Friday, March 02, 2007

A Little 50 Caliber Goodness!

A custom built 50 caliber long range target rifle.


The pictures don't really do it justice!


Each bullet is individually machined from brass.


Roughly a 3/4" 4 shot group at 200 yards.

When Lee telephoned me and said he was going out to the range to shoot his new 50 caliber long range target rifle and would I like to come out and shoot it, I jumped at the chance. Lee had just picked up this beauty, and was going to do a little ammo testing to find out what loads it likes.

Each bullet is machined from solid brass. They are almost to nice to shoot! Lee wanted me to take the first shot as it takes a few shots to get the barrel "Dirtied-up" and settled down to see what it was doing. The rifle was custom built using a McMillan receiver, and I forgot to write down the name of the barrel manufacturer. The Jewel trigger was set at one ounce! That's not a typo! To say it's light is a gross understatement, when you feel it, it fires! WOW!

We chambered a snap-cap and I fired it a couple of times to get used to the trigger. Then it was time for a live round. At the cost of each round, I only wanted to fire one to see what it was like. The target was at 200 yards, the farthest distance available at this range. I took a deep breath, exhaled, made sure the cross hairs were where they should be, and gently touched the trigger........

HOLY COW!

Not only was there an incredible "BOOM", you could feel the concussion on your face and chest! Due to the weight of the rifle and the compensator the recoil wasn't much at all, particularly considering I was probably slightly in shock from the boom.

I turned it back over to Lee so he could carry on with his load testing, and I logged the chronograph reading as he was shooting. Watching it being shot, I'm not sure if I was actually seeing the shock wave, or just smoke, or both, but there was roughly a six foot diameter ring around the muzzle when it fired, perhaps a rip in the time-space continuum, or something?

It didn't take Lee long to finish up with the rounds he was testing, and he packed up the rifle and equipment to head back home.

I walked over to the pistol range with my .480 Ruger ror a little more load testing of my own. By then my feet were getting really cold from standing in the snow, so I packed it in for the day. KeeWee, who had been sitting in the warm van all this time, and I headed in to the Holmes Harbor Rod & Gun Club clubhouse for a couple of delicious hamburgers for lunch, then headed home.

Not a bad way to spend a few hours, I'd say.........

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8 Comments:

At Friday, March 02, 2007 6:58:00 PM, Blogger Ride Fast said...

Gorgeous rifle. The metalwork is awesome.

Sometimes it's nice to shoot a rifle that they can hear in the next county. Wow.

 
At Saturday, March 03, 2007 1:42:00 AM, Blogger T. F. Stern said...

Some kind of a noise maker; however, without some purpose other than punching holes in a target with very expensive ammo, what the hell, or why the hell would you have one; this is an awesome sniper rifle. I suppose you could impress the neighbors by shooting wild dogs and making them explode on contact. This weapon is just getting started at 200 yards, try it at 1000yrds.

 
At Saturday, March 03, 2007 9:01:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The pictures don't really do it justice!

No, but they DO give me a tingly sensation in my funny area.

What I wouldn't give to just be able to sit down behind one of those things at nail the center of a target at 1k yards.

3oz trigger? Wow!

 
At Saturday, March 03, 2007 9:02:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sorry, that should read 1oz. I'm so jealous I can't type.

 
At Saturday, March 03, 2007 10:09:00 AM, Blogger Mr. Completely said...

TF: All you have to do is to shoot it once, and you will either understand instantly why you might want one, or you will never understand it. You just can't explain it in words!

With the right load and careful shooting, this rifle should shoot sub 3" groups at 1,000 yards. We were shooting at 200 yards because that is what was available at the range. Results are fairly scaleable, for example, a 1" group at 250 yards is approximately a 4" group at 1000 yards.

...... Mr. C.

 
At Monday, March 05, 2007 5:48:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"why the hell would you have one"

Because they don't want me to have one.

'Nuff said?

 
At Wednesday, March 07, 2007 8:17:00 AM, Blogger The Conservative UAW Guy said...

She's a beaut.
I'm jealous, too. ;)

 
At Wednesday, March 07, 2007 8:21:00 AM, Blogger The Conservative UAW Guy said...

Heh.
I drooled a little on my keyboard.

 

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