50 BMG Guys

[PackingDDS]

For those of you with experience with the .50 BMG, which rifle would you choose; the Armalite AR-50 or the Barrett M99? Also, what scope do you have mounted? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[5whiskey]

The Barret, which most Marines belovedly call the SASR (special application scoped rifle). I have an Armalite M15 Carbine, because I got a good deal on it and Armalite's are quality weapons. Their AR30 is one of the best tactical rifles I know of. I wish the Corps would adopt them as a sniper rifle in between the M40 and the SASR. If I were to go with .50bmg, it would be an M2 (a pipe dream for all except Donald Trump) or the Barret.

Scoping it is a trickier matter. The Seals have real good glass on their SASR's (I fired one in Afghanistan), but I don't know who makes it. I don't know who does the rings for the SASR's, either, but it has to be rock-solid. I'm not real experianced with the rifles, just nominal. Most of my experiance is with supporting arms, SMAWs, and 240G. What experiance I do have with sniper rifles is with the M40. I just thought I'd give what little advice I could on the matter.

[Chaingunner]

+1 M2!

[DnPRK]

I don't have an Armalite or Barrett, but do have a Nightforce NXS 5-22x56 with NP R2 reticle on my EDM.

[Teach]

Either are fine rifles, of course you will save enough $$ by buying the AR-50 to afford a nice scope and ammo too.. I have BFG-50, put a Leupold MK4 LRT on it and it is absolutlely the funnest thing to shoot. Check out biggerhammer.net lots of dedicated 50 enthusiasts and advice. Most reccomendf the Nightforce scope if you have the $$$.

[MTMilitiaman]

The AR-50 seems to be designed more as a bench or competition rifle. It is extremely comfortable to shoot. Recoil seems along the order of the .30-30 to me and the blast is worse for the spotter than it is for the shooter. You could really shoot it all day long without any discomfort. However, it is very big and very heavy. It doesn't seem practical for any role in which you can't drive it to your shooting area. The Barrett is much lighter and shorter. Even if recoil is a little more, it would strike me as being more of a practical weapon system. But being easier to transport wouldn't only be handy for military roles, I think anyone could appreciate that. I would go with the Barrett if they offered one of their bolt actions in left hand, but they don't.