Barrett .50 BMG

Am Shooting Journal ^ | 7/6/2017 | J Hines

[jeffersondem]

“and point at your target.”

So said the article’s author.

This is better general advice. When shooting at a flying aircraft from the ground, don’t point at the target. Aim in front of the target. Depending on angle, you may have to aim well above the target too.

When in an aircraft overtaking a slower-moving target from above, don’t aim in front of the target - aim behind the target.

When shooting any weapon at any target at any significant distance, you almost never aim directly at the target.

[laplata]

My dad was the Engineering Officer for a squadron of P-51’s in Burma/China

---

My Dad was also in the CBI Theater of War.

[lefty-lie-spy]

Probably, and most likely. But I don’t know if the Mitchell ejected shells, or what. The B-29s weren’t armed as far as I know. The local museum didn’t have a good explanation either. If it were from airplanes that ejected shells, you’d think there would be hundreds of shells in the same area, but we only found three.

[lefty-lie-spy]

Do you have any sources on that? I’d love to track down what plane or raid they came from if possible.

[jeffersondem]

“Typically, the best shots are taken from a distance of about 900 meters.”

This. Although longer successful shots are not uncommon, the Barrett semi’s like the 82A1 are not tack drivers. The Army only requires the rifles to shoot 2.5 MOAs.

During firing, the bolt moves, the barrel moves, the main action spring moves, and the soldier’s shoulder moves. Everything moves.

Fine gun though. It will send the mail. Right now.

[BlueLancer]

"If it were from airplanes that ejected shells, you’d think there would be hundreds of shells in the same area, but we only found three."

Maybe the rest of the brass was policed up after the war. I mean, I'm sure that there was at least a paying market for used brass and, if you're on the losing side of a war and improverished, even a little bit of money is better than none. Those three might just have been missed ...

[DCBryan1]

Do you have any sources on that? I’d love to track down what plane or raid they came from if possible.

You'll never track down individual shell casings to a particular gun, plane, squadron or raid....thousands if not millions of casings are scattered over Japanese islands, esp after 1944 and all of 1945.

[DCBryan1]

Probably, and most likely. But I don’t know if the Mitchell ejected shells, or what. The B-29s weren’t armed as far as I know. The local museum didn’t have a good explanation either. If it were from airplanes that ejected shells, you’d think there would be hundreds of shells in the same area, but we only found three.

B29s were armed, heavily armed.

Rate of fire+number of machineguns per plane x planes in raid / airspeed = fascinating amount of firepower unleashed for three individual shells to fall and land in a short distance from each other.

[TexasGator]

“Innovations introduced included a pressurized cabin, dual-wheeled, tricycle landing gear, and a remote, computer-controlled fire-control system that directed four machine gun turrets that could be operated by a single gunner and a fire-control officer. A manned tail gun installation was semi-remote. “

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_B-29_Superfortress

[Lurker]

Want one.

L

[Svartalfiar]

The rifle is preferred because of its capacity to fire aircraft, vehicles, and buildings, including enemies hiding behind barriers.

That's pretty cool! Are these full-size vehicles, or just matchbox size? I've seen catapults that can fire this stuff, but never a small, portable firearm that can! Also, does it only fire the enemies, or is the barrier included with each shot?

The Barret .50 BMG rifle is about 5 feet long and is close to 30 lbs. in weight. Most .50 BMG rifles weight over 20 lbs

That's nothing, I had to haul a 240B all over Ft Polk last summer. 33+lbs, not including ammo.

But seriously, is this a Russian magazine translated into English? Every article I've seen posted from them is so bad with grammar and spelling it can't be on accident...

[TexasGator]

A bold star if you can read this from beginning to end ...

http://americanshootingjournal.com/the-worlds-most-powerful-pistol-1847-walker-revolver/

[Joe Boucher]

I love my .308 Cetme’
shoots straight and makes a splash.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

The B-29s weren’t armed as far as I know. The local museum didn’t have a good explanation either. If it were from airplanes that ejected shells, you’d think there would be hundreds of shells in the same area, but we only found three. - lefty-lie-spy

B29s were armed, heavily armed.

