FIFTY CALIBER INSTITUTE AFTER AB-50

Very High Power - The Magazine of the Fifty Caliber Shooter's Association | 01-10-05 | John Burtt - President Fifty Caliber Shooters Association

[TexasCowboy]

Since the passage of AB-50 in California we've all had to sit down and re-examine our position regarding our sport of .50 caliber shooting. Whether you are a competitive shooter, a plinker, a collector or even just a gun owner you've got to be wondering what's going to happen next to our 2nd Amendment rights.
I wish I could tell everyone that the anti-gunners are going to be happy with just stealing our rights in CA, but unfortunately that just isn't the case.
We've already been involved in discussions with Bob McBride, President of the Rocky Mountain Fifty Caliber Shooters Association. He has information that Colorado will probably be our next battleground. At the time of this writing FCI has not seen the language of any legislation that will be submitted to ban the .50 BMG in Colorado, but we have been told a bill will be submitted at the beginning of the next legislative session. This will be in addition to other bills in IL; NJ; NY; CT; And quite probably in IA.

Many of these bills that we will have to deal with had already been introduced earlier and are carryovers from a previous legislative session or redrafts of earlier bills. We suspect these bills will be worded similiar to AB-50. Regardless of what provisions each of the bills take on, their goal is identical. They want to take all your guns away and your .50 BMG is just the start.

Those of you who have followed the fight to protect our rights in CA know the past four years have been exhausting and very costly. We fought the battle alongside several other gun rights organizations, but lost the fight when "Girlie Man" Schwarzenegger folded under the political pressure and signed AB-50.

[TexasCowboy]

Hey, Arnie!

If you're scared of the .50, these gals can show you how it's done!

[TexasCowboy]

Ping for the continuing battle.

[Texas Songwriter]

Can you plink with a 50 caliber rifle?

[TexasCowboy]

LOL!

Boy, that would be a loud PLINKKKKKKK!!

[simka]

Subject: Barrett rifle controversy
To whom it may concern,
I am 73 years old and remember the post WW2 years with considerable clarity. I remember that in the late forties many magazines carried an ad for surplus anti-tank rifles of foreign manufacture. The rifles were single shot bolt action and fired a 12+mm. ( 50 cal) bullet. The rifles sold for $28.00 + S&H and came with military sling and cleaning kit. Only armor piercing bullets were available at the then outrageous price of $.35 each, far too rich for my pocket.
Thousands of these rifles must have been sold as the mail order ads were as common as those selling “Cloverine” or Charles Atlas’ “Dynamic Tension” exercises. To make my point, weapons that closely parallel the Barrett have been in circulation in this country for more than fifty years without incidence.

[26lemoncharlie]

Of course, you just use 55 gal drums!!

[TexasCowboy]

"weapons that closely parallel the Barrett have been in circulation in this country for more than fifty years without incidence."

Thank you.

I keep hearing that there was one incident somewhere, onetime, someplace, but I've never seen the actual account.

[TexasCowboy]

The VIPER XL-50:

[the conservative bean]

http://www.thesouthern.com/articles/2005/01/10/opinions/voice_of_the_southern/doc41e12b82a5356926852367.txt Too often we have seen outside influences try to exert pressure to restrict our rights. And it would appear those efforts are for all of the wrong reasons.
keep up the fight!

[TexasCowboy]

"Too often we see high-minded, self-serving politicians blame guns for societal ills and fight to take away a citizen's right to bear arms."

Dead on!

[TexasCowboy]

"Of course, you just use 55 gal drums!!"

Filled with gasoline hit with incendiaries!

Makes a nice plink!

[26lemoncharlie]

Very active imagination, and a great idea instead of all those damn birthday candles, and the Fire Company just eating cake and drinking a beer! Thanks!! It will be a happy birthday!!

[TexasCowboy]

Gunner's letting his beard grow.

[Squantos]

I have a Dakota long bow in 338 lapua mag that I can make better hits with than my M82A1........Yet they want my .50 ?

Stupid polidiots and their pandering presstitutes piss me off........idiots !

Phucm !

[VeniVidiVici]

Can you plink with a 50 caliber rifle?

No. You plink with a .22. You PLUNK with a .50.

Anybody try one of those .50cal uppers for the AR-15? I'm too cheap to get a Barrett (though it's beginning to look like it may be a good investment).

[TexasCowboy]

The thousand yard range at Quantico:

[TexasCowboy]

"(though it's beginning to look like it may be a good investment)."

Any big bore gun is a good investment right now if you have a place to bury them.

That's what they're going after.

[VeniVidiVici]

Any big bore gun is a good investment right now if you have a place to bury them.

Speaking of which, you ever get one of those S&W 500s?

[Brad’s Gramma]

He has information that Colorado will probably be our next battleground.

Fight it everyone...fight long and hard.

[oldenuff2no]

I do not shoot a 50 caliber rifle. I'm a accuracy nut, but I don't need the big cannon to get what I want. Most of the long range records are not held by the big 50 cal. That is some politicians fantasy, then when you add a couple of not so honest, ballistic ignorant journalist you have a story. The story may sound good, even good enough to get a law passed, but it is a crock of the type that could only be concocted in some capital building someplace by politicians who are short on integrity and who are desperate to get their names on an anti gun bill that sounds good and will catch the publics eye.
But the story, and the Bill is still a crock.
What is true is that most premium bolt action rifles in any one of several different calibers can be modified to shoot 8 inch groups at a half mile. By the time you buy a great hunk of glass to put on top of it, the whole set up will cost you under $3,000 and never raise an eyebrow from anyone you buy the pieces and parts from. The gum smith that tricks out the rifle and mounts the glass will know that you want a accurate rifle, and he will appreciate your knowledge in how to get it that way, but he has customized many rifles in this way, so he won't think much about it.
The part of this scenario that is difficult is finding someone who can shoot at this level. This is the type of shooting is where you have to know everything about the shot. Exactly how long it is, the angle of the shot, how many degrees up or down the target is as compared to straight and level. Someone who can do the geometry of the bullet flight in their head, a Man who is good at doping the wind and who has a good steady hand with the 2oz trigger. As you sand bag the rifle in preparing for your shot, all eyes are on the target a half mile away. As you snuggle down into your rifle, continually watching the wind flags to make sure that any changing data is recognized, considered, and compensations are made, you have your nerves under control and are slowing and synchronizing your heart beat. When your finger caresses the hair trigger your body and mind must be calm and quiet as if you are dead. That final light touch of the trigger must be between heartbeats and cause no movement of the rifle at all with the exception of the blast of noise and muzzle jump. The muzzle brake takes care of most of the movement and localizes the noise. The target will never hear the explosion within the cartridge contained within the rifle a half mile away and less than one half second before the spiraling bullet bisects the center of mass of the selected target. The second bullet can be launched just as much accuracy within a few seconds. No 50 Caliber rifle that I know of has ever been used in a crime. As far as I know, none of the people who shoot this cannon have ever been trained to shoot at people or use this 25 + lb cannon to hunt with. It's much too heave to pack around. These huge 50 caliber monsters are few and far between. The rifles I described above are exist by the thousands all across our country for the purpose of long range hunting and long range shooting. They are totally legal and a blast to shoot. The politicians in this country need to get real and be honest in what they are trying to do.