Rifle provided by Mossberg for testing & evaluation. Mossberg did not see this video prior to publication. Hands-on first impressions and range groups with factory ammo — not a multi-month T&E. Specs and pricing as taped; verify today’s listings before you buy.
Hey channel fans and family — after looking at mid-sized magnums that felt at home past a thousand yards, I wanted to step down before climbing to 300 PRC. The cartridge: .224 Valkyrie — maybe the most divisive round introduced in the last decade. The rifle: the Mossberg MVP Precision. Do I love it, or do I hate it? Let’s find out.
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Why .224 Valkyrie is so divisive
Newer SAAMI cartridges like 6.5 Creedmoor, 6.5 PRC, and 300 PRC were built around factory precision from day one — you shouldn’t need to be a handloader to chase sub-MOA. .224 Valkyrie was meant to fix what people hated about .223 Remington: push a heavier .22-caliber projectile past a thousand yards out of an AR-15-length gas gun.
What we’ve seen in the wild is love-or-hate. With Creedmoor/PRC the debate is usually “do you need it?” With Valkyrie the debate is twist rate, projectile choice, and whether factory ammo will give you 1 MOA. Some shooters and handloads look terrific; others can’t get closer than about 1.5 MOA. I wanted to see it myself — so I asked Mossberg for the MVP Precision in .224 Valkyrie.
This video is features + first range impressions. A follow-up digs deeper into the cartridge and the factory plinking / match ammo I ran through the LabRadar.
What the MVP Precision actually is
The MVP Precision takes the familiar Mossberg MVP barreled action and drops it into an entirely new chassis — more “tactical chassis rifle” than a traditional hunting stock with a free-float tube.
- Barrel: 20″ medium bull, 4140 steel, 5R rifled, free-floated into the action
- Threads: ½×28 with a solid thread protector — no muzzle device included (same story as the Howa we looked at)
- Handguard: thin free-float M-LOK rail; one QD mount installed on the left, another on the stock
- Action: push-feed (same family feel as the Thompson/Center LRR and Ruger Precision Rifle — not controlled-round-feed like a Ruger Hawkeye LRT)
- Bolt: two-lug; scalloped handle for a better grip; a little play with the bolt open (chassis helps mask some of that)
- Rail: 20 MOA Picatinny on top of the chassis for extra elevation
- Safety: simple two-position — forward fire, back safe (bolt still manipulates). No third “bolt locked” position
- Trigger: Mossberg LBA, user-adjustable ~3–7 lb, bladed first stage into a clean second-stage break; roomy enough for winter gloves unless you’ve got ski-mitten paws
- Magazines: purpose-built from the start to feed AR mags (AR-15 or AR-10/SR-25 pattern). Mag release sits AR-style under/forward of the bolt. Ships with one metal 10-round 6.8 SPC magazine
- Grip / stock: Magpul MOE+ pistol grip; six-position buffer tube; LUTH-AR adjustable rifle stock with LOP and comb height/position knobs, plus a bottom rail for a bag rider or rear monopod
- Weight: about 9.2 lb — roughly two pounds lighter than the Ruger Precision Rifle and Ruger Hawkeye Long Range Target we’d just looked at
- Price as taped: MSRP $1,407, street around $1,100
Range notes (factory ammo, ~100 m)
Second range day, nicer sun, same glass. Groups at about 100 meters (~110 yards). Wind was present but mostly from six o’clock. I called velocities while shooting to watch spreads — for handloads I usually want consistency in the ~20–30 fps neighborhood.
Federal American Eagle 75 gr TMJ (ammo I bought myself): first five-shot including cold bore ~3.38″; next just over 2″; another ~2.4″ (about 1.67″ if you exclude a bottom flyer). Consistent across two days — and not great.
Hornady Black 75 gr HPBT (thanks Hornady for the ammo support on this series): better than AE on the whole — a 1.18″ three-shot that opened to ~1.5″ then ~2.4″ with the fifth; another string around 1.45″ / 1.84″; a sharp 0.6″ three-shot that a fourth shot blew out to ~3″. Also a reminder why push-feed isn’t controlled-round-feed: limp the bolt and extraction can leave you hanging.
Hornady ELD Match 88 gr: this is where hope showed up — groups including ~1.73″, ~1.875″, a 1.096″ three-shot (just under 1 MOA), and a 1.155″ five-shot. Two roughly 1 MOA five-shot groups on match ammo.
Trigger takeaway from the bench: among the precision guns in this series, the LBA second stage felt very clean — a real highlight. The LUTH-AR stock was comfortable and easy to dial for LOP/comb (comb wasn’t the smoothest adjuster, but it worked). The safety location is still weird — standard barreled action wrapped in a chassis, so it sits higher/less ergonomic than something like a Ruger Precision Rifle.
Bottom line: good gun, tough caliber (at least with factory ammo)
Accuracy-wise: Hornady ELD Match was “okay” with those ~1 MOA five-shots. Plinking ammo — especially Federal American Eagle — was mediocre to bad. Is it the gun, the ammo, or the caliber? Honestly I don’t know. What I do know: most factory .308 I ran through the Howa and Thompson/Center guns shot better, and you can usually drop decent 6.5 Creedmoor factory ammo into a solid bolt gun and get sub-MOA five-shots. That was not the story with most of the .224 Valkyrie factory ammo in this Mossberg.
The rifle itself is a nicely packaged piece with good build quality, Magpul + LUTH-AR parts, a sculpted handguard, and a trigger most owners will love. But the Precision chassis model feels like an MVP wrapped in tactical features rather than a purpose-built chassis rifle like the Ruger Precision Rifle — awkward safety, mag release right under the bolt knob, bolt-release placement, and you have to pull the stock to remove the bolt. None of that would matter as much in a traditional stock. Stack that with a ~$1,400 MSRP and it’s a tougher sell versus the competition.
What I suspect would be better value: the Mossberg MVP Light Chassis with the more traditional MDT chassis. Want handloads worked up in this Valkyrie MVP Precision? Drop a comment on the video and I’ll ask Mossberg to leave it here longer.
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Keep squatting.
Would you chase .224 Valkyrie with handloads in a chassis bolt gun, or stick with 6.5 Creedmoor / .223 and call it a day?
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