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.........