50BMG Giveaway

[The_Shadow]

If anyone is interested here is a link to Classic Firearms latest giveaway where they are giving away the BIGGEST BADDEST 50BMG Barrett M107A1 Military Deployment rifle package one of 53 ever made & valued at $15,000...     Signing in on my link below helps me as well...  Good luck guys! 
https://wn.nr/EX6L9G 

[Blades]

Cool! Entered.

[blaster]

me  too

[The_Shadow]

Best of luck guys! 

[The_Shadow]

3 days left to enter for this bad boy

https://wn.nr/EX6L9G

[Blades]

I've been entering every day. 

[Blades]

Five hours left... 

[50BMG]

I take it that wasn't you who won Shadow?

[sqlbullet]

50BMG, I was wondering how you felt about being "given away" 

[The_Shadow]

No I didn't win it!  But I tried! 
Now trying to win the Kriss Vector 10mm in the giveaway... https://wn.nr/AcNdxA

[50BMG]

50BMG, I was wondering how you felt about being "given away" 

That's the story of my life! My wife is CONSTANTLY trying to give me away...


Oh well on not winning the Barrett though.
If it helps, the Barrett is not all it's cracked up to be...
Well, maybe I should quantify that statement. A FREE Barrett of any stripe would be awesome no matter what of course! But I own 2 other .50's and I wouldn't personally spend the $ for a M107.

I know Ronnie Barrett personally, he's a AWESOME guy, one of the biggest 2nd Amendment & FCSA supporters ever. He makes GREAT equipment (in every caliber), but contrary to what most people think, the M107 is not a "sniper rifle"...
Yes, very reliable/battle proven weapon. It can get a lot of 1/10th ounce projectiles down range very quickly, some with an explosive/incendiary "payload" too. But honestly, their design spec. is only about 2MOA accuracy. Even when loaded with hand-rolled, match-projo topped fodder, the best they do in the matches is right around 1.5MOA.

I wonder what chamber that prize gun had too, because a lot of the Barretts being used in the sandbox are chambered for SLAP rounds...

[sqlbullet]

If you have said before I apologize for asking and not searching...

But what other 50's do you own, and what do you think is a good value for someone that feels no gun collection is complete without at least one 50 BMG?

[50BMG]

Well.... Have a seat...

I think for the least expensive gun, which I have seen shoot pretty darn well at 1000y matches considering the comparative pricing to "match grade" guns, is probably the Serbu BFG-50.

https://serbu.com/collections/firearms/products/bfg-51
For "a couple grand" (without glass) you have a dedicated .50BMG rifle (not an AR mounted upper) which with the right ammo, is probably capable of MOA performance (more on the "right ammo" comment below). Mark Serbu is a good guy. He's been making the BFG for along time, so he has all the kinks worked out years ago. He make a "carbine" version (24" bbl.?), but I'd get the standard length rifle which I think has @ a 30" barrel. Definitely buy the 30MOA slanted scope base so you can dial the scope out the ranges the rifle is capable of...

If "budget" isn't as much of a consideration, I own one of these (HS-50) and for a non-custom built rifle, it shoots very well.
The Steyr HS50:



Or, the side-box, mag-fed version of it called the HS50 M1 (click on this link to see the pic; too many pixels for the forum page):
https://www.gunsamerica.com/userimages/137525/958192396/wm_4549640.jpg


Here's both (the guy on the left is Eduardo, past president of the FCSA):


The HS50 comes with the nice/aluminum bipod setup you see in those pics. It has a very effective clamshell-type muzzle brake on it which can also be disassembled for cleaning periodically. Cold hammer forged 33" to 36" barrel; 1:15" twist, and is chambered to fit almost all mil-spec .50BMG ammo you will find. It's a semi-bullpup type of configuration so when it's assembled its slightly shorter than a conventionally stocked .50 rifle. It comes with the tools to break it down into 2- @1/2 size elements. Because the optics remain fixed to the barrel portion of the action, there is no loss of zero experienced when breaking-down and reassembling the rifle. I think they come standard with a 20 or 30MOA scope rail. The M1 version also had side mounted picatinnies for accessories; ie: NV gear etc...
With "the right ammo" my HS50 has done @.75MOA at a distance. The gun was designed to shot from prone and it does well at that or the bench.
I think they can be had for "$4000-ish", without glass of course???

