.50 cal bmg for big game

[bowtekhunter]

has anybody ever herd of anyone using a 50cal bmg rifle on big game? im not even sure if it is leagl in most sates, i just herd some guys talking about using one for big game and it got me thinking....wouldnt this also do some serious damage to whatever you shot?...i mean it seams like you could just hit close and the shrapnel would kill a deer

[CelticWolf]

Why would you want to?

[bowtekhunter]

not that i would even want to i was just wondering if anybody has

[zahnzieh]

A 'Yote Pulverizer' yeahh!!!

[Slamfire]

50 BMG rifles are heavy, like 30 pounds. I am not humping one of those.

A Guide in New Mexico was showing some of the pictures of hunts he guided. One was of an Oryx shot with a 50 BMG. It tore most of the shoulder off the exit side of the Oryx.

Oryx are 700 pound animals.

I am not in favor of 50 BMG rounds and hunting. I suspect that many who take these things "hunting" are just people who want to hit something at ridiculous ranges, and are not concerned about making a clean kill. While it may be “fun” for the person shooting, it is not “fun” for the animal who dies a suffering death.

50 BMG rounds will also travel much further than standard small arms, so those misses at game animals are going to cause trouble downrange.

Which is why my gun club has banned them from our range.

[bowtekhunter]

A Guide in New Mexico was showing some of the pictures of hunts he guided. One was of an Oryx shot with a 50 BMG. It tore most of the shoulder off the exit side of the Oryx.

thats what i thought, wheres the "hunt" in killing a animal from a half mile away?

[jdscholer]

Seems like I remember some hub-bub a few years ago out here in one of our western states about some guys shooting a bunch of elk across a canyon with a Barret .50 cal., and getting no good publicity about it. Maybe someone can remember more about it than my feeble memory does. jd

[cornbush]

There are a couple I know of. I wouldn't, to big and heavy. In Idaho you cannot hunt with a rifle over 16 pounds, 50 caliber is fine but not over 16 pounds. The only 50 I know of under 16 pounds was the Harris Rhino, you shoot it!

[Crankylove]

Seems like I remember some hub-bub a few years ago out here in one of our western states about some guys shooting a bunch of elk across a canyon with a Barret .50 ca

Yep. It was in Northern Idaho. If I remember correctly, it took the two shooters something like 4 hours to hike down and then back up the other side of the canyon to where the animals where. Which is one of the reasons they developed the restriction Cornbush mentioned.

In Idaho you cannot hunt with a rifle over 16 pounds, 50 caliber is fine but not over 16 pounds.

[Mike U.]

While it may be “fun” for the person shooting, it is not “fun” for the animal who dies a suffering death.

Judging from the few animals I've seen shot with a 50 BMG, I have to ask, where's the suffering? They are essentially blown up. Shredded into bite size pieces.:barf:
I just don't see where the 700 lb Oryx suffered much with an exit hole as large as you described.

It tore most of the shoulder off the exit side of the Oryx.

A wound that large would bleed out pretty fast, wouldn't you think? You know, bigger holes bleed more and all that jazz.

I don't condone hunting with a 50 BMG, just sayin'...

[XD Gunner]

While it may be “fun” for the person shooting, it is not “fun” for the animal who dies a suffering death.

What suffering? The sheer force of impact will kill most North American Animals. I'm sure the inertia upon impact has severed spinal cords before. I can see some bubba hunting KY Whitetails with a Barret Model 95, "lookit that deer" BOOOOOOM!!! "Whar'd it go?" <small peices of deer rain down>

[reloader28]

I personally wouldn't even attempt a 50 for hunting. A friend of mine used a 338 Win mag on a little buck last year and all the hide was completely jerked loose on the opposite side. It was basically skinned already. It wasn't a good hit, so he didn't even have a good clean kill.
I have never seen the purpose for these big rifles and this just sealed it for me.
Anyone that thinks you need a 338 or bigger for any game in N America (or Africa for that matter), needs to go back to the targets and practice for a while. If you need something that will knock em down even if you hit them in the leg, apparently you need more practice.
In my humble opinion, anything above 30 cal is overkill.
Thats just my opinion and I know that many will disagree.

[freedom475]

All right,,all right... all this speculation and internet wisdom does nothing for our shared interests... To bait or not to bait... hounds/no hounds... we should not debate this among ourselves and pick fence sides... we all need to be one unified voice against those idiots that would have us all take our guns, kids, dogs, lead, 4-wheelers, and horses and Get Out of the Woods and let the wolves have our game/food source..


I have shot several animals with a 50 and none of them were blown to bits...(well except for the badger I shot with a Frangable..)

One doe that I shot picked her head up and looked around. She then went back to graizing...I thought that I had shot high from the dust cloud raised behind her. About 2 full minutes later she started walking backwards and fell over dead. I couldn't believe it And here I thought there was suppose to be parts raining from the sky and she never even flinched The hole in her ribs was tiny and barely bloodshot.

Long shots with it require very little skill..yeah 800 yrds is still a "Gimme".for just about anyone. I did sell it cause the Sharps is way more fun...and it still shoots real far

No it is NOT hunting.. in my opinion nothing with a scope is. But my tag cost the same as your tag so don't tell me I need to do as you do for it to be OK to fill my freezer.

