# .50 cal sniper rifle



## fusilier (2 Aug 2001)

What‘s this I hear about the Canadian Forces getting the Barrett .50 cal sniping rifle?  Fact or fiction?


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## para (3 Aug 2001)

Fact
quite a while now, living under a rock?
not quite playing an active role in the real army? :mg:


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## fusilier (3 Aug 2001)

I‘m a reg force Jimmy now so I don‘t get much on the the infantry side anymore, as much as I‘d like to.


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## hhour48 (6 Aug 2001)

the RCR have one per batallion, and it‘s not a Barrett, it is some other .50 caliber rifle


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## colgan (6 Aug 2001)

I am pretty sure it is a Mc Millan 50 cal.It‘s hard to find info on the net about it, if anybody knows of any sites about it let me know


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## fusilier (8 Aug 2001)

> Originally posted by para
> not quite playing an active role in the real army? :mg: /QB]



And exactly what trade are you?


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## rcrman (10 Aug 2001)

Try at this web site under weapons...

might be worth something to look at:

 http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Bunker/4895/ 

Grubby  
Pro Patria


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## Doug VT (10 Aug 2001)

He may be a little cocky but he‘s infantry and he is para.  It‘s about time that he got the guts to post on the form.  I like that he‘s listed as an FNG.  Keep your chin up Para, I‘ll be back soon.


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## colgan (10 Aug 2001)

Did not see it there grubby. Thanks any ways


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## rcrman (10 Aug 2001)

Colgan...sorry buddy it was worth a shot anyway...

Hey Doug how‘s the tour going overseas? Take care and have a safe tour man.


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## para (12 Aug 2001)

re. fusilier
my job right now Oservation det / int 
Op Pallaidium Bosnia :fifty:


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## fusilier (12 Aug 2001)

are you an int op or infantry?


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## stosh (13 Aug 2001)

FYI - they had an article in the Maple Leaf talking about the new .50 cal sniper rifle from McBros that the army has purchased. Here is the link...

  http://www.dnd.ca/menu/maple/Vol_3/Vol3_18/army10-11.pdf  

Cheers.


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## colgan (15 Aug 2001)

Thanks stosh..thats good info


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## Redeye (28 Aug 2001)

During my Ph. II this summer, the sniper cell gave us a demo during which they displayed all their weapons, including the Parker-Hale .308 (Sniper Rifle 7.62mm C3), the McMillan M88 in .50 cal, and the Barrett Light Fifty... which is NOT light, as well as a C7 with a special night/thermal optics set used by the spotter.

So they have both weapons.  

It was interesting to note that they are limited in the amount of shooting they can do with the .50‘s because of the overpressure caused by the shot, it can cause retina detachment!  The kick of the rifles is something to be reckoned with, if I remember right the Barrett delivers a whopping 12 joules of recoil ... the snipers compared it to being hit with a baseball bat.


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## TOW2B (30 Aug 2001)

Someone was pulling your leg the Barret kick about the same as a 12 gauge shotgun firing 3in Mags.It is stiff but not painful,you definatley don‘t want to put say 100 rnds down range in a day,but it is alot less than one would think.The McMillan ‘s recoil is dampened by its muzzle brake that vents the gas rearward and to the side which actually causes the rifle the jump forward,that takes some getting used to as well the muzzle blast is hard on your spotter.


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## Gordon Angus Mackinlay (4 Sep 2001)

Ladies and Gentlemen,

have just been reading these postings with interest.
Below is a response I made to a question on 2nd battalion, The Parachute Regiment in Macedonia, about the 12 man sniper section of Patrols Company armed with ".338 calibre sniper weapons"

"It is the Accuracy International (see their ebsite) .338 (8.6mm) Super Magnum (also known as the Supra Lupua, 3000 fps) weapons system fitted with the Bausch & Lomb 10x42-power scope.  Basically the L96A1design, only much better.  Bolt action weapon, 5 round mag, 6.8kg (empty without telescope, 1268mm long.  Its barrel is much heavier thean the L96.  According to the blurb from AI it can be ordered in .300 Winchester and 7mm Remington Magnum calibres

 This system gives first hit probability out to 1,100+ metres without the weight and recoil penalty of the .5 Browning cartridge was used by such 12.7mm weapons as the Barrett or the MacMillan.

 The Royal Marines bought 44, and the regular army 73.  Also is fitted in  British service with the Simrad KN200 night optics.

 I had the pleasure of firing it at the begining of the year, it is an absolutely unbelieviable piece of equipment.  The .338 round has an  incrediably flat trajectory, actual bullet is made out of tungston  (A$15:80 each), and its kinetic energy is 85% of the .5 Browning on impact.  It also  comes in at one third of the price of the .5 Barrett M90A1.

