Why aren't there more .50 BMG big game rifles?

[John Wayne]

Ok, first of all let me start by saying that I have never fired anything larger than a .45-70, and have very little knowledge of the "elite" class of cartridges usually considered adequate for the Big 5 (the H&H mags, Nitro Express, etc.)...so please excuse my ignorance if this is a dumb question.

But how practical is the .50 BMG for hunting, say, elephant, rhino, or cape buffalo? It seems like it would have plenty of energy, and it's a whole lot cheaper and more available than rounds like the .577 Tyrannosaur or .600 NE. Why haven't there been any nice double rifles chambered for the .50 BMG, or any existing .50 BMG semi-autos or bolt guns taken along on safaris? Some models seem to be reasonably compact, and appear to be much more shootable than a .700 Nitro Express.

 

[kragluver]

I've never shot a 50 BMG, but here are some things to consider:

1) Cost of shooting (although I guess if you can afford to buy one, you can afford to shoot it)
2) Not very many ranges will let you shoot a 50 BMG (extreme maximum range, bullet penetration, etc.)
3) I'm sure it would be very effective on large, dangerous game, but I guess there are other cartridges that fill that bill.

BTW - I like the 45/70 too

 

[John Wayne]

kragluver, you make some good points about why the .50 BMG is impractical for everyday use or casual shooting, but I feel like any range that wouldn't let you shoot a .50 BMG probably wouldn't let you shoot a .585 Nyati or larger cartridges either.

Also, the .50 BMG has readily available ammunition for a few dollars a round. The brass is widely available compared to much rarer cartridges like the a .577 NE. Here is a link to brass for the .577, which is about $130 for 20 pieces: http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduc...urce=froogle&utm_medium=free&utm_campaign=652

 

[gunnie]

..."Why aren't there more .50 BMG big game rifles?"...

because dinosaurs are extinct, and jurrasic park is closed for repairs.

gunnie

 

[mothermopar]

I'm not a hunter, but the OP's theory is sound, IMO. You can always download the 50 BMG... it is cheaper to shoot than the exotics (lending itself to more practice). I say build it and they will come!

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

But how practical is the .50 BMG for hunting, say, elephant, rhino, or cape buffalo?

Every .50 BMG rifle I've seen seems too big and heavy to be practical to carry with you on foot for any distance, let alone mount quickly to fire from the shoulder. Generally these are fired from a fixed position. In the tall grass and thick brush frequently encountered, I also wonder if the muzzle brake's side blast might set it on fire.

 

[NG VI]

Recoil. Those rifles that tame the .50 BMG best all share a couple of things in common, the first being weight, lots of weight, and effective muzzle brakes.

.50 BMG pushes somewhere over ten thousand foot pounds of energy, which is a huge amount of recoil. No one wants a twenty five pound dangerous game rifle, and I don't want to find out that a person exists who can handle a twelve pound .50 BMG rifle well enough to land a follow-up shot if the first wasn't good enough.

 

[JWF III]

re: kragluver

4) A 25 lb rifle is not very mobile when you're shooting at a charging elephant/cape buff/etc. in the thick bush. Where your maximum distance is 50 yards or less. And sometimes you can't even see 5 yards.

Safari hunts of this type are up close and personal. The Pro-Hunters would not be amused if you showed up with a .50 BMG rifle, and wanted to shoot from the truck, at ranges the .50 is made for.

And another thing, for the reloaders, the .700 NE is a more powerful (muzzle energy) than the .50 BMG. From loads listed @ www.reloadersnest.com ; top .50 BMG load tops out at 13,100 ft-lbs, the .700 NE gets up to 14,400 ft-lbs.

Wyman

ETA- well a couple people beat me to my #4)

 

[DoubleTapDrew]

All the .50bmg's I've seen are very large, long and heavy. Not something I'd want to stalk around with. I don't know if those long barrels are required to burn the powder or what because some of those big safari guns appear to have much shorter barrels on more compact platforms?

 

[Winger Ed.]

Most of them are bought/built for long range target shooting, and are real heavy.
My State Arms 'Big Burtha' has a 36" bull barrel with about a 3 pound muzzel brake.
Being a single shot, weighing almost 50 pounds- I don't shoot it very far from where I park the truck,
much less take it up in a tree stand to shoot at a 100 pound deer from 'offhand'.

There are shorter, lighter ones, and folks do a little hunting with them more as a novelty than anything else.
(They will just about turn a wild hog inside out like a wet sweatsock)
As far as ammo prices, .50BMG shells don't cost much more-
or sometimes even as much as big Wheatherby, or something like a .45 or .50-120 Sharps.

A .50BMG is more or less a up sized .30-06, with about the same chamber pressures and muzzle vel.
To get a 650 or 750 grain bullet up to 2,600-ish fps, without going to some crazy chamber pressure:
It takes a pretty stout, and large diameter reciever & barrel about 28-36" to wrap around it--
and that sort of gets you back to the big and heavy part of the story.
.

 

[General Geoff]

The cartridge isn't the problem, it's the platforms chambered for it.


Build a 15-17lb bolt action that swings nicely, with a silencer or muzzle brake to tame recoil as best as you can, with a hell of a recoil pad, and I bet you'd get a few folks who'd take it on safari. .50BMG certainly has the horsepower to get the job done.


Also, I guess if a body builder went on safari, a Barrett wouldn't be a far stretch in terms of a suitable platform. For most folks, though, 30lb rifles aren't something you can shoulder and swing to target very quickly.

 

[saturno_v]

Because the 50 BMG is not a cartridge that you can shoot in an carryable, shoulder fired rifle with "human" weight.

Elephant cartridges are straight walled so they impart the highest possible energy to large caliber relatively stubby bullets...they can deliver impressive ME but they fade quickly and not designed for long range shooting.