Absolutely - until Curtiss LeMay ordered the armament stripped from them to allow bigger payloads of incindiary bombs to be delivered in low-level night raids.

Rate of fire × number of machineguns per plane × planes in raid ÷ airspeed = fascinating amount of firepower unleashed for three individual shells to fall and land in a short distance from each other.

Indeed. You would want the speed to be expressed in feet per minute if the rate of fire is expressed in rounds per minute . . . and the result would be in feet between shell casings. But the speed, technically, should be ground speed rather than airspeed - that is, rate of travel horizontally across the earth. The plane(s) could be steeply climbing or diving, after all.

All in all, fascinating to find even one shell casing, let alone three in casual walking distance of each other.

[Big Red Badger]

Bold Star Here!
Ding..ding..ding!

[Paal Gulli]

Ronnie Barrett was working as a professional photographer when he got the chance to shoot a military-style riverboat with twin M2 Browning machineguns mounted. The idea of the Ma Deuce got its hooks in him and he decided he was going to have one, even if he had to build it himself. That morphed into the idea of a hand-held rifle to shoot the .50 BMG.

He gathered up every book on firearms engineering he could get his hands on, trying to get a handle on just what it would take to build a rifle capable of enduring the power of a .50 BMG round but also capable of being fired off-hand, then he sketched all the big pieces of his design. Barrett had very little experience with fabrication so he sought help with it from the local machine shops. I'll be kind and just say they were less than encouraging. They all turned him down but he did get an acquaintance who was a professional tool and die maker and who also had a mill and a lathe in his garage to agree to help him out. And the two of them set to building the prototype of what was to become the Barrett M82 self-loading recoil-operated .50 BMG rifle in their spare time.


The prototype of Barrett's brainchild on the workbench in Bob Mitchell's one-car garage

I think I see some chewing gum and bobby pins in there. ;) Note the disk-shaped muzzle brake, compared to the later arrowhead-shaped design.


Same prototype, dressed in its big boy pants, configured for the first test firing

This looks like prototypical hillbilly engineering ("Hyar, Clem, hold mah beer fer a sec ....") but the remote firing of a test mule actually is a standard practice in the firearms industry. This was just a low-tech and low-cost means of doing it.

Note the string tied to the bipod and staked to the ground, in case the recoil was more rambunctious than they counted on. Pulling the string on the loud switch put a big grin on Barrett's face because not only did the rifle NOT explode, it cycled properly and barely moved from the recoil.

Initially Barrett sold most of what he built to enthusiasts, even sold a few to the spooks (who smuggled them to the Muj in Afghanistan, where they were in the midst of fighting the Soviet invaders), but it took him a further seven years of essentially peddling them door-to-door and constantly beating the bushes, trying to get people to take notice of what he was building before military elements began buying them in serious numbers.

Altogether it had taken him about 10 years to reach that point, all paid for with his own sweat-equity and from his own pocket. Eventually it also became the first rifle officially adopted by any US military service in more than 50 years, and making Barrett one of only seven men solely responsible for the design of a weapon to be formally adopted by any US service, along with Browning, Stoner, Garand, Thompson, Johnson Jr and Reisling. Pretty damn august company.

I'd love to see King Ubama confront Ronnie Barrett and tell him, "You didn't build that." I'm not sure if he'd spit in his eye of if he'd settle for just laughing in his face.

[Geronimo]

The IRA had a few in their arsenal in the early 90’s and put them to devastating use, particuarly in the border county of South Armagh...

They were very damaging both physically and psychologically to British security forces...there were road signs installed by the Provos warning of being in ‘Goldfinger’ territory...

[Oatka]

The Russians had a similar rifle during WWII, the PTRD-41, firing a 14.5×114mm cartridge. Supposedly used to blow the treads off of tanks so the aretillery could have a crack at immobile targets.

[Big Red Badger]

Giddy-up !

Barrett .50 cal 15k.