Discovery Channel on .50BMG

[WiLLtallica]

My .300 win mag sends 'em down range at up to 3200 fps.

Yeah well up against a steel plate from over 1 mile away your .300 win mag rnds will be like rubber balls compared to the .50BMG's full penetration.

Anyway I'm in love with that rifle. I'll have to buy one in my lifetime.

 

[Brass Fetcher]

'Foreign weapons familiarization'. Lots of people in .mil do it, probably the AK series is part of that.

 

[RecoilRob]

The Barret M82 certainly CAN deliver hits at one per sec....but not at a mile. I have riddled man-size things at 3-400 yards at or faster than OPS.

But, the M82 is normally a 2moa rifle so hits at a mile would involve a bit of luck as the 'pattern' would be near 40" without accounting for wind or shooter error. Highly doubtful.

And, some BMG projos will be over-stabilized and fail to 'nose over' at the top of the ballistic arc. Rather, they fly nose up relative to the actual direction of flight and so impact a bit sideways at really long range.

This phenomenon will reduce the AP abilities a lot but really increases the splat factor when they hit mammaliens.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

I would think that the people on this board would know that any soldier, super or not, really only has to know about how to use HIS weapon. How much do pilots know about the technical details of their aircraft? How much do racecar drivers know about the technical details of their cars?

So that is the justification for all the mistakes he makes?

I don't know. Now that he is a TV personality who keeps telling us how he was a SEAL and who is broadcasting information on various weapons, there is an incongruence. Why keep telling us he is a SEAL if not to reinforce his authority? What I get from the guy is, "I'm a SEAL and I mess up a lot of the details." So we have the super duper soldier who is shy one weapon details even though he is the one teaching on the subject.

I will say this, the guy is of a very different personality than the few special forces guys I have known, including a couple of SEALs. They seem to play down their SF positions in the military. Comments are more along the lines of "When I was in Iraq..." or "When I served..." and NOT "When I was a SEAL..." or "When I was a Scout Sniper..."

 

[Wes Janson]

The Barret M82 certainly CAN deliver hits at one per sec....but not at a mile. I have riddled man-size things at 3-400 yards at or faster than OPS.

But, the M82 is normally a 2moa rifle so hits at a mile would involve a bit of luck as the 'pattern' would be near 40" without accounting for wind or shooter error. Highly doubtful.

And, some BMG projos will be over-stabilized and fail to 'nose over' at the top of the ballistic arc. Rather, they fly nose up relative to the actual direction of flight and so impact a bit sideways at really long range.

This phenomenon will reduce the AP abilities a lot but really increases the splat factor when they hit mammaliens.

That's why I suspect the cinderblocks they shot were actually at 1000, and the steel plate target was more like 300 yards. They just cut the footage in such a way so as to seem the other way around (because you can't really tell what size groups someone's getting when they're whacking cinderblocks).

 

[ptmmatssc]

Whether this gentlemean was a SEAL or not ,he is talking about/explaining the certian cababilities of a few weapons . He should be getting the facts straight , no matter who he is . If I was watching a commentator talking about a football game and he said something about the 110 yd line , that would pretty much discredit him and sully anything else he said since he obviously was not knowledgeable in what he was speaking of .


Just my .02

 

[harvester of sorrow]

I'm not saying he doesn't get facts wrong, I'm saying that people on gun boards shouldn't question his claimed background due to his technical inaccuracies. If people claiming to be former members of the Armed Forces don't remember their MOS, or their unit, or their platoon number from basic training, THAT would be cause to question their backgrounds. Obscure firearms detail is not really a part of training for most soldiers based on what I've seen in my dealings with them.

 

[50 Freak]

Anyone else notice this "SEAL" blinks every time he pulls the trigger????

If closing your eyes as you fire is a new shooting technique by the SEALs, I might as well change my name to Chin or Lee, as China's gonna kick this countries butt.

 

[strambo]

No, the average soldier, even SEAL isn't an all around weapons expert, just expert in the weapons they routinely use. However, if this guy is gonna be hosting a TV show on weapons...he ought to be! Sure, the Army didn't teach me about anything other than issue weapons and never taught me how to shoot a pistol. That didn't keep me from learning other firearms on my own or becoming a pistol instructor.

The problem is being a former (SOCOM fill-in-the-blank) gives credibility in weapons and Hand to Hand training to the general public. Using this as a component of marketing is fine, but it is incumbent on the (former) operator to make sure they truly know their subject matter if they are going to teach civilians. All the former SEAL/Whatever Hand to Hand trainers I've looked into have lots of training beyond what they got in the service. Same for firearms instructors.

 

[Macpherson]

I would think that the people on this board would know that any soldier, super or not, really only has to know about how to use HIS weapon. How much do pilots know about the technical details of their aircraft? How much do racecar drivers know about the technical details of their cars?

I would bet money that most professional race car drivers know everything there is to know about their cars, and especially cars/engines in general (a lot of them built their first cars themselves). Why do you think they got into the sport in the first place? The same is doubly true for pilots, they are the ones flying the aircraft, and thus they have a vested interest in knowing the workings of their aircraft intimately.

the average soldier, even SEAL isn't an all around weapons expert

I disagree. From stories and accounts that I have read, I've always gotten the impression that Special Forces type soldiers were at least moderately familar with a wide range of small arms, as well as VERY familiar with pretty much all US issue weapons (including 50 cal weapons) and current enemy weapons, because they never know what they're going to be facing or where it's going to be. Do you think that SF troops would go on the ground in Iraq without knowing Soviet-bloc weapons backwards and forwards? I sure wouldn't and I'm not in SF.

