what sort of damage does the .50 BMG do to living beings?

[briandg]

It can't possibly be as destructive as we have been led to believe. The thing has a meplat the size of a grain of sand, a needle profile, and should squirt right through meat like it wasn't even there, leaving no more damage behind than any good hunting round with expanding bullets.

Anyone have actual evidence of what it does on human or big game? Sure, I could go to the internet and go through the pages of reports by possibly unreliable sources, but I'd like to see a discussion here.

[Dragon breath]

https://youtu.be/PsD64KkCBFs

https://youtu.be/okn_OS9twok

[Model12Win]

Well according to the internet the .22LR does more damage since the .22 penetrate the skull or body and bounces around essentially liquefying it.

.50 BMG will blow your arm off even if the bullet misses you by a yard or more because of the massive shock trauma pressure wave from the hypersonic bullet.

Or something.

[kenny53]

Looking at the two videos shared by Dragon's Breath I would have say those deer went from standing to DRT in 1/2 second.

[briandg]

just to be clear, this isn't a troll post.

[stagpanther]

I've heard of people passing out trying to carry one long distance.

[Charlie98]

When I was in the Army, I was told not to shoot people with the .50 cal... it's purpose was to disable or destroy equipment... so I aimed for their canteen. All I know is I wouldn't want to be hit by a .50BMG... whether or not it hit something internally or passed on through. 650+ grains of anything travelling 3000fps or thereabouts isn't something you can stand back up from.

[briandg]

Now those two deer shots are what I wanted to see, actual information. I didn't expect to see the sort of damage there. but the question remains, what the heck was the ammunition? The first was ripped wide open, but still not as badly damaged as some the fakes that are running around you tube can be. The second was even able to run. Neither deer had its spine snapped in half and you couldn't see through either of them.

Then there is the solo cup video.

https://youtu.be/YrHpe5Z93wM?t=170

This guy ostensibly shot one through a stack of flimsy plastic cups, but the shock wave of the supersonic bullet didn't affect them?

I didn't expect so see the absolutely devastated meat in the back sides. I alway thought that it was a lie whenever I heard people talk about the great big eight inch exit wounds that they got on deer with their .30-30 or such.

I studied dead guy photos while in police academy. Not so many people with their intestines shredded and dragged for fifty feet by a magic bullet.

[briandg]

When I was in the Army, I was told not to shoot people with the .50 cal... it's purpose was to disable or destroy equipment... so I aimed for their canteen. All I know is I wouldn't want to be hit by a .50BMG... whether or not it hit something internally or passed on through. 650+ grains of anything travelling 3000fps or thereabouts isn't something you can stand back up from.

My brother in law was in the marines, in the rifle competition team. He had some training with sniping, not modern, but the sort of sniping done back in the sixties.

He was told that same thing, equipment only, but every time someone said that they also reminded him that helmet and uniform, even the zipper on the guys johnson cover was part of his equipment. So he was told that shots to the head had to be aimed at his hat or his army issued sunglasses.


I'm certain that he was joking about most of it.

[TXAZ]

I have a Barrett .50BMG, and the answer to your question depends on the round and what you hit.
In soft tissue, a FN 5.7 will make an entry wound 1/2 the diameter of a .50 BMG, and about 5-10X the area of a ball or AP round. One reason for this is with non-expanding, non-explosive ammo, the .50 BMG has so much energy it generally go through a soft tissue without dissipating all of it's massive energy, unlike the expanding 5.7 below. However, the hydrostatic shock wave from a .50 BMG is still massive, even without expansion.

Here's the entry side of a Graingers catalog. The smallest holes are FN 5.7, the slightly larger are 9mm, the largest entry are 12.7mm / .50BMG

On the exit wound side, the solid circled exit wound is the FN 5.7, and the dashed circles are the .50BMG exit wounds. The square box on the left is the 9mm.



You can do that kind of damage with a .50 out past 1,000 yards, but not likely with the 5.7 past a few hundred.

If you assume larger American game animals have similar tissue to your "living beings", it still depends.

If you hit something hard, like a large bone or skull, the result is likely splintering of the bone with massive internal trauma from the 10-12Kft-lbs of energy passing through. (FYI In the case of the Volvo engine, it's about a 5/8" entry and a 2" diameter exit.) In a living thing... I'm not specifically going there but the effects are significantly greater (5-6 times muzzle energy) than a widely published shot made with a 6.5×52mm Mannlicher-Carcano Model 91/38 made in November 1963.

And, if you find a .50BMG with a Mk211 ("Raufoss") round and the target is behind a hard object like a cinder block wall, (or a large deer / moose standing behind a 3" tree) it's going to look like a shotgun entry and exit at very close range. Otherwise the Mk211 acts like ball ammo in soft tissue.

I have had some US sniper acquaintances who have indicated the .50 will sever an arm inside of a mile with a square hit in the bicep without body center of mass contact.


Finally, there are some .50 BMG hunting rounds, but not many. If you were using those, the effects above might be amplified.

I wouldn't recommend being in the line of fire if at all possible.

[DAP9101]

Meplat? A little French lingo there. I have never seen or heard that word used until now. Anyway, the .50 BMG does major damage to things living and not living. A grazing shot to a human would be bad and a direct hit on a limb would sever that limb. A head shot would remove most if not all of the head. IMO it occupies that transitional area between heavy machine gun and light cannon. If I were to have to dispatch a T. Rex and other large dangerous beasts on that order it would be ideal, almost necessary. As the others have noted, the .50 BMG was intended to defeat lightly armored assets, such as aircraft, light tanks, small buildings, unarmored ships, etc.

[reynolds357]

The 50 BMG is vicious. Does not matter whether or not bullet expands.

