Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on Forgotten Weapons.
I'm Ian McCollum, and today we are out here at the range with the PGM Hecate II.
So we took a look at this yesterday,
and I'm really curious to try it out today and see how it actually shoots.
So there's a little bit of assembly involved here.
In order to fit this thing into a good Pelican case you have to take the stock off,
and you actually can't take the bolt out with the stock on.
Alright, so I've got the bolt here which is big enough to be basically a nightstick by itself.
Drop that in. We have our stock assembly,
put that in.
Tension that down. I will be using the rear monopod here today.
So.
There's our rifle. We have a Steiner 5-25x power scope on it, which should be just peachy.
Now I'm not a long-range marksman. I, to be totally frank, don't have the skills to properly wring out
the full potential accuracy of a rifle like this. This thing is designed to shoot out to like 1,800 yards or 1,800 metres.
Not only do I not have the skills, I really don't have access to the range facility to do that either,
especially not right now during the current unpleasantness.
What I do have is some space in the desert,
so I have set up a target at about 200 metres, and we're gonna do some shooting there.
Please recognise that is not the full capability of this rifle, but that's what I have access to.
What I'm interested in is the mechanics of operating the gun. How bad is the recoil going to be on this thing?
How smooth is the bolt operation? That sort of stuff. So I'm hoping I can make a really darn good group at 200.
I am using Hornady, 750 grain, big ol' ammo.
We have a couple of 7 round box magazines. So we'll load up some rounds.
We'll get this thing set up on the shooting mat, and see what I can do with it.
Alright, so here's the deal. I am shooting at 200 metres approximately,
the optic that this ... has mounted is sitting on a 20 minute of angle rail.
Which provides an initial downward angle for the optic to account for some of the drop
that you get when you're trying to shoot out to like 1,800, because that's a huge amount of drop.
So this I thought was like perfectly bore sighted. It turns out I'm hitting about 3 feet low at 200,
and I can't physically adjust it any lower because it's intended to be shot way farther than that.
This is like laughably short distance for this thing.
So what I have done is I have put two targets up on my target stand.
One at the very bottom of the sticks, and one normal target.
I will be aiming at the bullseye on the bottom, which should be putting my hits approximately on the top target.
So I'm not trying to get a perfect zero of the bullseye,
What I'm interested in is: what do we get with a 5 round group out of this?
So, let's get going here.
There we go.
And
aim at the bottom target.
OK, that put me just below the paper on my real target, which is perfect.
I'm right in the middle of the cardboard so we can shoot a nice group.
I have to say there is some fairly significant concussion coming out of this thing, but the recoil is minor.
Honestly, I've had a lot of .308 rifles that kick harder than this shooting.
Now that's partly the weight of the thing, the fact that I've got it set up on all three legs,
but also that ginormous muzzle brake. It does a really good job in taming the recoil.
Whoo. Alright, there's a ton of concussion, but my shoulder is not in the least bit sore from that.
That's really cool for a rifle as powerful as this one.
So we did a five round group.
I think we'll see in a moment why I'm not a sniper, but I do have to say the trigger pull in this is fantastic.
It ain't the rifle's fault there, it's all on me. Let's go take a look.
See, I have a cheater here. I've got a 25x power scope, I can take a look at my group from right here, but you can't see it yet.
Alright, so the deal is I'm aiming down at this little guy, and I'm hitting up here.
And that's because this rifle is mechanically set up to be shot at, say, 800 meters farther than the 200 that I'm using today.
Now my group, frankly, I'm a little disappointed in, I had hoped I could do better.
How much of that is me and how much of it is the ammo, I don't know.
I'm using kind of standard Hornady commercial. Like it's not machine gun surplus ball, but it's also not super precise.
Typically if you've got ... a rifle like this and you want to get the precision that the rifle is capable of
you have to hand load for it, and get more precision out of your ammunition, more consistency out of your ammunition
than ... factory manufacturers are typically able to do.
So I've got about a 5 inch group right there at 200 yards,
that's about a two and a half minute of angle group, which is OK.
I was really hoping for like a little cloverleaf, but I'm not up to that. So I'll leave the proper sniping to the proper snipers.
Alright, obviously I'd like to give a huge thanks to PGM Precision
for allowing me to take this thing out and do some shooting and some video with it.
In addition PGM Precision USA and JDI Firearms, who are the actual importers of PGM products into the US,
this is a rifle that they will only sell to the military and law enforcement.
But they do have a suite of other precision long range rifles that are all super-awesome as well.
Hopefully we'll get a chance to take a look at those.
And I can hear you guys, I can hear you already typing in the comments like,
"Why didn't you shoot it at ballistics gel?" "Why didn't you shoot it at armour plate?"
Ah, well we did. In fact if you head over to InRangeTV right now
you can see Karl and I shooting this thing at some hardened steel plate with both ball and armour-piercing ammo.
So if you want to see how it does against a target like that, check that video out over on InRangeTV.
Thanks for watching.
[ sub by sk cn2 ]