Posted on 05/06/2005 4:31:48 PM PDT by 45Auto
For a company that packs so much heat, Serbu Firearms keeps a low profile.
There's no sign on its front door. The place is unobtrusively tucked in a row of auto body shops in a no-frills industrial park next to the Veterans Expressway in Town 'N Country.
Nothing would tip you off that, behind that unmarked door, local entrepreneur Mark Serbu and his crew are manufacturing powerful .50-caliber rifles, right on the edge of what's legal.
"This is the biggest, baddest gun you can buy without a special license," said Serbu, 43. "It's like having control of lightning in your hand."
Business is booming nicely. The company was flooded with orders from California just before the sale of these guns was banned there. Serbu expects other states to follow suit, one by one.
The .50-caliber rifle is one of the most-discussed legal weapons on the market today. Gun control advocates contend that the rifles could be used to shoot into oil refineries, airplanes or armored vehicles from thousands of feet away, making them ideal weapons for terror.
Gun enthusiasts say that's ridiculous. They say these rifles are used only in precision target-shooting competitions; that the guns are not used in crimes because they're too heavy and unwieldy; and that terrorists intent on wreaking havoc are far more likely to use bombs, black market machine guns or rocket-propelled grenades.
As for Serbu, he makes no apologies and sleeps quite soundly. He recently took his five employees to Hooters for lunch to celebrate the sale of their 1,000th gun.
He matter-of-factly explains that he runs a perfectly legal, federally licensed, constitutionally protected business.
"It's tough having a gun company because people think I'm a lunatic, and insurance companies don't want to provide the coverage I need," he said. "You don't get any respect at all."
His customers, he says, are simply high-end gun buyers all over the country who are into long-range target shooting. They find him through his Web-site or his ads in gun magazines like Shotgun News or Very High Power, a magazine for .50-caliber shooters.
***
Serbu comes across as a fairly normal guy who lives with his wife and two kids in Countryway. But he'll cheerfully tell you he has been a gun nut since he was 4.
"When I was 4 years old, my Christmas list asked for a gun with "real shooting bullets,"' he said.
The particular type of gun he sells is a relatively new invention.
In World War II, the Browning machine gun, or BMG, still popular today, fired a lot of .50-caliber bullets with little accuracy. Then in the early 1980s, a Tennesseean named Ronnie Barrett crafted a rifle that fired the same powerful bullets, one at a time but with much more accuracy.
Thus was born the modern .50-caliber BMG rifle, now being marketed by Barrett, Serbu and a host of other small companies. Its bullets are more destructive on impact than ammo from other rifles.
"The first time someone shoots a .50-caliber rifle," Serbu said, "they usually yell out some kind of expletive."
Serbu's product is called the BFG-50. (He has a subversive sense of humor; BFG is an acronym for a phrase that can't be printed in a family newspaper.)
It's a single-shot rifle that's about 4 feet long, weighs 22 pounds and costs $2,195. With the gun mounted on a two-legged stand and equipped with a telescopic sight, a skilled marksman can shoot accurately up to 1,000 yards, or more than a half-mile.
Why so much firepower?
For fun, Serbu says.
"Guns are like jewelry for men. Guns are to men what shoes are to women," he said. "People say, what do you need that for? But it's like Ted Nugent says: We don't need Corvettes that go 150 mph. This is America, the land of excess."
To unwind, he'll take one of his .50-cals up to the Hernando Sportsman's Club, an 80-acre shooting facility off U.S. 19 near Weeki Wachee.
At big gun ranges like that all over the country, serious .50-caliber shooters compete in 1,000-yard matches, taking aim at faraway targets as pennants track which way the wind is blowing.
"People who haven't shot don't realize how fun it is," Serbu said.
***
Serbu Firearms is a cramped two-story building near Tampa International Airport. Stuff is wedged into every corner.
The first floor looks like any machine shop, except for the stacks of steel gun barrels.
Rock music plays on boom boxes as men in shorts, T-shirts and work boots operate lathes and milling machines and welders. An engraving device carves serial numbers onto heat-treated steel. It's not a store; you can't walk in and buy a gun.
Upstairs is the office, where Serbu takes orders via phone and e-mail. Serbu earned a mechanical engineering degree from the University of South Florida in 1990. He taught himself to design guns and has been in business since 1996.
The .50-caliber rifle is a specialty weapon for a limited market. The major gun companies don't make them. But the nation is dotted with small companies like Serbu's.