 A very old friend (served together at Infantry Centre) is the AI rep in AUST/NZ, he got both to buy the L96 in 7.62mm.  But, for some reason the
 AUST Army has a fixation with the Barrett, and will so buy.  Weapon and ammunition more expensive, spare parts extremely expensive (firing pin $114,
and break after some 38-40 rounds!), big heavy awkward thing to carry, operator needs specialist training beyond that normally needed by a
marksman/sniper.  Totally beyond me.

 I must admit I‘m bias, in my youth I was a very good shot, and was still shooting on a regular basis until about ten years ago.  In recent years only to the range with the Steyr.  I put three rounds through on a known distance range at Holdsworthy, 100mm grouping, thats without zeroing!  Could not believe it, recoil the same as the Steyr.

A very impressive piece of military equipment."

This American website, Snip Country may be of interest:
 http://www.snipercountry.com/sniper.htm 

Yours,
Jock in Sydney


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## Gordon Angus Mackinlay (4 Sep 2001)

Ladies and Gentlemen, I don‘t known why but on reading this posting I find that parts of it had vanished.  So am repeating

Ladies and Gentlemen,
have just been reading these postings with interest.
Below is a response I made to a question on 2nd battalion, The Parachute Regiment in Macedonia, about the 12 man sniper section of Patrols Company armed with ".338 calibre sniper weapons"

"It is the Accuracy International (see their website) .338 (8.6mm) Super Magnum (also known as the Supra Lupua, 3000 fps) weapons system fitted with the Bausch & Lomb 10x42-power scope. Basically the L96A1 design, only much better. Bolt action weapon, 5 round mag, 6.8kg (empty without telescope, 1268mm long. Its barrel is much heavier than the L96. According to the blurb from AI it can be ordered in .300 Winchester and 7mm Remington Magnum calibres

This system gives first hit probability out to 1,100+ metres without the weight and recoil penalty of the .5 Browning cartridge as used by such 12.7mm weapons as the Barrett or the MacMillan.

The Royal Marines bought 44, and the regular army 73. Also is fitted in British service with the Simrad KN200 night optics.

I had the pleasure of firing it at the begining of the year, it is an absolutely unbelievable piece of equipment. The .338 round has an incrediably flat trajectory, actual bullet is made out of tungston (A$15:80 each), and its kinetic energy is 85% of the .5 Browning on impact. It also comes in at one third of the price of the .5 Barrett M90A1.

A very old friend (served together at Infantry Centre) is the AI rep in AUST/NZ, he got both to buy the L96 in 7.62mm. But, for some reason the
AUST Army has a fixation with the Barrett M90A1, and will so buy. Weapon and ammunition much more expensive, spare parts extremely expensive (firing pin $114, and break after some 38-40 rounds!), big heavy awkward thing to carry, operator needs specialist training beyond that normally needed by a marksman/sniper. Totally beyond me.

I must admit I‘m bias, in my youth I was a very good shot, and was still shooting on a regular basis until about ten years ago. In recent years however only to the range with the Steyr, and 9mm Browning. I put three rounds through on a known distance range at Holdsworthy, 100mm grouping at 950 metres, thats without zeroing! Could not believe it, recoil the same as the Steyr.

A very impressive piece of military equipment."

This American website, Sniper Country may be of interest:
 http://www.snipercountry.com/sniper.htm 

Yours,
Jock in Sydney


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## cpl forrester (17 Jul 2004)

boys the point of a .50cal is long range penetration of what ever the target may be the range is some 2000MTS to a point of a 50mm variant for trained spec opp 3000m at 100mm anything over that is depress and hope 4 the best! how ever the range can very on the round used standard ball round is listed above a/piecing round r 1 and a half as heavy as standard ball rounds due to the tunston tip and internal collar but will easy penetrate 400mm of concrete at 1000m or 50mm armour also u can use a/piecing incendiary rounds as used on many aircraft weapons platforms having served my self 4 6years now believe me when i say i have seen what damage 2 a human body it can do, and it ain't pretty anyone who says its a hunting rifle souled be reminded that this weapon was designed for one thing to penetrate light armour and as anti he-lo it was later found that the weapon could be used for sniping and adopted as such .also the barrnet was designed around a German late ww2 anti tank rifle the panzerbuchse 41. rheinmetall-borsig ag 20mm The design is almost the same only the barrnet is a semi and not single round bolt and the berrnet has recoil supprestion the recoil on all sniper rifles is reliant on the muzzle brake the bigger the better the (PzB41) was effective on all fronts other that the eastern front as i would not penetrate the armour of the T34 how ever was very effective against shermans and other allied light armour......so all in all the barrnet nice weapon but only in the look and range ! its only as good as the man behind it....give me a h&k psg any and every time 10mm effective at 800m no other sniper weapon can beat it at the moment


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## Spr.Earl (17 Jul 2004)

But not let us forget the other use either.


