Deputy Says .50 Sniper Rifle Found Near Olympic Venue 'a serviceable weapon'

Utah Standard-Examiner Newspaper ^ | February 3, 2002 | Matthew Flitton

[codebreaker]

The condition of the .50 caliber gun found 5 miles from the Soldier Hollow Olympic Venue is under debate.

Governor Mike Leavitt said Saturday he was told the weapon had no link to the Winter Olympics.

"It was rusted and did not appear to be operable," Leavitt said.

That information contradicted the observations of Wasatch County Deputy Rick Benson, who took possession of the weapon from a hunter who found it January 26 while hunting coyotes in the hills above Wallsburg.

"It doesn't look brand new, but it looks to me like a servicable weapon, " he said.

The hunter who wished to remain anonymous, also said the gun had papers dating back to 1992, indicating it was not an old weapon.

The gun often used by military and police as a sniper rifle becuase of its power, is currently being tested in the state crime lab.

[mistaken1]

I bet it is the same .50 BMG assembled by the BATF in the Maadi Griffen case. Somebody was promoted for saving money by reusing evidence!

[Travis McGee]

Since Algore closed the last US tungsten mine and sold off our entire strategic reserve for ready cash ("reinventing government") we now depend entirely on China for tungsten.

So don't worry, there won't be too many tungsten cored .50 SLAP rounds made.

[Squantos]

I've indeed used the SLAP and Raufaus HEI .50 caliber rounds and the 7.62 and 5.56 versions of the slap. I know the M82A1's and AMAC/Daisy sniper rifles we used had to have a chamber cut for the early slap rounds that didn't have a tapered sabot. They were like a dowel with a projectile sticking out and they would'nt work in an unmodified weapon.

There was even a round for the 9mm that had a black tungsten "drill bit" (for a better description) in a white sabot that would punch an engine block and body armor from an M9. USAF Security Forces wanted to give em to their gate guards and entry controllers. I don't know what happened to that project but the concept was valid IMHO for a staggered load.

I think (therefore I am :o) that standard DODIC AP and APIT always did the trick as were talking .50 BMG here......... Stay Safe Steve !

[harpseal]

I have no doubt about the .50 cal round being able to do extensive damage at even 2,000 yards. My doubts were as to accuracy on a target at 8,800 yards. % miles or more is an awfully long shot for anything that does not count as artillery. Stabilizing a rifle to shoot accurately at that distance is not something very many people can accomplish with their bare hands.

Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown

[Rebelbase]

You ought to email that mininuke .50 jpg to the anti-gun groups, I bet some of them are dumb enough to hold a press conference condemming the thing.

[Redbob]

"He found a fifty and turned it over to the police? Gotta be nuts."

Alternate explanation 'A':
Huntered feared he was being watched or followed when he found it.
By Arabs?
By Utah SState Police?
I'd have turned it in too!

[Redbob]

"Whatever happened to "one shot, one kill."

This one's too easy:
386 shots, 386 kills!

[Noumenon]

Someone set up us the bomb.

Or at least the .50.

[RightWhale]

2. Some anti-govt type hid it from the gun-grabbers and then died or forgot it

Too bad there was no one in his family he could have willed it to after he passed on.

[from occupied ga]

I may be way out of the loop on this, but I was under the impression that you could still get Raufoss "general purpose" ammunition.

Nope, only if you have a source that stole it from the military. It is verboten by the federal gun gestapo for citizen use.

[archy]

In case you weren't kidding about the painting on the bullets, that's a means of identifying what type of projectile it is. .50BMG is a machine gun round, usually belted for use in military weapons. The identifying codes are bands of different colors painted on the projectile.

Having anything other than standard ball ammunition suggests that the weapon had military issue rounds stored with it.

Though the markings and coding has varied over the years since Mr. Browning's .50 caliber first made its appearance in the 1920s, the WWII US GI coding remains fairly standard, at least throughout the NATO countries using the .50 caliber, either in the M2 ground and vehicle mount weapons or the M3 aircraft and helicopter heavy MGs. Accordingly, though those codes should never be taken as an absiolute guide, they make a good starting place, as per the following.

[archy]

I agree...this is either a "survivalist cache" OR it's a BATF "plant" designed to raise hysteria and engender more laws against this class of firearm.

God bless those freedom lovin' folks in UTAH...if there is (GOD FORBID!) a terrorist action there which does not involve either planes or high explosives...I hope and PRAY some alert citiznes with concealed firearms are on hand to help shut it down.

Don't forget that Draper, Utah is the home to the 19th Special Forces Group, the SF contingent of the Utah National Guard. Aside from *disposing of* some unit property that remained after an *off the books* mission or eveluation, I'd expect that officially and unofficially, those folks have cached enough equipment here and there all over Utah to support AT LEAST a full battalion in the field for a year or more, and possibly more when you consider how long they've been at it.

A ten-year-old .50 rifle? That could as easily be a leftover from when George Bush I was giving them to such friends as Osama bin-Laden to kill Russians with in Afghanistan or a remnant from the Utah-based mine clearing company that had hoped to pick up contracts with the United Nations-and maybe they did....

Say, aren't a lot of the senior FBI agents supposed to be Mormons from Salt Lake....

suspicious characters who hide weapons in the Utah desert meet here....*

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

Oh yeah, i forgot, one must be mentally unstable to believe the government would plant something to advance an agenda......
Glad to see those lynx are moving into new areas....

That's got to be the quote of the week!

[EternalHope]

You ought to email that mininuke .50 jpg to the anti-gun groups, I bet some of them are dumb enough to hold a press conference condemming the thing.

Whatta ya mean? Mine works fine. They can use me as an example in the press conference.

I fire off one-handed snap shots to bring down condors at 5 miles (hard on the wrist, though).

I also shoot whales with it while I'm scuba diving. It's tricky because they spook so easily, and I have to get within two miles. So I usually fire on sound only.

(Missed and hit a Greenpeace boat once, but that's a different story.)

[EternalHope]

Dont you mean: "Missed" and hit a Greenpeace boat once, but that's a different story.......

LOL!

[Twodees]

Thanks, Archy. I'm printing that chart out.