All that being said I hunt with a Flinlock 54cal, or a Cap&Ball Rem58 a 44 S&W revolver or my 475L... I made one trip this season with my 7Mag.

[taylorce1]

It is legal in Colorado to hunt with the .50 BMG for big game as their is no restriction on the cartridge. The rifles are just too big and heavy to be a popular choice for big game. I know I sure wouldn't want to lug one around very far above 7000 ft.

However I do think Idaho was trying to ban the use of this cartridge for big game hunting. They couldn't ban the caliber because of Muzzle Loaders, so they banned rifles weighing more than 16lbs IIRC. They were more concerned with where the bullet would end up than the animal suffering. Over pentration is an issue when using a cartridge this large.

Cornbush beat me to it!

[jdscholer]

All right,,all right... all this speculation and internet wisdom does nothing for our shared interests... To bait or not to bait... hounds/no hounds... we should not debate this among ourselves and pick fence sides... we all need to be one unified voice against those idiots that would have us all take our guns, kids, dogs, lead, 4-wheelers, and horses and Get Out of the Woods and leLong shots with it require very little skill..yeah 800 yrds is still a "Gimme".for just about anyone. I did sell it cause the Sharps is way more fun...and it still shoots real far

No it is NOT hunting.. in my opinion nothing with a scope is. But my tag cost the same as your tag so don't tell me I need to do as you do for it to be OK to fill my freezer.

You friend, have said it all, and you said it about right. jd

[jmorris]

Dead is dead but most 50 BMG bullets are not designed for hunting. I have had buddys that wanted to use mine for hog hunting "just to do it" but at 42#'s they always seem to chicken out. I to will stick with my model 7, does the job 40+#'s less and I don't have to double plug before I shoot it.

[kraigwy]

Wyoming has a mim cal (.23 or larger) but I dont think they have a max.

I'm lazy so I do most of my hunting with a Winchester Featherweight do I doubt I would want to pack that sucker and my horse would probably kick me if I tried to stuff it down the rifle boot.

So I guess that would leave varments, Yeap thats what I want when I go PD hunting, to shoot a couple hundred rounds @ $4-5 bucks a shot.

[banditt007]

There is a video on youtube with some jackass' hunting deer w/ a .50BMG. as i recall in the video the first shot, they shot over the back of the deer at 70 yards why did that not surprise me? A moron hunting w/ a .50BMG and then not being able to hit the deer ANYWHERE at 70 yards.....hmm who would have thought. Next shot they hit it and it was not spectacular. thing ran away and then dropped. and as i recall everyone on video was astonished that it didn't blow up/drop right there. The fact that it ran did not surprise me i feel like the deer would have had much more damage if shot with a smaller higher velocity round.

Just my thoughts here, but IMO the .50 is not going to explode things like deer when hit in the ribs on a broad side. reason being is that 1) Its not a fast cartridge and 2) even a soft point bullet is so big and heavy that its not going to get much if any expansion w/ the minimal resistance a couple ribs have to offer. surely it is seeing basically no resistance passing through lungs, and then it hits some ribs again and is gone.

Where i think the round would shine would be in a thick tough animal that offers the bullet heavy resistance. such as a shoulder -> shoulder shot on a buffalo (either north american or cape) an elephant ect. I feel it needs to have to travel through heavy bone, thick skin and thick meat to have its anticipated effect.

[Swampghost]

I find this topic comical on a number of levels. Re-read and find the points.

[jughead2]

be sure to salt the bullet so the meat wont spoilbefore u get to it.

[jmorris]

Just my thoughts here, but IMO the .50 is not going to explode things like deer when hit in the ribs on a broad side. reason being is that 1) Its not a fast cartridge

What in the world do you consider fast? Here are some velocities from different bullet weights out of the .50bmg.

640 grain at 3044fps 13,144 ft-lb
655 grain at 3029fps 13,350 ft-lb
700 grain at 2978fps 13,971 ft-lb
800 grain at 2895fps 14,895 ft-lb

Note that even the 800 grain load is going faster than most 200 grain 300 win mag loads.

If they are still on the slow side, back before maddi griffin closed down they had load data for the sabots they sold, that pushed 220 grain .30’s out of a 50 bmg at over 5000 fps.

[FrankenMauser]

There are many references to "not carrying" and "not hauling" a .50 BMG around on a hunt.

That's the whole point!

You sit on top of a ridge, wait for the animal, and pick it off at 1,500 yards.

I have no interest is doing so, but the idea is to get a good view, and wait for the animals to come within striking distance. (Same concept as all you stand/blind hunters, actually.)

[troy_mclure]

ive seen it used on coyotes at 600yd, it looked like fun to me.

[Brian Pfleuger]

If they are still on the slow side, back before maddi griffin closed down they had load data for the sabots they sold, that pushed 220 grain .30’s out of a 50 bmg at over 5000 fps.

Now THAT would be something to see! Can you imagine 220gr "varmint grenade" style bullet at 5000+ fps! Wow!

"Useless" to be sure, but I'd like to see that just once!

[hogdogs]

Considering the "SALE PRICE" of .50BMG is $4+ I wonder what a target specific round would cost? Lets ask Barnes! And yes... just to make sure folks know I am not anti .50 hunting... A prairie dog at 600+ yards with one would be the epitome of RED MIST!!!
Brent