Homebrewed .50 Cal from ISIS in Iraq

Gun Watch ^ | 26 November, 2016 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

Jake Hamby has posted these photographs of a small shop manufactured .50 caliber single shot, scoped rifle.  It was captured from ISIS forces in Iraq. Many on the Internets are disparaging the rifle, characterizing it as a "face bomb" waiting to go off.  Several good views of the rifle are shown in the short Youtube montage below.

Link to Youtube

It is a mistake to judge a weapon by the exterior finish. Sure, the superb craftsmen at pre-1940 commercial Mauser, or Colt before 1970, are known for their excellent polish and bluing.  If you look at war production, you find perfectly useful and effective weapons with crude finishes. Webley put a stamp on some of their revolvers, "war finish", presumably because they were ashamed of putting out such a poor finish.  The interior of their revolvers was very effective.

You cannot get a better reason for a "war finish" than the conditions ISIS is operating under.  There are several interesting things about this rifle that tell me I do not want to be somewhere on the muzzle end of it.  I would be willing to test fire it, if I were allowed to disassemble and examine the mechanism first.  From an Internet examination, it seems to be a serviceable design.

Do not discount the ability of the rifle to get rounds downrange with useful accuracy. Most of the needed accuracy would be in the barrel, which may be a standard barrel from another weapon. I do not recognize it.  If the barrel is made in a shop, that is a significant achievement.  It may have been locally produced.  ISIS contains decent lathes and milling machines in the territory it has conquered.  The tack weld locking the barrel to the receiver is highly unconventional, but it works.

I suspect a Savage model 110 type of locking lug arrangement. Depending on the heat treatment of the receiver and locking lugs, the set up could last from a couple of hundred rounds to many thousands.  Given the rifle's environment, a couple of hundred rounds may be a realistic service life.

The scope looks to be a PU 3.5x22 Russian military rifle scope. It is pretty sturdy. It was used as a sniper scope for the Mosin Nagant. I have doubts that it could stand up to the pounding of a .50 BMG single shot.

The rifle's designers tackled this problem with two solutions.  First, the mounting system is extremely sturdy and welded directly to the receiver.  Integral scope mounting systems are the best way to avoid problems.  They have to be reasonably aligned with the bore. A simple bore sighting system used while welding on the mounts would allow for that alignment.

Second, the rubber bicycle innertube buffer between the scope and the mount. The oversized turnbuckle bolts used for tightening the mount to the scope use a lot of surface area to grip the scope. Whether the rubber buffer provides enough cushion to keep from battering the scope apart under the recoil of .50 BMG rounds would be a matter tested in practice.  Again, a couple of hundred rounds service life is likely enough.

The bipod is adjustable for height and ground irregularities.

Headspacing problems would probably show up on the brass before the rifle would allow brass rupture from case separation. If you examined the fired brass, you could figure out when you would need to adjust the headspace. If not, the horizontal bolt and loading slots vent high pressure gases and molten brass to the sides, away from the face.

The inline, straight recoil stock does much to soak up perceived recoil. The muzzle brake looks effective.

If the barrel is a standard .50 cal, a fixed 3.5 power scope should allow hits on man sized targets to 800 yards.  The scope does not have a rangefinding reticule. The vertical adjustments are calibrated out to 1300 meters for the 7.62x54 cartridge. It would not be hard to determine the range equivalents for the .50 BMG.

This rifle, while of crude finish, can likely put .50 BMG down range to good effect.  Those who want to outlaw .50 BMG in the United States should take notice.  It is up to us to bring it to their attention.

Kipling understood the value of cheap but effective weapons and manpower. From Arithmetic on the Frontier:

Two thousand pounds of education 

Drops to a ten-rupee jezail -- 

The Crammer's boast, the Squadron's pride,

 Shot like a rabbit in a ride!

©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

[marktwain]

No cartridge or case is shown. The rifle is said to be a .50 caliber. It might be chambered for the 12.7x108 Soviet cartridge.

[Chode]

the barrel is the hard part, the rest any competent machinist can do

[marktwain]

Exactly correct.

I think most welders in the United States would do a better job on the welding.

[Chode]

100%

[wrench]

With the barrel having a taper, it came from another weapon. Heavy machineguns have quick change barrels, most likely where this barrel originated. As crude as the rest of the gun is, the barrel stands out as being a manufactured part.

[Chode]

that was my whole point, get a barrel and the rest is easy...

[03A3]

What the hell is a reticule? Does it come with a purse?

[mad_as_he$$]

Every serious, yes serious, prepper/gun enthusiast should have a used 50 cal bmg barrel in their inventory along with a hard copy of the plans to build a bolt action 50 cal rifle. Having a garage machine shop and the supplies to build homebrew weapons would be a plus.

While I am on this subject. Hard copies of all the dimensioned part(s) drawings for your favorite weapons is a good idea also.

And yes as noted the welding on the OP gun leaves something to be desired.

[marktwain]

A reticule is the series of fine lines in an optical device, such as the cross hairs on a rifle scope.
Alternate spelling is reticle, or vice versa.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reticle

[marktwain]

I have thought about what it would take to build a .50 cal from a barrel for a while, so the way these people did it was of interest to me.

Production of a .50 cal barrel from stock, now that takes some serious work. Could be done, but not a simple homebrew project!

[mad_as_he$$]

Yup, trying to make a barrel from scratch would be problematic. I see barrels at gun shows quit often foe under $200. They are military discards but still useful.

[marktwain]

Brownells had brand new ones for $250 for a while.

I have not seen used .50 cal barrels for a bit. I suspect the military is having them destroyed rather than releasing them on the surplus market.

We should see some relieve with a Trump presidency.

[marktwain]

relieve should be relief

[wastoute]

It wouldbe interesting to see the bolt. What kind of lugs for locking the breech does it have?

[marktwain]

Yes, I want to see the bolt too! The photographer took some good pictures, but it would have taken so little to do a much better analysis.

I would like a picture of the bolt.

A picture of the extraction system.

A picture of the cartridge and head stamp, with a rule to scale things alongside of it.

I would love to have two hours to examine and measure the rifle and ammo. That would be fun and I could write a good, technical article about it.

Better yet, let me have it and a hundred rounds of ammo to see what it can do!