[TXAZ]

Originally Posted by reynolds357

The 50 BMG is vicious. Does not matter whether or not bullet expands.

Hardly. People can be vicious, tools can't be vicious. Vicious requires a hateful mind.

[PatientWolf]

What kind of damage to a living being?

It turns them into a non-living being.

[EIB0879]

Originally Posted by Charlie_98

When I was in the Army, I was told not to shoot people with the .50 cal... it's purpose was to disable or destroy equipment... so I aimed for their canteen. All I know is I wouldn't want to be hit by a .50BMG... whether or not it hit something internally or passed on through. 650+ grains of anything travelling 3000fps or thereabouts isn't something you can stand back up from.

We were told the same thing when calling in WP. Helmets and pistol belts in the open, fire for effect.

[TXAZ]

The Army and Marine snipers I know who served in Afghanistan and other places had no problem putting .50's on CoM targets at 1 mile+. Both claimed there was no actual prohibition, just a myth.

https://www.mca-marines.org/gazette/killing-myth

[TXAZ]

Originally Posted by Model12Win

...
.50 BMG will blow your arm off even if the bullet misses you by a yard or more because of the massive shock trauma pressure wave from the hypersonic bullet.

...

Totally untrue. Mythbusters did a show on that. If that were the case, paper targets from 100 - 1,000 yards would be torn and shattered, and that doesn't happen.
Here's a first-timer's 100 yard target @ 100 yards with a .50 BMG, 660 gr, 2800 fps / 10,000+ft-lbs of energy.


The muzzle brake blast from a 'shark" type brake *WILL* make you take a step back if you're within 3-5 feet, but there is no 'killer .50 BMG shockwave".

[TXAZ]

Originally Posted by stagpanther

I've heard of people passing out trying to carry one long distance.

At 35-60 lbs plus ammo, yea, that might be right on a hot day.

[briandg]

Dap, Meplat is french, it means flat, and it is what the very point of the bullet is called. There really aren't many bullets that have needle sharp points, they are all rounded off for flattened to at least a small degree. A lead bullet point will be banged around, so the things are usually slightly rounded or they have a flattened point. Until remington, and then nosler created the hard tipped bullet, we couldn't really use a hunting quality bullet with a needle sharp point.

When you see a match grade hollow point, it's a curious thing. It's not an expanding hunting hollow point. The jacket is actually stretched forward and there is an empty spot behind the tip. The jacket is crimped down as sharply as you can, closing it off. The empty space allows the bullet to be longer.

The ballistic coefficient depends on weight, diameter, length, and profile. By adding a soft plastic point and a bit of empty space in a tipped bullet it can be the same shape and size as a much heavier bullet of only lead and jacket.

Short and simple explanation. Not much help, but that's what you get.

[briandg]

I don't give half of a penguin's fart that the recoil of one of the things isn't any more significant than that of an ordinary hunting rifle. You're touching off almost 250 grains of powder and that thing has got to have a blast.

[jonnyc]

"so I aimed for their canteen"

HAHHH!!! Still laughing at this! In the IDF we were taught that it was for shooting through stuff to get to the guys/equipment behind. No need to waste those big rounds on a meat bag, unless it was behind something big and solid.

[T. O'Heir]

"...It can't possibly be as destructive as..." Think in terms of the physics. It's a 710 grain bullet(standard M2 Ball ammo) at ~ 2,800 fps. Very big things going fast. Very big things going fast that were designed to destroy soft skinned vehicles and penetrate 3/4" of armour plate at 600 yards. Never mind people.
http://www.smallarmsreview.com/displ...darticles=3055
1000 x 1333 pixels is too big.

[603Country]

I’ll share a real world data point. My cousin has a 50. Naturally he needed to hunt with it, so he shot a doe (150ish pounds) at approx 600 yards. Later I saw the pictures. The doe was in chunks - the front half, the second half, and misc chunks. At that time he was shooting Hornady AMax.

[Rockrivr1]

I have a Serbu BFG50 50 BMG. I'll have to look for it, but I have a video of me shooting a pumpkin at 100 yards. The entrance wound was just the size of the projectile. The back side though was completely blown out. Most of the inside guts of the pumpkin were now outside of it with nothing but a gaping ragged hole in the back. This was just an everyday, soft pumpkin. Nothing even closely related to a human or animal. If the 700 plus grain round can do that to a pumpkin no living animal is going to get up after being hit by it.

[Wyosmith]

In flesh and bone the exits look a lot like those you'd see from a 378 Weatherby soft point, but if the bullet hits something first (like the walls of trucks and troop trailers, the ones I speak of were Russian made I believe. ) the bullets can yaw or tumble some and those are the ones that look like someone was hit with a large piece of a shell frag. It's gory and dramatic. I know. This statement is not from reading someone else's report.

I know the bullets were sideways or tipped because you could see the exist from the sheet metal, and they were tears, not round holes.

It's not pretty, I can assure you. But not a supersize either. A 7.62 NATO that is tipped when it hits a man is a lot messier then one that hits point on. A 50 is no different. Just bigger. When it comes to splashing flesh, it's a lot bigger.

If a 5.56 or a 7.62 looses half to 3/4 of it's velocity when it hits something and tips, it's still dangerous, but the effects are not as bad as they can be when it is going a lot faster.

A 50 BMG round may get tipped, but unless it goes through a big tree or some fairly thick metal it doesn't loose that much speed, owing to it's size. And even if it hits something and slows down to 1/3 of it's impact speed it's still a bullet that is 1/2" around, 2" long and going as fast as a 45 auto is at the muzzle. Getting hit by one sideways is not going to be nice.

They are very impressive.