I haven't personally met any SEALS or SF guys, but everything I know about them suggests that they aren't the type to go tooting their horns, and if he's in a position like on the show, where he is a purported expert, he'd better get his facts straight.

 

[Don't Tread On Me]

http://www.50caliberterror.com/

In this context, "50 caliber" refers to a firearm which is a weapon.

"terror" is an intense fear.


Therefore,

"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity."
- General Introduction to Psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud


We can deduce that those who agree with and have founded the website "50caliberterror" have retarded sexual and emotional maturity.

 

[bogie]

VERY GOOD, partially. . They were shooting a M107, not an 82A1. It was Future Weapons boy supposedly shooting, as I recall, and he was new to shooting the platform, but maybe they had someone else shooting it. Anyway, the M107 shoots 1 or 1.5 MOA depending on what you read. The 1000 yard group of 6" would be way sub MOA and nearly twice at tight as would be expected for a 1 MOA gun and 2.5 times better than a 1.5 MOA gun at a distance where a slight cross breeze would be problematic for such groupings. They were shooting with a Leupold Mark 4 scope, as I recall, probably the standard 4.5-14x50, so a good scope, but not hugely powerful.

From an accuracy standpoint, and did anyone say how _many_ shots, 6" at a thousand ain't bad. Ain't gonna happen every day, but hey...

Sometimes the fliers go into the group.

Unless the rifle/ammo combo is intrinsically 0.10 MOA or better, forget about it. 0.25MOA is the threshold of "interesting."

A 14x scope would be doable - less mirage than a "more powerful" scope. Remember, "power" isn't everything.

 

[rifleman93]

I was also VERY surprised when he made the comment, ".308, the same thats fired in a AK-47"!! Any SEAL would know better, plus he claims to be an ex-Navy SEAL Sniper, and I'm sorry, but any sniper would know that. I guess maybe they just claim that to get a little extra attention to the show. Anyway, I don't think that he was a sniper, but maybe he did do something with SEALs, you never know.

 

[Fosbery]

Perhaps he was SEAL's supply officer? Or the cook?

(not to insult cooks or supply officers, they do a invaluable)

 

[torpid]

I would bet money that most professional race car drivers know everything there is to know about their cars, and especially cars/engines in general (a lot of them built their first cars themselves). Why do you think they got into the sport in the first place? The same is doubly true for pilots, they are the ones flying the aircraft, and thus they have a vested interest in knowing the workings of their aircraft intimately.

Well, according to Chuck Yeager, that isn't always the case.

According to him most pilots are basically interested in how to employ the aircraft for what it is designed to do, and not the fine technical details of how its systems work.

He went on to add that his personal interest in the minute workings of the aircraft really proved to be helpful in troubleshooting and knowing how far he could push the aircraft.

He noted it often gave him an advantage over other pilots in similar situations who were content to leave that knowledge to the deigners and maintenence folks, and would rather just "turn the key" and fly the mission. Many of them had to punch out, where he was able to apply what he knew about the aircraft to troubleshoot solutions and continue flying.

.

 

[harvester of sorrow]

According to him most pilots are basically interested in how to employ the aircraft for what it is designed to do, and not the fine technical details of how its systems work.

Yes, exactly. Chuck Yeager was one of those who I referred to who HAD an interest in the systems and developed knowledge about them. Remember, though, that society at large is reflected in any smaller group. As a guess, there are about 280,000,000 people in the United States. What percentage of society is truly interested in technical details of weapons? 10% would be 28,000,000 people. While I wish that was the case, you and I both know it's not. Maybe 2.8 million? Maybe not even that many. I work in law enforcement and I can assure you that while the interest in weapons might be slightly higher than that of society in general, it's not even close to 20% who have a real, comprehensive knowledge of multiple weapons beyond what they carry every day. The military isn't very different. Haven't you ever had a former serviceman tell you about the "Mattel" M16 they carried in Vietnam, or the fact that "the Russians could shoot our rifle ammo through their AK47, but we couldn't shoot their ammo through our M16?" Or the fact that 5.56 bullets tumble in flight, or, as referred to above, that the only way you can shoot the .50 caliber round at enemy soldiers is if you're trying to destroy their load bearing equipment?

Do you think that SF troops would go on the ground in Iraq without knowing Soviet-bloc weapons backwards and forwards?

Army Special Forces actually have a soldier as a part of a deployed operational detachment who HAS been trained extensively in foreign weapons systems. He is, no doubt, an expert. The rest are told no more than what they need to know for the environment they're in, UNLESS they are one of that small percentage that has an interest and actually WANTS to learn more.

 

[p35]

Wasn't there a discussion a while ago about a Canadian sniper team in Afghanistan that shot someone at around 2500 meters with a .50 cal? Might have been some luck involved, but if they can do that 1000 meters doesn't seem like that big a deal.

Of course, I've never fired a .50, so I'm just an ignorant SOB.

 

[p35]

Sorry-double tap.