416 Barrett,408 CheyTec, 338 Laupa, and my"wildcat" contribution the 45 ProLong
While I haven't purchased the magazine with this newest XL range "flat" shooting Sniper round. I believe it was also outlined in SOF as well as a few other magazines. I am all for new 339 Laupa, 408 CheyTec and any other XL sniper/Objective scoped rifle Medium Large range. From what I recall the 416 Barrett is a necked down 50 BMG using a hand turned solid projectile in the 3300 to 3500fps. I even recall talking with people from the Fifty Caliber Shooters Association, and "VERY HIGH POWER" Magazine regarding necked down 20mm cannon cases to 50 BMG 750 gr projectile(+/-) at 3500 fps + "flat" shooting 50 projectile. I even have my own I call the 45 Pro-Long. Its a spin of of LeMag Industries 45 Professional which uses 230 grain 45 acp projectiles out of modified 270 ( and/or other case). With an overall length using the 230 FMJ Ball equal to a 223/5.56x41mm NATO round. Achieving velocity of nearly 3000 fps of an 18" barrel. Another author's in depth article showed an average during testing resulting 2950 fps. But with the 45 acp FMJ ball/truncate/HP/etc...Drag was a major issue for anything "long range".
My" solution" was a projectile ( also hand turned with extreme high coefficient/low drag still in the 200 gr to 250 gr ballpark. Thus allowing a 338 Laupa ballistic ( 250 gr @ 3000 fps ..Plus of course a slightly larger dia. To be fired out of a modified AR-10...with a few modifications. The standard 7.62 x 51 NATO (.308 win) round made for a too short round. So the AR-10 needed some slight modifications. Cutting and extending the length of the magazine well to be able to use modified BAR mags. While this wasn't a cheap process....not at all. It fit right in with the higher end bolt sniper rifles, and less then a Barrett Light 50. Achieving a 30.06 length AR-10 with a 20" Titanium alloy barrel, bolt face, etc. Which has a MOA of 1" to 1.5" (on good days I need someone with much more experience building Match barrels. I take all the blame for the 2 MOA+ which works out to 30+ inches at larger then 1500 meters) On a prototype I can live with that. But to compete with others in this class.Performance needs to be 1 inch or less). Only time and funding will tell this story. But as soon as this project materialized along ca the 408 CheyTec, and now the 416 Barrett. But I figure competition between all of these plus the 338 Laupa will be a good thing. Hopefully the best of these 1500 meter Sniper/Objective Scoped rifles Medium Heavy/even a GPMG with an enlarged SHRIKE
belt and magazine feed upper. Which would work great for an AR family weapon. Could be something interesting. or at least I hope interesting enough for further investigation? When all is said, and done. I just hope the troops get the bestof the new...newer class of XL Range rifle systems. They are the ones who deserve such the most.
Feel free to email me regarding this, or any such topic
Sincerely,
JeffreyWarren