Fifties make the politicians nervous. Their security perimeter is less than 2,000 yards, I bet.
I bet the Barrett groups over four feet at 2,000 yards, more like eight feet with that recoiling barrel. I suspect more vertical stringing than that.
I am not an authority on the Barrett's accuracy. Anybody know, really? In practice, not hearsay? At 2,000 yards?
Look up "silouette shooting" of antique rifles...
Even a good sharps can hit a buffulo a 1500 yards...I have it on good authority a semi-auto .50 with a proper scope can be tweaked to 3000 yards by a good shooter...and the group is more like 8 to 12 inches from a bench or bi-pod..not 4 feet
As allways....Your milage may vary.
Way back in the early 60's my brother bought a 20mm Lahti and several hundred rounds of ammo.Now THAT was a powerful weapon.How times have changed-no permits required back then.
Iris7,
I can't speak specifically about the Barrett 82A1 @ 2000 yds, but I have personally consistantly hit bowling pins at 1000 yds.Rig was a Maadi-Griffin with a 10X Tasco Super Sniper scope. Admittedly, this is not a military rig and is tuned for target work, complete with $4/ round target ammo, but my point is that the accurracy required to hit a man sized target at 2000 yds is certainly physically possible.
That said, I've been told that the 82A1 is not a particularly accurrate piece due to it's semi-auto nature. The military also utilizes single-shot .50s for long range work,
As to the question of whether civilians should be allowed to own/posess any and all military weapons, I'd like to put forth an argument I've never seen offered before.
The 2nd states ".......keep and BEAR arms.....".Webster's
defines the pertinant definition of "BEAR" as; (and I quote)
"1. to carry; transport"
Again, that is the only definition Webster offers that is pertinant to the usage of the word "bear" in the Second Amendment.
It seems that the FedGuv may actually have a basis for forbidding their subjects from owning/ possessing any arm that cannot be "borne" (carried).
That said, I am personally in favor of the citizenry's posession of destructive devices. I do think there have to be reasonable limits, but they should not be so low as to prevent the citizenry from being a viable threat to the Fedguv.
Papertyger, could you please direct me to the portion of the Constitution that states "You can't have a private army according to the Constitution". I had always thought the "militia" was origionally envisioned to be comprised of nothing but private citizens.
From what the Marines I know tell me, it'a about 8" at 2000 yards.