Why I will never own a .50 BMG

riposte191145 said:

I shot a bolt action in .50 BMG once that had a huge muzzle brake. I asked if the brake was removable (because the rifle was sort of sleek for that large a caliber) and the owner said "Sure...wanna try it?".

I think it was Mark Twain who said "Adventure, is the result of poor preparation" - well it was an adventure! the rifle weight about 12 lbs after removing the break and yes it KICKED! I only required one round to convince me the brake worked!

I owned a Fred Wells .510 Wells Express briefly - it was a beautiful gun but it had a 14+" L.O.P. and a 27" heavy barrel and weighed over 14 lbs. The recoil of a 650 gr. bullet at 2300 fps was not horrible but the rifle was so unhandy I traded it to a friend who is 6'5" and weighs 300 lbs! I traded for a 45-120 Sharps - not that kicks!

Later I bought a CZ 550 in .458 Win mag and had it rechambered to .458 Lott (they started chambering for that cartridge just a year later) - but the gun I got weighed 8.5 lbs! It was manageable in .458 WM but when I fired the first few Lotts (500 at 2300!) I saw stars (which indicate detaching a retina) and my right arm went numb! I added 2 lbs of mercury weights to the stock and no it is manageable - barely!

I likely should sell this gun, as I will never make it to Africa and I have plenty enough rilfles for Bear or Moose or Elk but I need something to keep the elephants out of the wife's rose garden...that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

I consider myself a real gun enthusiast but I too will likely never own a .50 BMG (I do have friends who have them, more power to them!).

Riposte

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Jon Foster said:

I'd like to have one. Honestly I'd like to have one for our oldest daughter. She's kind of the gun chick that everyone gathers around at the range. And everywhere else she goes...

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Jon.

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cadillacmike said:

Eight 50s in the P47 Thunderbolt.

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USARV72 said:

P-38’s shot down the most enemy A/C in WWII.

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WWII Fighter Combat Statistics

If you go to warbirds and airshows, there is a table there of U.S. aerial victories. The URL is: Warbirds and Airshows- WWII US Aircraft Victories For many years, we didn't know much about it, but Barrett Tillman recently volunteered that he generated the table using Frank Olynyk's data...

ww2aircraft.net

riposte191145 said:

I knew a guy that was on an M60 in Vietnam (actually I suspect they were operating across the border a little) but he was Army, Come to think on it, perhaps I assumed it was an M-60, it might have actually been an M-48. He said he didn't like the M-551 Sheridan (a sentiment that I've heard from many tankers).

I know some Marines but I have no idea if they had tanks, or if they did, which tanks. I do know a former marine who was in artillery. I do think I've seen pictures of Marines in Vietnam with M-48s.

Don't mean to imply I know a lot about tanks. My Dad worked at the Armor Board at Ft. Knox (as a civilian) up to around '65 or '66 but he went to another branch around then. I have seen a few of them at "firepower demonstrations" and for a long time there was a Marine tank regiment stationed at Ft. Knox - a friend wrangled a seat for my Dad (then retired), my Son and I to the Marine tank match at Yano range - there we were introduced to Hugh O'Brien who sat right in front of us - I did not know (until the speaker of the event told us) that Hugh was the youngest D.I. in the Marine Corps. It was quite a treat!

Riposte

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