Gunmaker Arms the Military and the Stars

ap ^ | Nov 25, 11:21 AM EST | ROSE FRENCH

[Riley]

How does one avaoid breaking or dislocating one's shoulder when firing this thing?

It's not anything like as rough as one might think. The recoil comes at you kind of gradually- it is more of a long push. My .300 is worse.

[WBL 1952]

Well, if you had 1,000 Barretts lined up, SOMEBODY would have to hit it, right? But then I guess the terrorists, lacking 1,000 men, would say "Let's just call Muhammed and have him send us a machine gun and bring it in from Mexico on the back of illegals". Then Abdul would say "Muhammed, you silly man, for that kind of money we can get a shoulder SAM from Saddam!" Then Muhammed would have to tell Abdul the bad news about Saddam.

[Riley]

When U.S. soldiers need to penetrate a tank's armor from a mile away,[...]

Clueless idiot.

[CommandoFrank]

has drawn a customer base of gun enthusiasts, Hollywood actors

This surely must be a typo...

[Richard-SIA]

"made their way to terrorists, drug cartels and survivalists."

Equating "survivalist" with terrorist and drug cartels!
I'm surprised they forgot to throw in "Militia's".

For the record, "Survivalist" and legitimate "Militia" are honorable and necessary components of the U.S. citizenry.

This supposed article seems very familiar, I think it's mostly written by the anti's, and regurgitated every few month's.

[1066AD]

A while back someone posted pics of a women's 50 cal shooting club, all shooting these things !

[rellimpank]

--as an aside to this, in both the European and Pacific theaters of war in WW2, approximately 12000 rounds of .50BMG ammo were expended per enemy plane shot down--and that was trained, aimed shooting--

[chadwimc]

It's recoil is stout. But, the muzzle blast is tremendous. You can't have innocent bystanders anywhere near the piece when its fired. Barret uses a really neat shock absorbing recoil pad filled with some liquid(mercury?) Barret's rifle is not the first of its kind. Most armies of Europe developed similar rifles during WWI. As for "...bringing down helicopters...". The Hajis had no trouble bringing down Soviet helicopters in Afghanistan. They used regular, old bolt action rifles designed a hundred years ago...

[Richard-SIA]

Actually, I know a couple of handicapped guys who hunt Antelope with a .50

They use .30 bullets Saboted to .50

Their grandsons drive them to the top of a ridge, then they sit in their wheel-chair and wait. When the game comes in range they bag it.

Load up and drive to the downed game.

Not the way I want to hunt, but so far I still have a choice.
But given the way my back is deteriorating, I may be doing the same in a couple more years.

[Riley]

It's obvious that these critics do not have any understanding about the resolving of the target solution in an air defense problem. IOW's, when the bullet gets to where the the aircraft was when the shooter shot, the aircraft will not be there. The aircraft has moved on, unharmed and will continue to do so.

True. I gather that they think that airplanes are a good deal sturdier than they are, as well. A lot of aircraft can be penetrated with a screwdriver and a forceful stab. Airliners and corporate jets can be damaged- assuming you could hit the thing to begin with- by virtually any small-arms fire.

But then, a lot of jouralists are far to busy doing more important things that doing their homework or finding out what the facts are. They're raising awareness.

[GladesGuru]

"--as an aside to this, in both the European and Pacific theaters of war in WW2, approximately 12000 rounds of .50BMG ammo were expended per enemy plane shot down--and that was trained, aimed shooting--

But, don't you understand the nice gun grabber at all? That Barrett will be fired by an Arab terrorist - and the nice gun grabber says the nasty terrorist can do it with one shot.

Who are you going to believe? The nice gun grabber or some historical data posted on the Internet?

;-)

[Armedanddangerous]

The 50 is lethal on some soviet era military vehicles, such as the BMP.

But then, these aren't main battle tanks, but just armored trooper carriers on tires.

Some people have used the Barrett to hunt the really big elephants in Africa. It is also a one-shot stopper on Rhinos, or so they say.

On some of the ammunition selling sites on the web, you can get commercially reloaded 50 for as little as two bucks per round.

[George Smiley]

Barretts, as I recall, cost a bit more than 8K.

[George Smiley]

They have rather serious muzzle brakes on them which dampen the recoil considerably.

[George Smiley]

The Hajis had no trouble bringing down Soviet helicopters in Afghanistan. They used regular, old bolt action rifles designed a hundred years ago...

Not against armored Hinds.

Does the word "Stinger" ring a bell?

[Larry Lucido]

Well, of course the stars buy them. They're elite and therefore exempt from the laws they prescribe for everyone else. Duh!

[DTogo]

The crew I hunt with were just talking about that a few weeks ago, if there are tree stands available with wheelchair "lifts" for when we all get older. That's really cool that your friends don't let their handicap get in the way of enjoying the great outdoors.

[Paul_Denton]

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (AP) -- When U.S. soldiers need to penetrate a tank's armor from a mile away, they count on a weapon that evolved from the garage tinkering of a former wedding photographer.

Utter BS!!!

[Paul_Denton]

"I don't understand what good a .50-caliber is going to do you," King said. "I don't understand any civilian use of it. The only thing it's good for is for military or police application. You can't really hunt with it because it would destroy most of the meat."

Obvious the he never heard of the second amendment.

[Paul_Denton]

Wish I could afford one !

Me too! :)