New, compact .50 cal rifle

[Fritz_Brown]

That's right, sid: shooting cinder blocks, shooting old engine blocks, interesting experiments from Mythbusters, etc....

 

[eclipse]

Originally posted by Kurega Gikur:
What is the intended modern use for this weapon? I can’t imagine being anything but a long distance sniper rifle. For that I would assume that you would want a longer barrel to allow the charge to burn up.

BTW I am not a gun control nut but what possible purpose could this rifle/cannon serve? Home defense? If that is the case I suggest moving. It seems to me that if you need more than an M-14 you need to move.

As for reloading, I don’t think it will be a problem.
1) If you hit with this weapon, it should die.
2) If it doesn’t die you need air support so just run.

The main cilivian draw to the .50 BMG is that they are a blast to shoot.

It's like my friends with Corvettes and Mustangs. They legally can't take them out of 2nd gear on any public road in the Commonwealth. They are way overpowered for civilian use and very dangerous to the user and others nearby if not handled carefully. A real blast to drive though.

Player Characters like weapons of this size because they blow large holes in things. NPCs, air/rafts, etc.

 

[Uncle Bob]

Remember the XM109 is the Barrett M107 with a 25mm barrel to fire the high velocity grenades of the OCSW (XM307).

Presumably the same thing could be done here.

 

[parmasson]

Take it deer hunting!

Ha! It would be a shoot by 4pm rifle. Any later and the sun would go down before you got the target.

 

[jasper]

I for one would not buy a weapon from that salesman!

 

[MrMorden]

Originally posted by Uncle Bob:
One big problem with a bullpup is the fixed length-of-pull (the distance from the butt plate against the shoulder to the trigger).

Up to recently all shoulder arms have had fixed LOP, but the increasing use of body amor has made this an issue. If you have an adjustable butt-plate to change LOP on a bullpup it loses much of the bullpups advantages.

Let's not forget the "other" problem with a bullpup configuration...the round discharges right next to your head. In the case of a catastrophic weapon failure (i.e. Kaboom, whice DOES happen), if the receiver blows apart it tends to take ears, eyes, and sometimes brains with it.

Scary enough in 5.56mm...in .50 BMG that is a downright horrifying prospect.

 

[Straybow]

:lol: The guy does look a bit too much like Adam Sandler.

I suspect that if a BMG receiver blew it wouldn't make much difference if your head were a hand's breadth farther away. You'd get something blasted into your head either way.

 

[whartung]

Yea, interestingly enough, most complaints about bullpups are ergonomics, rather than anything technical. Bolt, Barrel, Receiver, Trigger -- BANG.

But, save for the actual weight, it's hard to imagine a need for a BMG bull pup.

As was said, the triggers simply suck, and the trigger is a primary component for long range accuracy.

You don't shoot these things off hand, heck you don't shoot these things anywhere save on a rest.

If you want compactness for travel, a folding stock would make more sense than a bull pup. Doesn't affect weight, tho.

Another complaint about bull pups in general is that they have a much shorter sighting distance with the shorter barrel. This is mitigated by optical sights, particularly today, but in the past this was a factor.

Bull pups are "cool", but everything interesting on them are simply in the wrong places.