use in competition), the 108 ELD drifts 16.8”.

In 6.5mm Creedmoor, the 140 ELD drifts 16.2”.

Target plates are generally 2-3 MOA in many of our stages. This seems generous until one experiences the variables of locating & ranging targets, of shooting from potentially unstable positions, funky winds, and the time pressures placed on stages.

The 224 Valkyrie, 22 Nosler, and 6.5 Grendel all offer lower wind drift than a 223. Thinking in 10 mph wind speed terms, these calibers effectively increase the window for a correct wind speed call by 1-2 mph. This isn’t huge, but it could mean a point here and there, and possibly a slightly higher finish position in a match.

The large platform AR-10 is even better, although with a recoil penalty. And there’s a definite barrel life penalty with the 6 Creedmoor.

With 6 Creedmoor the wind call window opens by 3.5 to 4 mph. With 6.5 Creedmoor, a correct wind call window opens by 4 mph. This may not seem like much, but consider that if I can call the wind within 10 mph in my 6.5 CM and get a hit, I must call the wind within 6 mph to get that same hit with my 223.

Bottom line – although prices are attractive right now for Valkyrie uppers, I haven’t forked over the cash.

The Valkyrie isn’t a 6.5 Creedmoor in a small platform, as some websites tout. At 800 yards the Valkyrie’s wind drift is 21% more than the 6.5, its drop is 19% more than the 6.5, and its velocity is 13% less than the 6.5. Sure, the Valkyrie outperforms 223 Remy, but a small platform AR cannot match the performance obtained by a 308-ish case necked-down caliber.

At 300 yards, the 10 mph wind drift advantage of the Valkyrie drops to only .4 MOA. This is an important figure, as most AR shooters do not have the capabilities to exploit a 1/2 MOA difference in equipment or ammo. IMO most AR owners should stick with 223 Remy and a good match bullet if the bulk of their targets are less than 300 or 400 yards.

Hello Fritz, thanks for the thorough analysis. It's actually very timely as I am getting into a new variation of NRA High Power shooting called AR Tactical, or something.

It's rule 23, provisional and it's basically Service Rifle on a bipod with scope.

It's an MR affair, so 600 yards is the max and it's for any AR-type rifle with the following stipulations: 20 inch barrel, non-F-TR style bipod (aka Harris type only, gotta fold,) 14 pounds all up, 15X maximum magnification on the scope. And get this, any caliber. I'm planning on using my AR-10 which has a 2.5-10X44 scope on it right now and going out to try this out. The rules are still in flux.

Discussion is going on at Accurate Shooter regarding the caliber; I'm going with .308 because it's what I have, but others are considering the .224 Valkyrie, the 6.5CM and the 6CM.

It will be interesting to see what calibers shake out; I suspect 6.5CM and perhaps the .224 Valkyrie will be the big ones. If I like this discipline, I may decide to rebarrel my AR-10 in 6.5CM. Or maybe just get an upper in that caliber.

Your data will be quite useful, so thanks again.

Fritz,

I always enjoy your posts on rifle shooting and marksmanship. I'm afraid I don't have the experience or knowledge to contribute to the discussion, but wanted to say thank you for sharing your time and talent.

quote:

Originally posted by NikonUser:
Hello Fritz, thanks for the thorough analysis. It's actually very timely as I am getting into a new variation of NRA High Power shooting called AR Tactical, or something.

It's rule 23, provisional and it's basically Service Rifle on a bipod with scope.

It's an MR affair, so 600 yards is the max and it's for any AR-type rifle with the following stipulations: 20 inch barrel, non-F-TR style bipod (aka Harris type only, gotta fold,) 14 pounds all up, 15X maximum magnification on the scope. And get this, any caliber. I'm planning on using my AR-10 which has a 2.5-10X44 scope on it right now and going out to try this out. The rules are still in flux.

Discussion is going on at Accurate Shooter regarding the caliber; I'm going with .308 because it's what I have, but others are considering the .224 Valkyrie, the 6.5CM and the 6CM.

It will be interesting to see what calibers shake out; I suspect 6.5CM and perhaps the .224 Valkyrie will be the big ones. If I like this discipline, I may decide to rebarrel my AR-10 in 6.5CM. Or maybe just get an upper in that caliber.

Your data will be quite useful, so thanks again.

I'll be damned... my PRS Gas Gun build actually falls within those guidelines! I may have to seek out one of those matches.

quote:

Originally posted by fritz:

At 300 yards, the 10 mph wind drift advantage of the Valkyrie drops to only .4 MOA. This is an important figure, as most AR shooters do not have the capabilities to exploit a 1/2 MOA difference in equipment or ammo. IMO most AR owners should stick with 223 Remy and a good match bullet if the bulk of their targets are less than 300 or 400 yards.

I came to the same conclusion. The 223 runs out of steam faster than the 224 of course, but when I considered that my maximum range for gas gun was 800 yards, the difference of cheaper practice ammo to spend more time learning to call the wind won out for me.

