.50 BMG Recoil

[chack]

there really is no use for them. They are too big for anti-personell and too small for anti vehicle use.

You can't possibly be that uninformed. A marksmen with a .50 cal can drive a company sized element of men to seek cover "which means 1.5 inches of steel plate or 2 feet of concrete". A .50 turns good cover into mere concealment.

It also allows a motivated man to stop lightly armored vehicles dead in their tracks.

The .50 regularly takes out bad guys from 1000+ m which is the outside envelope for a .308

A $1,500 AT4 will do better against armor than an $8,000 50cal rifle.
Hell, an m203 costs around $1,000. A HEDP 40mm grenade costs around $50 each. An m203 with one grenade, for around $1,050~, can do better than the cheapest single shot 50cal you can name.

I don't know where you buy your AT 4s, but my uncle wouldn't let me take one home so I don't have one. I do know other soldiers that were able to take home .50BMG ammo. I was able to buy a M99 Barret with 500 rds of AP, APIT, and ball ammo for just a couple weeks pay. It will also hit targets well past the 300m max effective range of the AT4.

The same thing is true of a 40mm grenade. you can't own them, they are NFA items and each round is a controlled explosive

you will never legally be able to use it against vehicles, etc...

I agree that they are for all practical purposes useless

There are a great many number of legal shootings when someone legally shot a vehicle. In states with a castle doctrine, stopping a vehicle that is pulling down your gate with a chain or assaulting a family member that went to the end of the driveway to see what the assailant needed would be perfectly legal.

Many/most of us that own them believe that a time will come when the definition of "legally" is useless.

It isn't too much of a stretch to imagine a situation where the narco terrorists and drug wars spread beyond the border towns where ranchers are already being killed and being victims of hone invasions, kidnappings, and torture.

 

[briandg]

I sure can't fault that sort of thinking.

I tend to forget that there are places out there that are bigger, wilder, and even less civilized than oklahoma.

I also tend to leave the real apocalyptic thinking on the far back burner. That doesn't mean I don't expect it could happen. I'd have no use for an AR in case of SHTF, but plenty of people really need one to protect their rural properties. Some of you guys are so rural that even an AR is pretty much useless, and hey, I admit, you might actually have to deal with a truckload of bad guys. It's not inconceivable.

 

[Evil Monkey]

You can't possibly be that uninformed. A marksmen with a .50 cal can drive a company sized element of men to seek cover

so can small mobile mortars like the british 51mm. Weighing in at 14lbs and each round weighs 2lbs. Pretty mobile for a small crew, better effect than a 50cal rifle.

It also allows a motivated man to stop lightly armored vehicles dead in their tracks.

recoiless/rocket launchers are better.

The .50 regularly takes out bad guys from 1000+ m

those are not often the ranges these rifles are used at. And what the military sniper with thousands of dollars in training can do is not what the average civilian can do.

I don't know where you buy your AT 4s, but my uncle wouldn't let me take one home so I don't have one. I do know other soldiers that were able to take home .50BMG ammo. I was able to buy a M99 Barret with 500 rds of AP, APIT, and ball ammo for just a couple weeks pay. It will also hit targets well past the 300m max effective range of the AT4.

The SMAW and many other similar weapons can hit 500m+.

The same thing is true of a 40mm grenade. you can't own them, they are NFA items and each round is a controlled explosive

I'm strictly talking from a practical perspective, not a legal one.

The days of the anti-material rifle carried by the infantry died during ww2.

 

[chack]

Anti personnel and long range sniping rifles are still being used in every theater US forces are committed to.

OK evil monkey, is your point that weapons that a civilian can't own are more effective than weapons that a civilian can own?

If that's all you've got, lets just agree that a MX missile with MIRV warheads beats a .50 cal rifle.

We're not here to discuss guns that are totally inaccessible to civilians and law enforcement.

I suspect that you are one of those guys with a .22 that is your pride and joy, Jane's book, some pretty cool video games, a special gaming chair, and a cool airsoft collection in the bedroom of your mom's house.

You've hijacked this thread by talking about weapons systems you've never seen in the course of insulting weapons that many of us own in a thread by a person looking for real info about a gun he may someday buy.

I can ignore you now.

 

[Evil Monkey]

I'm not insulting anybody. If you'd like to buy a 50cal, go ahead. I'm just talking about weaponry on a gun forum, that's all.

I suspect that you are one of those guys with a .22 that is your pride and joy, Jane's book, some pretty cool video games, a special gaming chair, and a cool airsoft collection in the bedroom of your mom's house.

talk about insulting......but your still way off.

 

[darkgael]

recoil

Wasn't this a thread about recoil?
You fellows seem to be arguing about cross purposes. Sure, the 50 BMG has its uses. For a civilian, though, the question is not so much what can you use it for but what will you use it for.
Most probably, you will shoot targets with it. If your laws allow it, you might harvest game. Since the S hasn't HTF and is not about to, that use, anti-personnel, remains in the realm of "maybe".
Pete

 

[chack]

I'm guilty of being pulled into thread drift.

Back to the OP, recoil is very much tamed by the brake, and if you stand to the rear and the side the compression wave from a chevron brake will literally knock your cap off.

The least expensive .50's I saw were single shot uppers that used an AR 15 lower for it's fire control parts. the buttstock actually attatched to the upper so that recoil was transmitted directly to the shooter's shoulder instead of through the lower. They sell for under $2000 new, but you must provide your own lower with all fire control parts.

 

[sc928porsche]

The big 50 has a LOT of recoil. What reduces the recoil is the weight of the rifle, recoil pad, fit of the stock, and most important is the muzzle brake. For those of you who do not think the 50 has a lot of recoil, just unscrew the brake and fire a round. Except for Ma Duce, every 50BMG I have seen has a very evident muzzle brake on it. My McMillan's recoil is a little heavier than my 300WM but less than my 378WBY.