Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian, I am here today at the Rock Island Auction Company.
I'm taking a look at some of the guns that are coming up for sale
in their September of 2016 Premier Auction.
Now this one of course is something that a lot of people are going to recognise,
but I think not a lot of people necessarily know that much about it.
Information out there on these is primarily about Airsoft guns
that look like it, which is really kind of goofy in a way, I think.
And then you're going to get information about the movie "Shooter",
and you're going to get information about ... cardboard models of this gun.
And then somewhere down the line you'll actually find information about the gun itself.
Now, this is an M200 CheyTac. ...
The action itself, as on all of these, is actually made by EDM Arms.
And it is a bolt-action, long-range, precision rifle. Or dare I say sniper rifle?
... Strictly speaking, this is a magazine-fed, bolt-action, precision rifle.
Now there are two reasons that this has got so much press.
One of them ... is that it is legitimately an extraordinarily accurate and well-made rifle.
However, EDM Arms and CheyTac make a number of different models of
extremely precise and high quality rifles.
And this one is the one that gets all the attention, and that's because it looks different.
It's got this carry handle, it's got this cool, sexy looking bipod,
it's got this collapsing stock, this one's painted all funky green and tan.
And that visual image really grabs people's attention.
However, that visual image honestly doesn't really have anything to do with the gun's accuracy.
You could take this same basic action and barrel system,
put it in a traditional-style stock, and shoot just as well.
It just doesn't have the tactical appeal, which this one does.
Now, first off, this rifle is chambered for the .408 CheyTac round, which is relatively new.
It in fact was only registered with the C.I.P. in 2013,
thus becoming an internationally standardised cartridge.
And it was designed by a guy named John Taylor as an intermediate
between the .50 BMG and the .338 Lapua Magnum.
Now .338 has long been a favourite precision rifle cartridge for people
who are looking to deliver a lot of energy, and not just a very precise bullet.
6.5mm are kind of the de facto standard for long-range precision shooting,
but if you bump up in size you can get more bullet weight on target.
And of course, above that you kind of had to go to the .50 BMG.
Well, the .50 was designed as an anti-tank rifle round, and then as a heavy machine gun round.
Not really intended for super precision.
And frankly, with today's computer technology we can do a lot better than the .50 BMG
for long range ballistics, and that's what drove the .408 CheyTac,
to get something really designed for precision fire that was kind of in the ballpark of .50 BMG.
It has a couple of different loadings.
Now the standard loading is a 419 grain bullet travelling at 2,850 or 2,900 feet per second,
which is a crap ton of muzzle energy, about 8,300 foot pounds of muzzle energy.
To put that in comparison, a typical .338 Lapua Magnum
is going to give you about 6,300 [foot] pounds.
A typical .50 BMG is going to give you about 14,000 foot pounds.
So, the reduced muzzle energy actually also gives you reduced recoil,
which is nice, about a third less recoil than a .50 BMG.
The weight of this rifle is also going to tamp down recoil.
This thing weighs approximately 29 pounds unloaded, which is a ridiculously heavy gun.
People might wonder why there is this weird-shaped big carry handle,
well, that's because you really need a big carry handle to actually carry this thing.
You put it on the bottom because people are going to put a big expensive scope on top.
And you don't want to have the handle too far out front
because then the thing's balanced all wrong.
This is about the centre point of the rifle, this is where you want the carry handle.
You can put it down here and not interfere with your scope,
not have to elevate the scope above a carry handle, anything like that.
That's probably the most visually distinctive element of the gun, and that's why it's there.
It's because this thing is too heavy to reasonably carry any other way.
Now, this tube here is a free-floated tube connected to the receiver,
so it doesn't actually touch the barrel.
Which means weight on the bipod doesn't impact your point of aim.
This is a very important concept, but it's one that's well recognised in precision shooting,
and has been for decades, if not hundreds of years.
Now this is a box-magazine fed rifle.
This magazine is a 5 rounder, they ... do also make 7 round mags for this rifle.
Difference is really kind of negligible, it's not like you do a lot of super-fast reloads on this.
It's just a matter of convenience for having a number of rounds in the gun all at once,
so you don't have to break your position to reach for new cartridges while you're cycling the bolt.
It does have a rear monopod which is folded up inside here,
which is certainly helpful for ... fixing the gun in position for a shot.
