.224 Kritzeck vs .224 Donaldson Ace

[Jesusfreak]

Which Cartridge is a better option? Anyone know anything about these two cartridges?

[Jim Watson]

Never heard of the .224 Kritzek before.
Picture shows a .223 case with VERY short neck.
Wiki says
"The .224 Kritzeck is a wildcat cartridge that was created in 2018 by J.R. Kritzeck. It uses a .223 Remington shortened case to accept a 95 grain bullet. It has a velocity of 2073 ft/s and muzzle energy of 906 ft-lbs.[1] Its Shortened case also allow the use of operation in Semi Automatic Rifles."
That ain't much. A regular .223 with 77 gr magazine length bullet or a long loaded 90 gr bullet will beat it by a lot, not to mention a Valkyrie.

The .224 Donaldson Ace is a .225 Winchester with the sharp shoulder and shorter case of the Wasp.
Finding .225 brass is the problem with that one.
A .22-250 is the standard in that category.

So unless you just like making work for your self, the answer is neither.

[hounddawg]

not only brass but where you going to get reamers and dies, have them custom made ? Other than for the novelty factor I don't see the appeal of either cartridge.

[T. O'Heir]

A better option for what? Either one of 'em will require you to make the bra$$.
The .224 Kritzeck is too new(invented in 2018) and unproven. Doesn't do anything other cartridges do not either.
https://www.revolvy.com/page/.224-Kritzeck
The .224 Donaldson Ace(nobody has heard of who or when Donaldson worked) has at least been heard of by RCBS. (Dies are Special order at $151.95) And by the author of "The Handloader's Manual of Cartridge Conversions."

[Nevmavrick]

Harvey Donaldson, April 6, 1883 to November 6, 1972, was a woodchuck hunter, cartridge designer, and ammo consultant in upper New York State.
According to Townsend Whelen, there would not have been any benchrest shooting if it weren't for his efforts.
I don't know how much he did, but he wrote a lot of letters and entered many events in a lot of states to promote BR shooting as much as possible.
His letterhead said that he was the designer of the .219 Donaldson, which we know today as the Wasp, and the .220 Donaldson Ace, which I presume was made from .30/30 cases and .30 Remington cases, in the manner of the day, to form either rimmed or rimless versions of his design. If the later .224 Ace was formed from .225 cases, it was because the Winchester case was easy to obtain at that time, and used the '06 head size to make it easier to use in bolt actions.
Donaldson's last columns were reprinted, after his death, by Wolfe Publishing Company in a book called "Yours Truly, Harvey Donaldson."
I can see very little reason to chamber a rifle for the Kritzek case as eventhough fitting in an AR magazine, it has underwhelming ballistics.
The .225-based case would be difficult to form because of the dearth of .225 cases, but the .30/30 cases are available, but still require forming. They would only have an advantage in a single-shot rifle. I enjoy mine in an M1885 Winchester Hi-Wall.
Have fun,
Gene, the Nobody

[FrankenMauser]

Which is the better option? The Kritzeck - purely because of brass availability. ...But the performance specs shared above make it a pretty lackluster proposition.
.22 Nosler and .224 Valk are probably better choices for heavy bullets.

If you want speed, ignore the Wasp and go for .220 Swift or .220 Swift AI. ...Or one of the .222/.223 based .17 caliber options capable of 4,000-4,400 fps, like .17-223 and .17 Remington.

[Unclenick]

AFAIK, benchrest came from Scheutzen rifle competition which became popular here when Donaldson was still in diapers. The match course includes shooting from a rest "to prove the gun" and shooting standing offhand "to prove the man". By the time F.W. Mann published The Bullet's Flight... in 1907, when Donaldson would have been 24 years old, the separate benchrest matches at the Walnut Hill range were already well known, and Harry Pope was nationally known for his barrel making and the accuracy of his false muzzle guns in competition that included that kind of bench shooting.

So, I don't know exactly what Donaldson's contributions to Benchrest competition were except that his Wasp cartridge was favored for its accuracy between the WW's. Where the older forms I mentioned were fired mainly with black powder and used lead bullets and for which many loaded the powder charge and seated the bullet separately, whether the gun was made for cartridges or muzzleloading, Donaldson's would have been metallic cartridge benchrest, and if you consider that to be separate, then he may have been a progenitor of the competition format. I just don't know.

as, but he certainly didn't start it. He may have been instrumental in popularizing more modern versions of it, though, or perhaps he was involved in forming the competition governing body.

At any rate, the bottom line for reduced range precision for an AR is that if I didn't find the .223 satisfactory, unless I was going for something subsonic, I would try to adapt the .222 Remington to it before going for one of the weaker supersonic rounds. It's got to be easier than most others to make the change with and is capable of terrific accuracy.

[Mobuck]

"The .224 Kritzeck is a wildcat cartridge that was created in 2018 by J.R. Kritzeck. It uses a .223 Remington shortened case to accept a 95 grain bullet. It has a velocity of 2073 ft/s

Wonder why the Dude didn't just use the 221 Fireball case