.50 BMG for hunting?

[Mark-Smith]

So as far as a dream rifle goes, something chambered in .50 BMG is up there on the exotic scale. Expensive, but exotic. At $5-10 a round, it's not something that's going to make it out to the range twice a month, but short of that - are there any other downsides?

As far as rifles go, it'd be nice to have something that can be used for multiple applications - range, hunting, etc.

So where does reality intrude on fantasy in this case? Is hunting with a .50 BMG rifle a foolish pipe dream, or just a slightly silly but expensive hobby?

 

[Jamyatunes]

I suppose in part it depends on the specific rifle, intended range, and what you intend to hunt. I have the Barrett M99, and at 25lbs it would be a little inconvenient for hunting when a smaller rifle will get the job done.

I would also expect to lose a lot of meat that would be saved by using a smaller (but still more than adequate) rifle. I've seen what that round does to living things up close (under 400m), and it's nothing I'd want to eat afterwards. Perhaps for ultra long range hunting it would not be as terminally devestating.

Ultimately, high velocity rounds are less than desireable for hunting, in terms of meat preservation. That's why a lot of professional hunters have said if they could own only one rifle it would be a .375 H&H, you can hunt anything with it and you can "eat right up to the hole."

I don't know how a .308 Sabot round would perform, it would have the ballistics of a laser beam and hopefully be gentler on the target. Might be worth looking into if you just really wanted to hunt with a .50 BMG.

 

[Full Metal Jacket]

you live in texas, and want to hunt with a 50BMG? for what, woolly mammoth? they only died out about 20,000 years ago

lol i just don't have a use for one. if you live somewhere you're able to take distance shots at 1 1/2 miles, then it might be cool.

otherwise, at $7 a trigger pull plus at least $2,600 for a decent rifle, it's just an expensive novelty toy.

 

[speaksoftly]

I live in northeast Texas but my neighbors in south and west Texas have told me of some pretty far off shots. Is a 50 necessary? Not really but it would be fun!

 

[Mark-Smith]

if you live somewhere you're able to take distance shots at 1 1/2 miles, then it might be cool.

A few hours drive, yes. Flat plains as far as the eye can see. Huge sky, 360 degrees.

 

[dubbleA]

I have had one for a few years now and use it for steel LR targets. Although I could hunt with it I choose not to, the idea of a 750gr AMax going though my pastures without a good safe backstop makes me uneasy.

 

[M-Cameron]

i dont see what the problem would be.......

....i mean, i regularly hunt with my 81mm mortar......does a great job too...i cant imagine a .50bmg being any more powerful than one of those.....

 

[Grey Morel]

30-06 - 2,900 ftlbs
375 H&H - 4,500 ftlbs
404 Jeffery - 4,000 ftlbs
416 Rigby - 5,800 ftlbs
458 Win - 5,000 ftlbs
505 Gibbs - 6,000 ftlbs
50 BMG - 14,000+ ftlbs

A 50 BMG is so far beyond even the "elephant gun" cartridges as to be ridiculous for hunting purposes. MORE than 3 times the power of a 375 H&H. There is simply NO ethical hunting distance that would require that much power...

Even if you just wanted to do it for "fun", consider this - a former boss was an avid hunter with a lot of money. One year he decided to take his 50 BMG on a guided hunt for Russian Bore - the Bore was so mangled, most of the meat was destroyed. That's not hunting, its killing - wanton waste as far as I'm concerned.

Unless you need to shoot a sleeping elephant (not moving) at 1,000+ yards through your night vision scope, then the 50 BMG is better left to its proper anti-material role.

 

[Acera]

Generally I spend about $2-2.50 for my .50 BMG, the surplus stuff works good. At that price, it's comparable to what a number of the larger hunting loads cost.


Don't let the haters get you down, there is a lot of fun to be had with the big gun. As I read these threads I notice how many are not full supporters of the 2nd amendment. So many would lot lose a minute of sleep if they banned these guns. They would just keep justifying their "no good for hunting" stance, until they came for their dear old 06's, and then scream. Never knowing that they contributed to their own demise.