There are four licensed gun manufacturers in Hillsborough County alone, 15 in Pinellas County and 94 in Florida, said Carlos Baixauli, a Tampa-based agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
"Some of these are small mom-and-pop companies," the ATF agent said. "But just because they have a license doesn't mean they're actually manufacturing firearms."
Serbu is sticking with his niche market.
"A company like Smith & Wesson, Winchester, Remington - for them, selling 15,000 guns a year is an abysmal failure," Serbu said. "For us, if we sell 200 a year, we're happy."
Still, with business growing, he's looking to move into larger quarters.
"I just bought land in Drew Park with all the money California put in my pocket," he said. "It wasn't until those idiots banned my gun that I could afford it."
"Those idiots," as he describes them, are California lawmakers, who outlawed the sale of .50-caliber rifles in that state as of Jan. 1.
Californians can own one if they bought it before then. So Serbu was deluged with orders.
"We took in six figures in about three weeks," he said. Based on his previous annual sales in California, he figures he sold 20 years' worth of rifles there in three months.
Lawmakers in at least six other states - Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Virginia and Washington - have considered banning the guns, but haven't done so. And it hasn't been an issue in Florida.
The argument against .50-caliber rifles is that they're too powerful and that terrorists could use them to target planes or fuel depots.
"If you do a Google search for a gun that can shoot down aircraft, this is the gun that'll pop up on your search," said Peter Hamm, a spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "It's a great tool for the military, but there's no legitimate reason it should be available to the wider public."
Gun rights advocates say that argument stokes fears of terrorism to push an antigun agenda.
"The hijackers of September 11th were not armed with guns," said Kelly Hobbs, a spokeswoman for the National Rifle Association. "Banning firearms commonly used by law-abiding citizens is not an effective means to combat terrorism."
People on both sides of the debate agree that .50-caliber rifles won't be banned nationwide in the near future.
In fact, Congress allowed a 1994 federal assault weapons ban to expire last September; the law had banned 19 types of semiautomatic firearms that are now legal again.
Still, Serbu expects other places to begin following California's lead. "State by state," he said.
He predicts he'll get an influx of cash every time a state outlaws his guns and people buy them before the ban takes effect.
But over the long term, his market would be taken away piece by piece until nothing is left.
"But by then," he said, "I'll be retired."
-- Times correspondent Tracy Small contributed to this report.
I am sure I read where Carlos Hathcock used one with a scope for sniping.
I want one!!!
A minor correction to the article:
It was not a 'BMG' it was known as a 'BAR' for B-rowning A-utomatic R-ifle', and my Dad carried one in the Pacific theatre, and he told me that the Japs would always direct their fire at the BAR-man because they knew how much damage it could inflict on them. Told me that it had such recoil that you generally had to shoot it from a prone position, using a bi-pod, and even then it would dig you into a hole in the ground up to (or even past) your waist.
He did indeed
Great video!
I love this, the man behind the guy firing the weapon seems to react to its recoil. http://www.serbu.com/bfg50firing.mpg
The "legitimate reason" is called "The Constitution", Peter.
Only 232 shopping days before Christmas!
I guess it has no "sporting use"...
How do you say that in German? I forget...
Interesting. This is like the 2d or 3d article I've read about Serbu in the past month or so. Never heard of 'em before that.
Actually they are two entirely different rifles. Your father's B.A.R. fired a smaller 30.06 cartridge. It was a great rifle in its day and a semi-automatic version is available today for $2,850.
It's just a gun.
BUMP!
I do note the blatant equivocation of the Brady spokesman -"If you do a Google search for a gun that can shoot down aircraft, this is the gun that'll pop up on your search," said Peter Hamm...
Of course, it doesn't actually shoot down aircraft, nor has it ever. Nor, really, can it unless you are especially lucky. But that isn't what he said. He only said you'd find it in a Google search...
Yeah. If you did a Google search, you might also think you could build a handheld EMP gun that can disable cars and computers out of $10 worth of Radio Shack parts.
Doesn't make it true.
Yeah. Look at his pantlegs, they are blown back. I think the blast from the muzzle brake hit him. I hope he had his earplugs in. Not a good idea to stand infront of the plane of a muzzle.
I remember that the Basic ROTC course instructor of 40 years ago did not agree with the above assessment. He said the .50 caliber machine gun could be fired one round at a time and, thus employed, was an effective sniper weapon.
I fired the M2 along time ago; once. I don't remember that it cycled that slow.
The book is kinda cheesy, so I'm not sure of it's accuracy.
The M2 has a tripod, if I remember correctly. This is to keep it from inching backwards as it cycles.