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## Infanteer (17 Jul 2004)

Thanks for reviving a 3 year old topic....


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## cpl forrester (17 Jul 2004)

well u know us Brit's takes along time 4 intell 2 arrive from else where lol only we have just received a shipment due 2 there effectiveness in recent combat evaluation (we r getting allot of American hard ware lately a? wah-64 and also m16-ar.15 due 2 the fact the the sa80 is bout as good as a air rifle at a fair! just thought i would look through 2 see what other dirt monkeys thought of it....


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## Jarnhamar (17 Jul 2004)

Man i thought my grammar sucked.


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## cpl forrester (18 Jul 2004)

lol thet made me 4 killing not for talking .lol.................


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## Fusaki (18 Jul 2004)

They made me get my Grade 10 before they made me... uhhh... 4 killing? :skull:


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## Jarnhamar (18 Jul 2004)

lol................... tru dat lol


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## Gunnerlove (1 Aug 2004)

My buddy picked up an Accuracy International .338 Arctic Warfare Magnum (AWM) that was surplus from the sniper weapon evaluations last year. Let me say punching $6 holes in a paper plate at 1000m (the limit of our local range) gets boring as it is such a balanced weapon it takes the challenge away. And the .50 Big Mac is not a monster to fire, infact it is not much worse than the .338 lapua, and allot easier on the shoulder than .600 Nitro Express. God damn though you want plugs with both of them.


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## MG34 (1 Aug 2004)

cpl forrester said:
			
		

> so all in all the barrnet nice weapon but only in the look and range ! its only as good as the man behind it....give me a h&k psg any and every time 10mm effective at 800m no other sniper weapon can beat it at the moment



The PSG1 while accurate is not the most accurate system out there.Just about any decent bolt action sniper rifle can equal or better it's performance with ease.The fact that it is a semi auto is reason enough that it will never be as accurate as a bolt gun,simply put there is too much going on  when a shot is fired for it to have consistant shots all the time,factor in the weakest element,the human performance goes down further still.
 So get a grip and do some reasearch before posting.


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## Gunnerlove (1 Aug 2004)

10mm effective at 800m? If you are talking groupings with a semi in .308? I doubt it.


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## pappy (24 Oct 2004)

H&K makes some fine weapons, but 10mm groups at 800m is a tad bit hard to believe out of a semi-auto or a bolt gun in 7.62mm for that matter.

Without taking the math out to too many decimal pints for us slow guys...  Lets for augments sake say a "good gas-gun" will do 1/2 MOA, not many turn-bolts will do that either, but we're just doing a little math... (Plus I'm doing the metric thing tonight...)

just for starters if my memory serves 1 MOA at 100m is 2.9cm (to late for any more decimal points...)
so a rifle capable of 1/2 moa @ 100m is groups in the 1.45cm size range...
so at 800m that same rifle would shoot about 11.6cm...

But a H&K PSG-1 will shoot 10mm groups at 800m? 
Damn I'm saving up some cash for one of those...

Oh and by the way what rifle range can I shoot on that the winds will let me shoot 10mm groups?
I wanna move there....

correct me if my math skills are mistaken, please.


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## Argyll (25 Jan 2005)

If you're looking for the McMillan Tactical 50 try looking on the McMillan website, just google it.

Secondly in response to the recoil, that's insane.  I appreciate we need something for vehicle interdiction and long-range counter sniper tasks, but did anyone ever consider using a 338 magnum or a custom round like a 338 or 50 casing necked down to 30 cal?  

If you're more interested in tactical weapons platforms, check out this website:

www.snipersparadise.com

They've got lot's of magasine articles, specs, pics, etc... :soldier:


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## KevinB (25 Jan 2005)

Uhm

You mean the .338LM MRSWS...


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## MG34 (7 Feb 2005)

The recoil of the Tac-50 is not that bad at all. I would put it on par with a 12 ga 3 inch magnum, the muzzle break does quite a good job on taking the forces of the felt recoil away. The biggest problem is dealing with the over pressure espescially if you are to the sides of the rifle. The worst .50cal rifle I have fired is the AI .50 that ting is just a beast for anyone around it.


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