These threads really separate the open minded shooters from the close minded ones who think that their stuff is the only stuff that matters. Go get the gun you want, (and you can do it for less than $2,500) and enjoy the freedoms you currently have to pursue the sport as you choose.

 

[Fleetman]

I usually get my BMG's for around $3.25 but can find them cheaper if I really look. Much cheaper than $4.60 each .458 Lott's.

Yeah, probably not too realistic hunting with a BMG especially dealing with the weight of the rifles.

 

[Casefull]

In Idaho rifle cannot weigh more than something like 14 lbs. I have a 338 lapua that comes close to range of .50 and might leave a little meat edible. I was wanting a McMillian 50 for a coyote rifle...kind of like a Pro stocker for trips to the store.

 

[david58]

Generally I spend about $2-2.50 for my .50 BMG, the surplus stuff works good. At that price, it's comparable to what a number of the larger hunting loads cost.


Don't let the haters get you down, there is a lot of fun to be had with the big gun. As I read these threads I notice how many are not full supporters of the 2nd amendment. So many would lot lose a minute of sleep if they banned these guns. They would just keep justifying their "no good for hunting" stance, until they came for their dear old 06's, and then scream. Never knowing that they contributed to their own demise.

These threads really separate the open minded shooters from the close minded ones who think that their stuff is the only stuff that matters. Go get the gun you want, (and you can do it for less than $2,500) and enjoy the freedoms you currently have to pursue the sport as you choose.

Drop the 2A drivel - just because I'm a hunter doesn't mean I don't fully support the 2A, and have numerous guns that just aren't suited for hunting but are great for fun.

The issue with a 50 BMG for hunting comes to ethics. Are you hunting? If yes, then HUNT. If you are shooting, then go to the range and SHOOT. A 600 yard shot may sound tacticool, but that is not hunting. If you need to go kill something from a long way, find an alfalfa farmer and go shoot his sage rats for him and save him the cost of the poison.

 

[stsimons]

I would take the exact opposite stance and say that a 50BMG is extremely ethical if you want to make a sure kill on an animal with no chance that it suffers, runs or in any way dies a slow and painful death. With any reasonable shot that animal is going to die pretty much instantly. What is so "unethical" about taking a 600yd shot on game? Ethics has nothing to do with distance, unless the caliber used can not adequately provide the ft lbs of necessary energy to kill the animal at said distance, or if the shooter is not experienced enough to hit the intended target and kill it. A 50bmg would be fine to reliably kill game past 1000yds in the right hands... but not many people have the skill to pull off those kind of shots.

 

[rcmodel]

Hunt with it?

Better get an ATV and a trailer to haul it around in!!
You sure aren't gonna like packing it around on a sling.

And we recently had a report here in Kansas of someone putting a .50 cal ricochet through a occupied house over two miles away!

rc

 

[MrCleanOK]

If you want a fun gun to shoot with, by all means get one. Don't entertain notions of hunting with one. For one, it's going to be too heavy to practically carry far from the truck. Two, you'll destroy and waste anything you kill with it. There are videos on the internet showing the terminal effects of .50 BMG on America's enemies overseas (you can look for them on your own if you want, I'm not going to link to them on THR). Now consider that deer are comparable in body size to a person and you'll see that .50 BMG isn't a reasonable hunting round.

 

[rondog]

Great fun for target shooting, I'd love to have one. But for hunting? I'd only use a .50bmg to hunt T-Rex's with, and there ain't many of those around. I'm not even a hunter, but even I know that long-distance shots on animals is totally unethical and cruel.

Sure, you can kill them at 1000 yards, but what if you only injure it? What if it runs off limping and screaming with its guts blown out, or a leg blown off? What if you kill something then discover there's no way in hell you can get there to retrieve it? Are you still going to feel like the brave white hunter or the macho sniper then?

If you're going to hunt, respect the animals and do it right. If you want to make long-distance shots with a .50bmg, then set up some 1-gallon water jugs against a proper backstop and have at it! But call me first, I wanna play too! I'll do that all day long, but I don't have any burning desire to kill any animals. I have nothing against hunting, it just ain't my thing.