The .50 had a single-shot selector and could be mounted with a scope. We used one with a Starlight and it made life miserable for the gooks at night.
Back in '62, in basic training at Fort Ord, I was told that the .50 MG was HIGHLY accurate. And in fact, we were shown a "recoilless rifle" that used a single-shot variant of the .50 MG with a special smoke round as a ranging/spotting device.
I did read a good story about Carlos Hathcock and it mentioned him using that gun. He was really an extraordinary combination of outdoorsman, shooter, and soldier.
Tell that to the Messerschmitt pilots sent to their reward by B-17 gunners armed with .50 cals.
You can also do a web search on the 88 Magnum.
It shoots through schools!
Yes, but do they have a silencer for that?
What he did't say was "If you do a Google search for a gun that can shoot down aircraft, we are the alarmist group saying that that'll pop up on your search,"
The M2 actually has a "knob" that can be adjusted for single/auto settings.
Sure there is:
"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
It ain't about target shooting, except as practice, or duck hunting either.
Yeah! Check out his right pant-leg when it's fired!
Anybody know how the law reads on that?
Personally, I believe one reason for much of the uproar over .50 BMG rifles in civilian hands is that elitist wealthy liberals know that the round can penetrate their custom made armor plated limos. We can't have the unwashed rabble playing around with something like that can we now?
Bonnie and Clyde used sawed-off units.
And it was finally phased out during Vietnam.
BMG stands for Browning Machine gun just as the article stated. John Moses Browning designed the .30 caliber Browning machine gun which I believe carries the 1919 name and also the .50 caliber M2 which is affectionally called the "Ma Duece". The .50 BMG ammunition is what is used in the Serbu and the Barrett rifles. Browning also designed the world's best pistol, the .45 caliber 1911.
There's probably a website that lists all of his designs somewhere.
Why do they make it so easy to catch them in their lies? Or is it that they know the MSM will take their word as gospel and won't make even the tiniest of effort to fact check them.
I don't think the BAR shot .50 cal!
they are talking about something different I think
Ping to ya!
You need to check the National Firearms Act of 1934. that's when the licensing requirement for automatic weapons, destructive devices, silencers, grenades. etc. (class 3) went into effect.
I'd look at the section on antique weapons. Those are treated differently. I could be wrong, but I think you might be able to buy a 20 mm Lahti or Solothurn (WW II anti-tank rifles) without the license required for auto weapons. A 20 mm round is to a .50 BMG cartridge as a .30-06 is to a .22. For some reason the fact it's legal to own a 20 mm has escaped the gun grabbers' attention. A 20 mm round is about 8" to 9" long.
That sentence makes it seem like something evil is going on. It demonizes the shop.
No agendas here, honest.
Nothing would tip you off that, behind that unmarked door, local entrepreneur Mark Serbu and his crew are manufacturing powerful .50-caliber rifles, right on the edge of what's legal.
So, exactly how illegal is it being close to the edge of legal, on the legal side?
I'm glad I don't have that (expensive) problem when I (occasionally) drive slightly (or so) above the legal (too low) speed limit in my (bright red Camaro Z-28 with T-tops down) car. I just (sometimes) cruise along with the flow of traffic (as I wait for the cars to move out of the passing lane).
The Lahtis are really big and heavy guns, much heavier than the .50BMG rifles that are being built now. They came packed in a wooden box with a set of accessories wrapped in oiled paper. There was a warning printed on the inside of the lid to be careful unpacking one of the accessories because it held a strong spring under tension that could lop off a finger if it was handled carelessly.
I don't remember what the selling price was back then, but it would be laughable today. I just wish I had bought one and stored it away, it would probably be worth quite a bit today. Those were the days when the market was flooded with surplus military firearms from all over the world. I bought Enfields for $8.95 and almost like new 7mm Chilean Mausers made by the Oberndorf armory for $12.95. .455 Webley revolvers went for $12.95 and the .38 caliber model went for $8.95.
I just wish I had bought more of those guns and kept them all these years. I only have a Swede Mauser, an Italian Carcano, and an Argentine Sistema .45 left out of all the surplus guns I bought back then. The rest I either traded away for other guns or sold to get money for reloading supplies. Like most of my generation I got too soon old and too late smart.
Have a good Derby Day.
I don't understand your reply, was it meant for me or did you click on my post by mistake? If you are referring to what I said about the armored limos, that is just my opinion and it doesn't imply that anything "evil" is going on. Although, I'm sure that the St. Pete fishwrapper believes the big .50 is evil, just as they believe all guns are evil.
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