Best 50BMG ammo for hunting

[sixgunner455]

I've not seen what the .50BMG does to deer, and I will not click that link. I've seen what it does to humans. It's not a deer cartridge. Deer move. 1000 yards is an unreasonable hunting distance. Sure, people hit targets at that range all the time. I have ambitions of working myself up to that, actually. But ... steel plates don't move at random times, unless you get a really strong gust of wind. Deer just move, darn them, and the wind blows bullets around.

As I said before, this idea has little to recommend it, and much against it.

 

[mortablunt]

Here is a video of a deer being hunted and killed with a 50 BMG. It rips the thing open, but there's surprisingly, not all that much blood, but there is a seriously big hole in the thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsD64KkCBFs

 

[Sam Cade]

Here is a video of a deer being hunted and killed with a 50 BMG.

That is the same video I posted, twice.


This lets me know that most people don't actually read the thread or follow links.

 

[coloradokevin]

Hmm.. I'm not sure that bullet selection means a hill of beans when you're putting a .50 caliber hole into something made of flesh with a .50 BMG. Frankly, I think your concerns about penetration are a bit unfounded too, since this round will almost certainly penetrate far deeper than any other rifle used for hunting

 

[Bawheed]

Buddy go on youtube and search for 50bmg v deer. Why not use an H bomb. No wonder your being flamed by fellow sensible members.

 

[Geno]

I can't understand using a .50 BMG on deer when there are perfectly effective rounds available, anything from a .243 Win through a .338 Win Mag makes perfect sense. Too, I can't understand desiring to shoot anything beyond about 500 yards. My personal longest shot on a deer at 525 yards, using a Weatherby Mark V chambered in .257 Wea. Mag. That deer was stopped and dropped very quickly. The entrance would was 0.25" and the exit wound was about 1.0", so safe to say not much meat went to waste.

Just doesn't make any sense to me.

Geno

 

[karnaaj]

Most retarded idea I have ever heard. You know we hunters have enough problems dealing with non-hunters w/o people like you making it worse.

 

[jojo200517]

I can't believe some of the low road comments in this thread. I'm really surprised no one said us incendiary tracers so it'd be cooked when you got walked out to it.

Sure it may be overkill to shoot deer with a .50BMG but if he's doing it in a safe manner to others why not? It may be a little crazy, but it doesn't seem any worse to me than shooting squirrels out of trees with turkey loads or buckshot. Tree limbs won't get in the way. If his prize buck is standing behind a small tree, no problem shoot thru it.

 

[Shanghai Dan]

Sure it may be overkill to shoot deer with a .50BMG but if he's doing it in a safe manner to others why not?
The problem is - what about a bad hit at those long ranges he wants to use? Say a shot into the hindquarter leaving the deer out there at 800, 1000 yards to sit and suffer? How long are you willing to let that animal that you maimed sit around and wait while you go for it?

I was taught to not shoot at anything more than a 2 minute hike away, so IF it doesn't go down and is severely wounded you can put it out of its misery as quickly as possible - and if it runs, you're still going to be close to it. That's just not going to happen with a 1000 yard shot. And with a 50BMG you're going to be tempted to take that long of a shot because you CAN reach out that far.

 

[BCRider]

"The Low Road" comments? At first I suspect many thought that April Fools had come early and treated it as a comical sort of thread. When it was learned that Franco is serious then the replies got a bit more serious. And although they may not agree with him the replies are still High Road. I didn't see any name calling or flaming. Just because they aren't supportive doesn't mean that theyare not valid posts. Since when do we have to aggree with every idea to be "High Road"? There's nothing wrong with disagreeing and saying so as long as it's done with the right amount of respect.

Anyhow, I'm of the camp that says "Why not?". I think he will need special ammo to do it well though. Seriously DOWNLOADED ammo in order to reach out a decent distance, if that's his goal, and not rip out the whole side and basically ruin the deer for consumption as seen in the linked videos. With a bit of care it should be possible to do so with the result that the round ends up with about the same energy as some of the regular hunting rifles used to harvest deer by other hunters. At least that's my thinking.

It would sort of require that you can find a good hill top with a great view of the area so you can set up a base and shoot from that location. Then send out the team on the quads to collect the meat. I don't see lugging such a beast through the woods for 100 yard or less shots.

 

[coloradokevin]

So how far away should you get to keep from having this effect?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsD64KkCBFs

That deer is totally destroyed, nearly cut in two.

This critter didn't fare much better
http://media.photobucket.com/image/h...mp01/50bmg.jpg

Wow. What a completely ridiculous and pointless waste of meat/life. Shooting the deer doesn't bother me; they taste good, and we are one of their natural predators. But, shooting the darn thing with something that basically destroys most of the meat is utterly wasteful, and doesn't demonstrate tasteful hunting, at least in my mind.

And, seriously, what is there to celebrate from that hunt other than carnage? Kinda like: "Congratulations! You just killed an 80lb animal at 50 yards with an anti-material round... quite the feat of skilled marksmanship, and the steely nerves of a seasoned hunter!"

I'll stick to the 12 gauge, .308, .30-06, or something in that range. The .50 BMG is great fun on a range, but serves little practical purpose for hunting, IMO.

Hunting with the big 50 really just takes the ultra-magnum craze to a whole new level. I can almost see the future forum debates right now: "Hey guys, do you think 15,000 lbs of muzzle energy is enough for pronghorn hunting? Are you sure? Maybe I should just go ahead and bring the 20 mm..."

 

[scythefwd]

You're talking about using an anti-equipment round on a deer and worrying about penetration? A .50 bmg, with the right round will fully penetrate a large engine block and come out the other side... deer aren't that tough.

An expanding bullet out of a .300 wby will leave a 2-3" exit hole in a deer at 300y. A bullet that is twice that diameter, 3-5 times as heavy, and probably expands to 1.5 inches by itself is going to blow a hole large enough to not only read the newspaper through it but to read a paperback book IN it and not get blood on the pages. On a serious note, you could very well blow an 8-10" hole out the back side of that deer and still have enough umph to disable a car on the other side at 1k yards.

 

[TexasRifleman]

After 3 pages of beating this horse, let's call it sufficiently answered. The OP does not appear to be trolling, it seems a sincere question.

The consensus seems to be that it would be a bad idea. Hope that's good enough.