 

[sureshot]

I think that if you wanted to go hunting with a .50 bmg you need to take another look at why we hunt. It may be ethical because the animal will not suffer but it would totaly waste the meat so unless you are shootin at coyotes it's definitely unethical im not saying that .50 should be banned but people shouldn't be using it for hunting. I'm all for owning as many guns as I can but there's s point when you need to draw a line between plinking and hunting.

 

[Olympus]

I thought I'd seen it all...

 

[Justin Holder]

I saw a hunting show once were the guy shot a black bear at long range with a hunting weight 50 BMG.

Dead is dead I guess, its your bank account.

 

[Liberty1776]

iffen you wants to haul around a 30 lb rifle,no problem...(and here I was just looking at an ultralite at about 4 1/2 lbs...)

 

[WalkAbout]

So where does reality intrude on fantasy in this case?

Right about where the armor-piercing incendiery round obliterates the deer/elk/moose/pretty much anything else and you gather the meat with a spoon. But hey, at least shot placement would be less important!

b

 

[Art Eatman]

The idea of hunting with a .50 strikes me as very impractical and pretty close to silly, the more I've thought about it through quite a few of these threads.

To cope with recoil means a rifle that's way too heavy for walking/stalking hunting, for starters. And if shooting from a stand at long range, well, wind will drift a .50 off-target when you're playing Ma Bell. That killer bullet can wound as well as kill, so ethics are still in play, just as with smaller cartridges at shorter distances.

There's no game animal on the planet which requires that sort of power, so, really, why bother? Targets or even plinking at impromptu targets, sure, fine. Those are games, just like shooting pool or playing checkers. Hunting is a whole different deal.

And the muzzle blast might create a certain amount of animosity from any hunters in the general area, for that matter. Non-THR language could ensue. Hostility at any meeting up in the Way Out Yonder where it's generally supposed to be peaceful.

 

[vsteel]

I also have thought about it some. While I do believe that people should have the right to have a 50 cal, I don't think there is any game you should hunt with it.

There would be a lot of meat that would be going to waste. If you don't care about the meat why not just go to a taxidermist and buy a mount of something and just say you shot it with your 50 cal. Saves a trip of even having to go out and shoot it. If you really want to see if you could have done it just put a target up at the range you are going to tell people you shot it, and then see if you hit the target. Just keep getting closer until you can hit the target on the first shot and when you finally get a good kill shot on the target, that is the range you tell people you shot the animal at.

I look at hunting with a 50 cal like hunting with my pickup. Sure I could take my pickup in the field and run over a deer but it doesn't mean it is a good idea.

 

[Mark-Smith]

The considerations about weight and 'there wouldn't be much left of the animal' are definitely some reasonable con's. And lugging a 30 lb riffle would definitely get old fast.

I'm not quite sure how ethics come into play here. You're killing an animal. Dead is dead is dead. A wounding shot from a 50 BMG vs one from a 22 LR, it'd seem the 50 BMG is a lot less cruel simply because the animal would be in pain for a far shorter period than with a wounding shot from any other caliber.

It's also dubious if killing an animal at 100 yards vs 1,000 yards is of any ethical difference whatsoever. Closer range being more 'sporting' is just a bit silly. Animals don't have guns - it's not a fair fight and it'd be silly to pretend it is.

'Pissing off your hunting buddies with an ultra-loud gun' is definitely a consideration. Certainly wouldn't be able to take it along on any outing where the people with you weren't ok with it to begin with. At the end of the day, nobody wants to be 'that jackass in the hunting party'. Then again, depending who you hunt with, they might just think it was awesome and chalk up the noise and blast to an acceptable downside. Hard to say.

The practical issues make it sound like it's not something that'd be worth it. And at the end of the day, that's what probably makes it a foolish pipe dream. Better to find that out ahead of time before spending lots of money though.

 

[Full Metal Jacket]

Don't let the haters get you down, there is a lot of fun to be had with the big gun.

i don't see any haters, just people that have practical opinions on guns.

Drop the 2A drivel

agreed.