what sort of damage does the .50 BMG do to living beings?

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briandg

New member
It can't possibly be as destructive as we have been led to believe. The thing has a meplat the size of a grain of sand, a needle profile, and should squirt right through meat like it wasn't even there, leaving no more damage behind than any good hunting round with expanding bullets.

Anyone have actual evidence of what it does on human or big game? Sure, I could go to the internet and go through the pages of reports by possibly unreliable sources, but I'd like to see a discussion here.
 
Well according to the internet the .22LR does more damage since the .22 penetrate the skull or body and bounces around essentially liquefying it.

.50 BMG will blow your arm off even if the bullet misses you by a yard or more because of the massive shock trauma pressure wave from the hypersonic bullet.

Or something.
 
Looking at the two videos shared by Dragon's Breath I would have say those deer went from standing to DRT in 1/2 second.
 
When I was in the Army, I was told not to shoot people with the .50 cal... it's purpose was to disable or destroy equipment... so I aimed for their canteen. All I know is I wouldn't want to be hit by a .50BMG... whether or not it hit something internally or passed on through. 650+ grains of anything travelling 3000fps or thereabouts isn't something you can stand back up from.
 
Now those two deer shots are what I wanted to see, actual information. I didn't expect to see the sort of damage there. but the question remains, what the heck was the ammunition? The first was ripped wide open, but still not as badly damaged as some the fakes that are running around you tube can be. The second was even able to run. Neither deer had its spine snapped in half and you couldn't see through either of them.

Then there is the solo cup video.

https://youtu.be/YrHpe5Z93wM?t=170

This guy ostensibly shot one through a stack of flimsy plastic cups, but the shock wave of the supersonic bullet didn't affect them?

I didn't expect so see the absolutely devastated meat in the back sides. I alway thought that it was a lie whenever I heard people talk about the great big eight inch exit wounds that they got on deer with their .30-30 or such.

I studied dead guy photos while in police academy. Not so many people with their intestines shredded and dragged for fifty feet by a magic bullet.
 
When I was in the Army, I was told not to shoot people with the .50 cal... it's purpose was to disable or destroy equipment... so I aimed for their canteen. All I know is I wouldn't want to be hit by a .50BMG... whether or not it hit something internally or passed on through. 650+ grains of anything travelling 3000fps or thereabouts isn't something you can stand back up from.
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My brother in law was in the marines, in the rifle competition team. He had some training with sniping, not modern, but the sort of sniping done back in the sixties.

He was told that same thing, equipment only, but every time someone said that they also reminded him that helmet and uniform, even the zipper on the guys johnson cover was part of his equipment. So he was told that shots to the head had to be aimed at his hat or his army issued sunglasses.


I'm certain that he was joking about most of it.
 
I have a Barrett .50BMG, and the answer to your question depends on the round and what you hit.
In soft tissue, a FN 5.7 will make an entry wound 1/2 the diameter of a .50 BMG, and about 5-10X the area of a ball or AP round. One reason for this is with non-expanding, non-explosive ammo, the .50 BMG has so much energy it generally go through a soft tissue without dissipating all of it's massive energy, unlike the expanding 5.7 below. However, the hydrostatic shock wave from a .50 BMG is still massive, even without expansion.

Here's the entry side of a Graingers catalog. The smallest holes are FN 5.7, the slightly larger are 9mm, the largest entry are 12.7mm / .50BMG
KYrEvQ5.jpg

On the exit wound side, the solid circled exit wound is the FN 5.7, and the dashed circles are the .50BMG exit wounds. The square box on the left is the 9mm.

OeYoBvb.jpg


You can do that kind of damage with a .50 out past 1,000 yards, but not likely with the 5.7 past a few hundred.

If you assume larger American game animals have similar tissue to your "living beings", it still depends.

If you hit something hard, like a large bone or skull, the result is likely splintering of the bone with massive internal trauma from the 10-12Kft-lbs of energy passing through. (FYI In the case of the Volvo engine, it's about a 5/8" entry and a 2" diameter exit.) In a living thing... I'm not specifically going there but the effects are significantly greater (5-6 times muzzle energy) than a widely published shot made with a 6.5×52mm Mannlicher-Carcano Model 91/38 made in November 1963.

And, if you find a .50BMG with a Mk211 ("Raufoss") round and the target is behind a hard object like a cinder block wall, (or a large deer / moose standing behind a 3" tree) it's going to look like a shotgun entry and exit at very close range. Otherwise the Mk211 acts like ball ammo in soft tissue.

I have had some US sniper acquaintances who have indicated the .50 will sever an arm inside of a mile with a square hit in the bicep without body center of mass contact.


Finally, there are some .50 BMG hunting rounds, but not many. If you were using those, the effects above might be amplified.

I wouldn't recommend being in the line of fire if at all possible.
 
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Meplat? A little French lingo there. I have never seen or heard that word used until now. Anyway, the .50 BMG does major damage to things living and not living. A grazing shot to a human would be bad and a direct hit on a limb would sever that limb. A head shot would remove most if not all of the head. IMO it occupies that transitional area between heavy machine gun and light cannon. If I were to have to dispatch a T. Rex and other large dangerous beasts on that order it would be ideal, almost necessary. As the others have noted, the .50 BMG was intended to defeat lightly armored assets, such as aircraft, light tanks, small buildings, unarmored ships, etc.
 
Charlie_98 said:
When I was in the Army, I was told not to shoot people with the .50 cal... it's purpose was to disable or destroy equipment... so I aimed for their canteen. All I know is I wouldn't want to be hit by a .50BMG... whether or not it hit something internally or passed on through. 650+ grains of anything travelling 3000fps or thereabouts isn't something you can stand back up from.
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We were told the same thing when calling in WP. Helmets and pistol belts in the open, fire for effect.
 
Model12Win said:
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.50 BMG will blow your arm off even if the bullet misses you by a yard or more because of the massive shock trauma pressure wave from the hypersonic bullet.

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Totally untrue. Mythbusters did a show on that. If that were the case, paper targets from 100 - 1,000 yards would be torn and shattered, and that doesn't happen.
Here's a first-timer's 100 yard target @ 100 yards with a .50 BMG, 660 gr, 2800 fps / 10,000+ft-lbs of energy.
HDGGRS1.jpg


The muzzle brake blast from a 'shark" type brake *WILL* make you take a step back if you're within 3-5 feet, but there is no 'killer .50 BMG shockwave".
 
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Dap, Meplat is french, it means flat, and it is what the very point of the bullet is called. There really aren't many bullets that have needle sharp points, they are all rounded off for flattened to at least a small degree. A lead bullet point will be banged around, so the things are usually slightly rounded or they have a flattened point. Until remington, and then nosler created the hard tipped bullet, we couldn't really use a hunting quality bullet with a needle sharp point.

When you see a match grade hollow point, it's a curious thing. It's not an expanding hunting hollow point. The jacket is actually stretched forward and there is an empty spot behind the tip. The jacket is crimped down as sharply as you can, closing it off. The empty space allows the bullet to be longer.

The ballistic coefficient depends on weight, diameter, length, and profile. By adding a soft plastic point and a bit of empty space in a tipped bullet it can be the same shape and size as a much heavier bullet of only lead and jacket.

Short and simple explanation. Not much help, but that's what you get.
 
I don't give half of a penguin's fart that the recoil of one of the things isn't any more significant than that of an ordinary hunting rifle. You're touching off almost 250 grains of powder and that thing has got to have a blast.
 
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