Fritz, I also appreciate this info. Both timely and helpful in similar study for a pending build. I have pretty much discarded for now the Valkyrie from the choices due to the overall performance of the 6.5 CM. 22 Nosler is tempting in order to have .22-250 performance in the AR form for coyotes.

quote:

Originally posted by TRshootem:
Fritz, I also appreciate this info. Both timely and helpful in similar study for a pending build. I have pretty much discarded for now the Valkyrie from the choices due to the overall performance of the 6.5 CM. 22 Nosler is tempting in order to have .22-250 performance in the AR form for coyotes.

Not to demean the 22 Nosler, but it really isn't quite on par with the 22-250.

It would be a great coyote cartridge though.

quote:

Originally posted by IndianaBoy:
I'll be damned... my PRS Gas Gun build actually falls within those guidelines! I may have to seek out one of those matches.

The neat part is this discipline requires nothing new or special from the hosting club. You shoot on the same targets as the slingers and the course of fire is the same. 2 sighters and 20 rounds for record at anyone of 300, 500 and 600 yards.

quote:

Originally posted by NikonUser:
I am getting into a new variation of NRA High Power shooting called AR Tactical, or something.

Interesting development in High Power -- I didn't expect that. Given the discipline's target sizes, I understand how there would be caliber discussions. A 1/2 MOA wind advantage over 223 can make a difference.

Assuming you stick with 308, what bullet will you use? I didn't run comparison numbers for my chart above, because my 308 is a bolt action.

quote:

Originally posted by IndianaBoy:
I came to the same conclusion. The 223 runs out of steam faster than the 224 of course, but when I considered that my maximum range for gas gun was 800 yards, the difference of cheaper practice ammo to spend more time learning to call the wind won out for me.

I haven't ruled out something like a Nosler or Valkyrie, but looking at the ballistics keeps me from doing so. Fortunately.

I'm in the middle of other projects -- Remy 40X 22lr trainer and optics upgrades -- therefore I don't really need to spend money on an AR upper. Of course it wouldn't just be the Valkyrie/Nosler upper, but NF ATACR glass to go with it. Plus new magazines and ammo.

In the event that I become weak of constitution and decide that 223 with 73 ELD no longer cuts it for team competitions, I probably lean towards a 6 Creedmoor upper for my 6.5CM AR-10. It would be a specialized rifle (upper) for just a few matches, and I'd better have a spare barrel or two on hand at all times.

quote:

Originally posted by fritz:

quote:

Originally posted by NikonUser:
I am getting into a new variation of NRA High Power shooting called AR Tactical, or something.

Interesting development in High Power -- I didn't expect that. Given the discipline's target sizes, I understand how there would be caliber discussions. A 1/2 MOA wind advantage over 223 can make a difference.

Assuming you stick with 308, what bullet will you use? I didn't run comparison numbers for my chart above, because my 308 is a bolt action.

Please understand that the targets used here are the normal High Power targets with the 2MOA 10 ring, what we affectionaly refer to as the braille targets. These are not the F-class targets.

That said, the rules are provisional and still need to be finalized, and I think using the regular targets is not right; they should be using the F-Class targets for this discipline.

Additionally, the rules are designed to allow people to come play NRA games with "issue" equipment, and as such the spirit of the rules is to discourage the use of "competition" equipment and instead use "issue" equipment.

With that in mind, I plan to use the 175gr SMK or equivalent because it is magazine length ammo that is being issued. I know that 168SM would be another "issue" load, but I am just not comfortable with the 168SMK past 300 yards and I have lots of 175s. If people start using longer bullets, I have thousands of 180JLK that I can put to good use through the AR-10, single loaded, of course.

I'm trying this out as something different from F-TR, and yet still have the developed skills to shoot it and load for it. The bipod is not my F-TR Joypod, and you can't use a rear bag with ears. I have a read bag of sorts that I picked up years ago that meets the rules and the spirit of the rules; it's definitely not a high competition thing.

This discipline should attract people who have ARs that meet the specs and put their marksmanship against others in the same boat. You do not need a $10,000 rifle and scope and fuss over your handloads to be competitive. I'm even loading the ammo for this discipline using my Chargemaster, not my fancy scale and trickler.

fritz - I always enjoy your fact based analysis on these firearm topics.

Many 'shooters' buy based on emotion or perceived 'want' and not on requirements - which is fine, but can lead to wasted time / money and more frustration when what the have doesn't do what they want, or not measurably better than what they already had.

I haven't done much data on my Valkyrie yet but just putting rounds down range I am impressed. My local range only gives me the ability to put rounds down at 400 yds. but at 400 it is nasty about 1/2 to 3/4 inch MOA. I am using a 22inch BSF fluted carbon fiber barrel. Within the next month with weather allowing I am hoping to start developing a load that it likes.