416 Barrett versus the 50BMG

[elmerfudd]

Because of all the civilian snipers, the military adopted it?

Yes. Substitute "target shooter" for "sniper" and that was basically what happened. These guns were developed mostly by and for civilians.

It might have been designed for machinegunning nearly a century ago, but it has held the distance sniping record for the last 40 years.

That's exactly my point. It's been accepted simply because there wasn't anything else in that niche. If you like .30 hunting cartridges, you have hundreds to choose from. If you like big bore, 1000m+ cartridges up until recently you only had one. Imagine what they could have done with a better cartridge. Today we have cartridges with higher velocities and higher BC's and that translates into less wind drift, less drop and greater range before the bullet goes transonic.

 

[50 Shooter]

The two biggest issues about the .416 are ammo and reloading components availability and barrel life.

Basically Barrett has control of this at present time due to the fact that there are only a couple outside companies making stuff for the .416. And any dealers have to get ammo from Barrett, so I don't see any deals in the future. Dies for reloading it are $300+ from CH4D, not sure if Lee has anything out for it cheaper.

As for the barrel life issue, the .50 BMG is already overbore, now wildcat it down to .416. So that's another thing to consider when buying the rifle.

Another option that would cost more would be to buy an EDM ARMS Windrunner in .50 BMG. The M96 is a breakdown rifle with a removable barrel, you could have a .416 barrel made for it from the factory and have two guns in one.

 

[Matt304]

Another option that would cost more would be to buy an EDM ARMS Windrunner in .50 BMG.

Chris at Bohica Arms has showed us what kind of money places like EDM are sucking from their sales. It's unbelievable. The FAR-50 has the same quality of hand-lapped barrel as EDM, in fact. But that's another topic for another day...

Barrels aren't that much money for the life of them. I mean, replacing a $500 barrel every 1500 rounds is not overly extreme for me, if you consider what you will pay for those 1500 rounds of match ammo. That's just a guess by the way, I have no idea how long a 416/50 barrel will stay accurate.

Although I was all for going with a 416 to start, my decision as of today is to start with the 50BMG, for reasons discussed and possible future availability issues. But I'm going to see about getting a 416 barrel with my purchase, so I will have it to experiment with in the future.

Thanks for the help making the decision, and the data chart helped too.

 

[50 Shooter]

If you want an upper in .416 I would try Dave at Spider Firearms a.k.a Ferret50. You can also change the barrels on his uppers, I don't know all the specifics on it so you'd have to ask him.

From my understanding, he supplies you with headspacing gauges so that you can do a barrel swap in something like 10-15mins. I know he makes his uppers in many different calibers, check his website for the best info or call. www.ferret50.com