Now something that I think a lot of people don't really take into account, or don't recognise,
is that a rifle like this is only one single part of a much larger equation
that's what you need to get an accurate hit at, say, 2,500 yards.
This rifle, according to the manufacturer, is good out to 2,500 yards, it'll stay sub-minute of angle.
Which means less than ... one minute dispersion.
Well, a minute is 1.024 inches at 100 yards, and we usually just round that off to 1 inch at 100 yards.
So a one minute cone of angle at 100 yards is a one inch circle.
When you get to 2,500 yards you're looking at about a 24 inch circle.
So about two feet around, that's one minute of angle, a cone one minute of angle wide.
What typically is the limiting factor on a rifle's performance out to extreme range
is that when the bullet drops through the sound barrier
(goes from supersonic to transonic, down to subsonic),
typically it ... hits its own shockwave, and the interference there destabilises the bullet.
It makes it much more difficult to keep it accurate beyond that distance.
Well, the bullets for the .408 CheyTac will stay supersonic until about 2,200 to 2,500 yards.
Beyond that, there's some evidence that they actually perform very well going through transonic,
and they stay quite accurate after that.
But the company doesn't go out and actually make that claim officially.
Although some people have certainly made hits with these rifles at 3,000 and 4,000 yards,
which is really kind of mind blowing.
Now you do have to consider the size of the target at that range, but regardless.
So in addition to just having a super-fantastic, mind-blowingly accurate rifle,
you have to do a lot else in order to make hits at long range.
You have to be a good shot, you have to have the trigger control
to actually pull the trigger when the scope's right on target.
More ... difficult than that, you have to be able to understand
a wide variety of environmental factors that are going to affect where the bullet goes.
So, today we have nice cool little hand-held calculators, like in our phones,
that can account for a lot of this, things like humidity, temperature, elevation.
You're looking for ambient air pressure which varies by elevation, it varies by temperature.
What is the air density? We have meters, we can read that, we can calculate that stuff out.
We need to know the exact drag coefficients on the bullet,
so that you know how quickly it will slow down through the air.
And of course the air density effects that.
... The most difficult part, probably, is reading the wind.
You have to know, well, how fast is the wind going, and in what direction?
Because it's going to blow that bullet off target.
That is really an acquired skill because, yes, you can measure the wind
right where you are with a fancy little Kestrel weather station doohickey.
But that only tells you the wind right here.
The wind 3,000 yards that way is going to be something totally different.
Different velocity, different direction.
And you could have any number of wind patterns between where you are and where the target is
that are going in all manner of different directions.
Especially if you're shooting in areas with hills and canyons,
all sort of things that can change wind patterns.
So, it takes an incredible amount of time, and skill, and effort, and practice
to be able to actually read wind patterns by looking at environmental factors.
Look at the grass, look at the trees, flags if there are any.
When it comes down to it, frankly, looking at the mirage in your scope
can help tell you where the wind is going, and how fast.
And you need to be able to properly estimate that and account for it.
Match which direction the different wind patterns are going,
figure out an average net wind, dial that into your scope, and then make a shot.
So, ... someone who just picks up one of these rifles
probably can't make that sort of hit.
In fact, I'll go out further, I'll say cannot just make that hit
unless they have a substantial amount of practice under their belt working with a system like this.
So, in some ways the amount of fawning adoration over guns like this is rather misplaced.
They are, don't get me wrong, fantastic guns, but this is the easiest part of the equation.
You can go out and just buy this and have it.
Getting the actual skills means you have to spend time, and effort, and practice acquiring those skills.
Now if you happen to be one of those people who's got the practice under your belt,
maybe you've been doing lots of 1,000 yard shooting with a 6.5,
and you're ready to move up to something that's got a little bit greater
long-range potential, super long-range potential, well, maybe this is the rifle for you.
If you take a look in the description text below,
you'll find a link to Rock Island's catalogue page on this guy.
You can see their pictures and descriptions, and you can place a bid on it online.
It comes with a cool Nightforce scope here, they've got all the details on that on the catalogue page.
... It also of course comes pre-painted
in kind of drippy green and tan and you know what? It really does look cool.
So I'm sure this will, hopefully, find a good new home with someone.
Thank you guys for watching, I hope you enjoyed the video. Hope you learned something today.