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Old October 22, 2010, 12:21 AM   #1
FALacy
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Join Date: August 17, 2009
Posts: 205
How powerful is .50 bmg, really?

My friend and I were discussing how powerful .50 bmg actually is and we seemed to have differing viewpoints. According to Wikipedia .50 bmg is essentially a scaled up 30-06 and its dimmensions are about 60% larger. There is no arguing that it is a very impressive round and as far as I know its energy isn't surpassed by any other commercially available caliber. But how powerful is it really? I've seen videos of pumpkins on Youtube getting hit by .50 bmg and all it left was about a 1.5" diameter entrance wound and a 8" diameter exit out of the rear. I've seen electronics hit by .50 bmg and it simply punched about a ~.75" hole through it. He was under the impression that .50 bmg is powerful enough that even a near miss is enough to destroy the target because of the energy following the bullet as it zips downrange. Is .50 bmg as powerful as the movies make it seem, with limbs getting completely ripped off and bodies split in two?

How powerful is .50 bmg and what kind of effect does it actually have on soft tissue targets, such as a deer? Would it blow a hole a foot wide through the target or rip it in two, like the movies portray?

Last edited by FALacy; October 22, 2010 at 10:01 AM.
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