My New Southern Woods Companion

By Dusty Prahl

My New Southern Woods Companion

The 7mm Valkerie AR


I hunt, and I hunt a lot, always have always will. My chosen hunting grounds is a challenging little spot of North America called Middle Georgia. What that means is I have to versatile and I'm in for a challenge if I want to seal the deal on my intended prey. Most of the year that tends to be the grey ghosts that slip around us never even seen, the mature Whitetail. There are many targets of opportunity in the fall that stay on my list, coyotes and hogs to name a few but the Whitetail tops the list. As many of you know the mature big bodied deer seem to have a talent for making good shots go bad and around here I may only see him just for a few seconds at a time with the lay of the land and he may pop up right on top of me, or he could be 300 yards away. So, when picking my weapon I have a lot of things to consider. Which is one of the reasons I've started to gravitate towards the AR-15/MSR platform over the years for my work horse utility rifle. The AR gives me an auto loader that over the years I wish I would have had more than once and with the parts available today a light weight package can be put together easily. With that said what good is a light auto loader if the recoil is too bad to get quality follow up shots? Enter Bruce Finnegan and his 7VAR.

 I'm a member of a couple of popular gun forums, which is where I first met Bruce. I picked up on his knowledge after seeing alot of his posts, many that made me think, so I contacted Bruce for advice and soon discovered not only is he full of gun knowledge but is happy to share and help. This is when he mentioned the new wildcat he was working on, a 7mm for the AR, I was immediately interested.

 The combination Bruce had come up with made perfect sense to me, I was looking for knock down power that was still controllable and still get me out to my 300yd goal and the 7VAR looked it could offer just that and in my chosen AR-15 platform. Bruce had adjusted a 6.5x47 Lapua casing that he was using in 270AR to load .284 projectiles all the way up to the 168gr Berger and still chase on the heels of the 7mm-08 in terms of velocities and range. Now this is where you will say "Why not just do a 7mm-08?". Well weight for one, I don't want to move to the AR-10 since I tend to do a lot of walking/stalking. Bruce's cartridge also gives less recoil than the mentioned round allowing me to shed the pounds and still have my muzzle control for the quick shots. 

A 120gr Barnes right and 139gr Horn. SST left

Less recoil does not mean less damage. I'm one hundred rounds into my testing of the Valkyrie now and it does pack a punch. My main focus has leaned toward two projectiles the 140gr Sierra and the 154gr Hornady Interlock, both rounds shoot good, can be loaded to fit PRI 6.8 mags, and both are proving to be heavy hitters. I chose to go with a 20" barrel to keep it handy and still keep the velocities up since I planned on using fairly heavy weight bullets. The muzzle velocities have been great, I mostly like to use IMR 8208 xbr mainly for its accuracy and the fact I have a hefty supply, while not the fastest that can be used the results are impressive. The heaviest bullet shot to date for me has been the 154gr, 33.3 grains of 8208 has been giving around 2600 fps at the muzzle, not bad at all. Accuracy floats around the 1" mark, very acceptable for a hunting rifle. The 140gr Sierra is running around 2750 with 34.1gr of 8208 with it taking the lead in accuracy consistently yielding sub 1" groups. Both bullets were put through a standard expansion test I like to do, I shoot through one water jug then into around about a foot of compressed phone book and magazines. Both rounds showed potential totally devastating the water jugs which no other AR has done, then penetrating around 10" into the books at 100yds with beautiful expansion. The 154gr did slightly more damage and penetration but not enough to rule out the 140gr.

140gr Sierra Gameking left 154gr Horn. Interlock right

As you can see in the picture full expansion should not be a problem. The cores ejected from both bullets which is one flaw I've found with my test over the years since the bullet is totally stopped by hard force, in earlier testing of other calibers I have observed this before but also retrieved the same type of round from a carcass and have the same expansion but core still intact, I assume due to flesh and organs being dense but a little more forgiving than a phone book. If you're familiar with it the Hornady HIT calculator rates Large Game as a score from 901-1500, they rate the 154gr at 1013 at 100yds to squeak into the large game rating which I find fantastic since the typical Whitetail anywhere in the country falls into medium game. I also done a little comparison of another fine cartridge for Whitetail I like to carry in the AR, the 6.8SPC running 120gr Hornady SST. These are the numbers from the Hornady Ballistics Calculator.

154gr Hornady InterlockSP

120gr Hornady SST

Now I really like the 6.8 and it will continue to have a place in my safe, but the Valkerie is putting some serious firepower up with same carry weight and recoil characteristics even with my conservative loadings you see here. There are powders that will push these rounds faster, and longer barrel offerings for those of you that really want to stretch its legs. My testing is far from over and the VAR has yet to prove itself in the field for me, but I have no doubt its performance will shine. I'll have more to come on this exciting project and full field reports, if the season will ever come!

For more info and some truly impressive actual data from other testers check out the 7mmValkerie (7VAR) on Facebook or 7mmvalkerie website. Of course you can always look up Bruce Finnegan on Facebook or myself Ga Swamper for more info our door is always open.

Written by Dusty Prahl ( Ga Swamper)