For the utmost in accuracy, The McMillen/McBros actioned guns are at the top of the FCSA scoreboards, and have been for quite a while.
The McBros action (either single shot or 5 rnd Detach. Box. Mag. DBM) is built like a brick chicken house (the action weights 7-8# all by itself). For single shot it's available in many configs. Right bolt right port, right bolt left port, etc...
Here's a "standard" McMillan Tac50:
http://www.mcmillanfirearms.com/firearms/tac-50-a1-tactical-rifle/
The Navy SEAL guys heavy rifles look very similar to this, but theirs are Lilja barreled, and have a custom muzzle brake designed by Craine (the brake actually sucks!). The Navy designates theirs the M88-PIP. This is why the SEALs have confirmed 1 shot hits at 2200M.
The Canuuk SF guys use a nearly identical rifle as the SEALs, but since they have the foresight to equip their special operators with match grade ammo (Hornady AMAX topped rounds that they get custom loaded from AAA ammo in Nebraska no less), they've extended the accurate range of their heavy rifles to 1.5Miles and slightly beyond.

This TAC-50's DBM type is the same action my "match" gun uses but I have a more conventional designed stock (also McMillan Fiberglass).
Unfortunately, I don't have a pic of my match gun on this computer besides the one of me firing it at night, which is kinda spectacular:

20mm cannon powder burns nice and slow behind the 800g projos!

Mine was custom built by K&P gun company in Raton NM. It has a fully free-floated 32" K&P cut-rifled stainless barrel; 1:15" twist. It has the tightest .50BMG chamber allowed for FCSA "light gun" competition and the barrel is also throated to accept bore-rider projos (for matches I normally load and shoot solid bronze custom ground McMurdo 800g VLD bore-riders or in a pinch the Barnes 800g LRS solid projos which are also bore-rider cut). The McBros action is aluminum pillar bedded into the McMillan stock, Jewel Match/adjustable trigger, has a McMillan clamshell style muzzle brake. Most of the match shooting is done with a front and rear rest but I also have a bipod stud on the front of the stock which facilitates a good old USGI M-14 bipod. I have shot .6MOA with this gun at 1000yards before but it should be able to do better. Similar guns have shot .5 MOA or less. The current light gun FCSA record for 5 shots at 1000Y is 2.178".
With more dedication put into load development on my part.... Who Knows!

Now, the "right ammo" part: Mil-Spec/delinked MG ammo ain't going to make even a match grade rifle shoot well. The "mean" accuracy standard for this type of ammo is 2MOA (at least 1/2 the fired rounds must land within a 12" circle at 600yards). When you shoot 600/minute, it doesn't have to be sniper quality. While it's possible to see "a few" mil-spec rounds shoot even MOA or less out of a good gun, eventually you will chamber a round which flys WAY out of that group into the "2MOA if you are lucky" reality zone.
So, good, preferably hand assembled, match projo topped ammo will be require to make any even bolt action gun shoot the best it can. Luckily there are places like AAA Ammo, Arizona Ammunition, Hunting Shack, even Hornady is making and selling more accurate ammo with AMAX 750g projectiles, good primers, good powder, etc... of course these are more expensive than military ball (if you don't buy a press and load them yourself, which is what I did when I had my match gun built).
I mounted a Nightforce scope on a M107 rifle for my local county sheriffs dept. a year or two back and they exclusively use the Barrett M33 ball rounds in their gun. The last time I talked to their SWAT guy who is in charge of that rifle he says he's been getting @1.5MOA out of that at 600yards, so that's not too bad considering it's M33 ball projos....

The scopes: Nightforce can handle anything the .50 cal rifles and their brakes can dish out.
The old standard was the Leupold MK4-M1 16X, which is what both of my guns are sporting on top of 30 & 45MOA rails. They too will last forever on a .50. I understand Leupold will also warranty some of their new variable power MK4 scopes on .50 rifles too...
The Nightforce usually has @ 100MOA of adjustability inside the tube, the MK4's have up to 140MOA inside (both "total"; above and below center combined).
You can run the MK4's on even 60MOA bases and have enough dial to zero at 100 yards. I'd run the Nightforces at @30MOA slant because they are notorious for lying about having 100MOA available inside.
Also get GOOD/big ass rings! The Leupold MK4s are the minimum. GGG, Barrett, Badger Ordnance, etc... make sure the rings are high enough to cover the rail slant so the scope objective bell doesn't hit the receiver/rifle barrel.

Phew.... I think I'm done now...

[sqlbullet]

That is a  great digest on getting into the game.  I really appreciate it and well may ping you once I clear up some time to really go at my gun hobby again. 

[Blades]

No I didn't win it!  But I tried! 
Now trying to win the Kriss Vector 10mm in the giveaway... https://wn.nr/AcNdxA

So sorry, I plan to win the Kriss.