Gary Chillingworth investigates the AGT Vulcan 2 to see if it’s any good for competition shooting.
Somewhere, within this mighty tome of a magazine, you will find an article by me on a new discipline within our sport – PRS shooting. The article reveals my exploits at the ARLGB event at Brook Valley, so I thought I’d take a bit of time to look at the rifle used at this event. 
The mighty Vulcan 2 from AGT is a regulated, multi-shot bullpup rifle, and even though I’m not a hunter, this is the sort of gun that I would certainly be looking at using if I were. The bullpup-style is becoming very popular because it allows the shooter to have a pull-length barrel in a short package because the breech is behind the trigger mechanism. 
The Vulcan 2 is just 760mm long, but has a 500mm barrel (or 30” and 20” in proper money) with a great regulator, and it will give around 200 shots from 210 bar down to 110 bar in .22, and about 170 in .177. I had a 7fps spread from 770 to 777fps, and when I took the rifle on the range, I was shooting from 25m out to 100m because these are the ranges for PRS shooting. On my home range, the rifle was shooting a ragged one-hole group from 25 yards to 35 yards; at 40 yards, there was a group of around two pellets widths, and at 55 yards, on a shoot-and-see target, five shots were all well within a 10p piece, over 55 yards, although there was too much wind deflection to test accurately.
WELL-BALANCED AND STABLE
So, accuracy was very good and I have no doubt that if I shot this rifle more, it would improve. When the rifle was sent to me it was configured for a left-handed shooter, but I removed the side plate (four screws) took the cocking lever off (one screw) removed the side plate on the right-hand side, swapped it over, screwed everything back together and it was configured for a right-handed shooter – it only took three or four minutes.
With the adjustable cheekpiece and a great synthetic stock, this rifle is a perfect hunting gun, and it’s also available in laminate and walnut. It weighed in at 3.7kg – just over 8lbs, unscoped – and even though this is much heavier than the BRK Ghost, it’s not too heavy, and it’s very well balanced. The added weight certainly helps with the stability of my sticks. 
From the prone position the pistol grip is not too low, so I was able to rest the adjustable butt pad on the ground without the pistol grip hitting the floor, and from the standing and kneeling position, the rifle was amazing.
One advantage of a bullpup is that most of the weight is pushed all the way back toward the butt of the gun, so that when you are in the kneeling position, all of the weight is back toward your body. In the standing position, this takes strain away from your arms, and if you are struggling with manipulating a rifle, this could be the way to go. Currently, I have a bad case of tennis elbow and holding a long rifle is agony, but the AGT Vulcan 2 was easy for me to manipulate. 
The magazine system is basic and reliable, but you can also get a single-shot loader for it – a must, in my opinion – and I love the fact that the bolt locks back when the magazine is empty. Filling the gun is simple and is done from a port at the front of the rile, with a simple gauge to show to your fill level.
COMPETITION RIFLE?
What is this rifle like in competition? Well, as you can read in the ARLGB article somewhere in this magazine, the rifle worked very well. We were shooting targets from 25 to 100 metres, and on the one 100m target I was one of only six people to kill it, so the accuracy is certainly there. As I was transitioning between obstacles, the length – or lack thereof – of the Vulcan was a real advantage because I didn’t have to worry about the barrel clattering into things. Out of nearly 30 shooters I came 7th, with a respectable score, and that was down to the Vulcan. 
I have no doubt that we will see the AGT Vulcan around the target world. The Vulcan 3 is now out, so there are deals to be done on second-hand rifles, and even new old stock. At Premier Guns, they have a lovely walnut one for around the £1400 mark, and with a rifle like this you will certainly Live Long and Prosper.