.50 Beowulf AR 15????

[cslinger]

So here I am slaving away at work, reading my new issue of SAR when what do my eyes see but an article on the .50 Beowulf.

I gotta tell you I am liking it. I am not a .50 BMG kind of guy. No place to shoot one, huge cost of gun and ammo etc. I like the idea of the .50 Beowulf alot, but actually know very very little about it.

Now I am not looking to fill a tactical nitch, nor do I care if some SPEC OPs team somewhere is using it to snipe rogue elephants. I am just a lowly gun nut who thinks this has pretty darn cool written all over it.

So what do we collectively know about this beasty. Why in Gods name is Pro-Mag making the magazines for it?

I figure good or bad if the round flops or gets extremely prohibitive to shoot you still have a viable AR-15 lower.

Hey I am bored and just wanted to strike up some gunny type conversation so humor me ok.

Chris

 

[MMcCall]

There's a local gunshop out here that sells Beowulf uppers, and the owner is really hot to trot about them. They had a rep in the store a few months ago, I spoke with him for a few minutes... the Beowulf seems like a true niche weapon, but it's got a pretty high cool factor. Less proprietary hardware than the Leitner-Wise .499, too.

 

[Andrew Wyatt]

it looks like a neat idea, since it's basically a 7 round semi auti .50-70 that weighs as much as a remington number 1 rolling block.


I'd so take that hog hunting.

 

[cslinger]

That thing has got to put a hurting on anything flesh and blood out to about 200 yards.

They took about it's abilty to penetrate vehicles and the like in the article but that doesn't make a lot of sense to me since it seems to be to fat and stubby, but it is traveling at a good clip.

Once again it is about the cool factor more than anything else. Doesn't have to be practical to scratch my itch so to speak.

Chris

 

[swingcatt]

http://www.alexanderarms.com/

Alexander Arms makes them here in SW Virginia at the old Radford Munitions plant. They are quite impressive looking firearms, let me tell you. I've fondled a few at the shops here and it's like looking down the tube of a 12ga AR-15. They also have another neat looking AR upper that takes the rifle across the big drink and fits it for the 5.45mm x 39mm Soviet. The .26 Grendel is also in development....

Jeff Quinn does a real good review here...

http://www.gunblast.com/50Beowulf.htm

SC

 

[natedog]

What's the capacity in 30 round mags? I'm going to guess about 17

 

[444]

A little off topic, but I just got a new upper in the mail today. It is in .458 SOCOM. Same idea as the .50 Beowulf only it is obviously smaller in caliber. One nice thing about this caliber over the .50 Beowulf is that it uses standard .458" bullets which are generally used in the .45/70 so there is a wide selection of bullet styles and weights offered by pretty much every bullet manufacturer.
It uses a "necked down" .50 AE case and a .458 diameter bullet. It will give you about 1800 + fps out of a 350 grain HP. Some have pushed this up to 2200 fps. The ballistics are similar to a .444 Marlin or possibly a .45/70 in a semi-auto AR15. There are loads up to 600 grain bullets. It uses a standard AR15 mag as a single stack.
I have no idea how I got talked into this. I have no real use for it. A buddy of mine talked me into it. We both bought one. He has had his for awhile and we have been pleased with the results from his. This was a group buy from AR15.com. We also did a group buy on brass and dies. Corbon is supposed to offer this as a factory cartridge but are having a problem with brass suppliers.

http://www.mylittlespark.com/ar15/458Socom.html

http://www.teppojutsu.com/

http://www.sskindustries.com/atlantis/ar15.html

 

[fal308]

I've had my .50 Beowulf for about a year now. It's fun to shoot. Throws a huge bullet (relatively speaking) and it doesn't recoil much. Would make a good heavy woods gun for really un-PC hunters!
I bought mine at the BRC last year from Alexander Arms. Had quite a lengthy conversation with the designer. Don't recall his name offhand.
My only problem is I'm just about out of ammunition and I've lost my reloading data. Also I can't access their reloading data from the website. I've emailed them but have yet to receive a reply. Hopefully they'll be at the BRC again this year.

 

[mgjohn]

I love mine. If I could only have one long gun this would be it.

 

[Don Gwinn]

FAL, I can't believe I missed you at the BRC. I enjoyed meeting you at Gunslinger's place.

I was fascinated by the .50 Beowulf too, but I'm too poor to buy one. It bears no relation to a .50 BMG at all. The English chap at the booth compared it to firing a 20 guage shotgun--semi-automatic, of course. Since he also touted the ballistics as similar to the .45-70 ("but a bit flatter") I wondered whether that was completely honest, but with an AR-15 gas system, who knows? never fired a .45-70 through a semi-auto, myself. The advantage, obviously, is the big, heavy, wide slug at closer ranges, if you're into that sort of thing. I am. the other guy at the booth said the .50 was great fun at steel plate matches where most of the competitors were loosing three-round bursts at plates to get them to drop. With the .50, of course, you just plunk 'em down like nothing at all.

Honestly, I think a semi-automatic shotgun in 20 or 16 guage (don't laugh, it's coming back) gives most of the same advantages at closer ranges. However, some people really like the AR-15, the use of box magazines, higher capacity, etc. Also, It would be hard to get the same consistency from shotgun shells as you can get with a more traditional brass cartridge rifle-type loading, so accuracy would suffer. On the other hand, you'd pay about half as much as the .50 upper alone costs.

But let's face it--it's a REALLY cool gizmo and I want one.

 

[wendy]

I bought mine at the BRC last year from Alexander Arms. Had quite a lengthy conversation with the designer. Don't recall his name offhand....Hopefully they'll be at the BRC again this year.

His first name was Mark and they are on the list to be there:
http://www.gun-talk.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=93;t=000007

 

[bogie]

Sounds to me like it's basically a very large handgun cartridge. Have you looked at data for similar rounds? Start low, and work up.

 

[Big Arm Hannigan]

MMcCall,
What shop is that? I would like to look at them.

 

[gun-fucious]

prolly Mark Worthington

Alexander Arms was partner with Leitner Wise group that promised to market a 22lr AR15 back in 1999

 

[444]

I know this is off-topic, but if anyone reading this thread owns an upper in .458 Socom, we are trying to put together a group buy on dies. If you are interested, I posted another thread here: http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=25188


Sorry, for the intrusion, I just want to get the word out on this and figured that someone might be reading this thread that might be interested.

 

[fal308]

Bogie, basically it is a handgun-sized round. Think of a .44 Magnum or .45 Colt on steroids with a rebated rim.
Big Arm Hannigan, they have a dealer network they were trying to set up. You can contact them to see if there's a dealer near you. Conversely, Cabela's sells their uppers also.

 

[rauchman]

A local gunshop has one of these and as someone mentioned the bore on this thing looks HUGE. It looks like a really neat gun, however I asked how much the ammo goes for..... $50 for 20 rounds. That is a little too rich for my blood.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

The $50 for 20 rounds is probably for the 400 gr. flat nosed ammo. That is about 25% over what it should be.

Cabela's has the 334 gr. jacketed ammo for $25 for 20 rounds, FYI.

 

[sanchezero]

Its a pretty exciting gun, thats for sure. I put a bunch o rounds thru one at Blackwater, shooting steel. The steel there is ridiculously heavy, often taking concentrated fire from 2 ar15s to get some of 'em to go down.

The Beowulf flattened them like roadkill.

It'd be one serious handgun that'd handle this cartridge .