The 50 BMG it's in an entirely different class.
It can develop energies up to double that of the most powerful elephant cartridges (the only round that can match the ME of the 50 BMG is the enormous 700 NE which is more of a firearm curiosity than anything else) and it can launch very heavy elongated bullets capable of excellent long range performance...it is nothign else than a scaled up 30-06 round.

A 50 BMG rifle, IMHO, can already be considered light artillery...that is the reason you need a bipod and a bench.

 

[saturno_v]

Build a 15-17lb bolt action that swings nicely, with a silencer or muzzle brake to tame recoil as best as you can, with a hell of a recoil pad, and I bet you'd get a few folks who'd take it on safari. .50BMG certainly has the horsepower to get the job done.

A rifle like that in 50 BMG would be unfireable...unless someone can come up with a revolutionary recoil control system.

Not to mention the power you would lose even from a 28" barrel....a totally useless rifle....

Hodgdon reloading data, which match Hornady offering, is intended for.....45" barrels....

 

[saturno_v]

By the way, if you want to shoot elephant with an "economical" cartridge, you have already few very effective and practical choices...the 458 Win Mag or the 416 Rem Mag (cheap to reload)....no need for a 50 BMG.

The big fifty is totally useless as hunting round because no practical rifle can be built for it (as far as I know)
It would be as useful as this revolver:

 

[DeanV]

Here is a 19# version

http://www.sportingadvertising.com/gun_details/harris_bmg_rhino.htm

 

[saturno_v]

Here is a 19# version

http://www.sportingadvertising.com/g..._bmg_rhino.htm

A useless piece of machinery...single shot, 20 lbs (shoulder fired??!! ), probably the same level of energy than a 375 H&H (with that short barrel) and an horrendous muzzle blast.

I wonder how is the recoil, even with that muzzle break...

 

[HOWARD J]

the state ranges I have been at here in MI will not allow you to fire a 50 cal---
farmers complain--4/5 miles away ???

 

[mljdeckard]

Perhaps one might ask, what is it you are trying to do with a .50 BMG that you can't do with say, one of the belted magnums or a .338 Lapua?

I kind of break it down like this. People ask me why it's ok to allow .50 BMG rifles in the hands of civilians, and after I remind that rights need not be justified by showing a need, I tell them to look at it from a practicality standpoint. The vast majority of Criminals neither need nor want one, because the process of learning how to use one effectively takes so much time and money, it isn't worth it to them. For new guys who think they are cool and want one, I challenge them to first master .30 cal rifles. If you don't know what you are doing with a 300 win mag out to 800 meters or more, there's not much reason to be playing with a .50. All game, including elephants, can be taken effectively with much smaller rounds.

My opinion. What the heck do I know?

 

[Acera]

It would be a good choice for big game hunting, however there are usually better choices.

There are 50's that have a manageable weight for off hand shooting. (Picture of one of THRs members 50 Shooter is posted below, from another thread similar to this one.)

One problem is all the misconceptions that people have about the cartridge, and prejudices.

Price is one of the biggest, and others have exposed that myth.

Fact that a man can't shoulder one is pretty much a myth also, but not according to those that don't have them, LOL. I have one with a 24" barrel and it is not easy to shoulder it, but I shoot if comfortably off a rest all the time. Whether that rest is a 4 wheeler, wall of a tree stand, or hand gripping a tree trunk, it can be done.

Lot of folks like to think the 50 is some big bad monster, and attitudes like that will contribute to more restrictions on our rights. The AR was once considered not worthwhile for anything other than shooting people, but through education and general acceptance it has become America's rifle, and is one of the most versatile sporting arms available. Hopefully this myths and misconceptions will be done away with on the 50 just like they were with the AR.

 

[Runningman]

But how practical is the .50 BMG for hunting, say, elephant, rhino, or cape buffalo? It seems like it would have plenty of energy, and it's a whole lot cheaper and more available than rounds like the .577 Tyrannosaur or .600 NE. Why haven't there been any nice double rifles chambered for the .50 BMG, or any existing .50 BMG semi-autos or bolt guns taken along on safaris? Some models seem to be reasonably compact, and appear to be much more shootable than a .700 Nitro Express.

A 50 BMG is not practical at all without a muzzle brake. I would be surprised if you find a PH guide anywhere in Africa that will let hunt with any rifle with a muzzle brake let alone a 50 BMG.

Many guides in the US and Canada will not allow the use of rifles with Muzzle brakes on a guided hunt.

The 50 BMG has been effectively banned from hunting in more than a few states by weight restrictions. Usually around 15 LBS is the maximum rifle weight allowed for Big game hunting in the states that have done this.

 

[Float Pilot]

Not to mention over-penetration and a 2,000 meter danger area down range...

 

[spiroxlii]

I suppose that if you're a "Great White Hunter" who can afford to take hunting trips to Africa, you can probably afford a .50BMG rifle and ammunition without hurting your wallet too much.

Of course, there are more appropriate cartridges that can take most game on Earth. What are you hunting? Is it an animal that can't be killed effectively with the right .30-06 or .45-70 load? I've never hunted big game, but I would imagine that if a rhino or a big cat were coming at me, I'd want a rifle that is easy to manage and fast to bring to bear on my target. There are some really handy .45-70 rifles out there. I'm not saying they don't exist, but there are fewer .50BMG rifles that can be handled quickly and efficiently. When you do find a handy .50BMG rifle (one that you'd be comfortable shouldering and bringing to bear on a dangerous, charging target rapidly), look at how much it costs.

 

[telomerase]

Genetic engineering is here to stay. Even with the FDA slowing us down, ten years from now you will wonder how you ever thought .50 Browning was going to be big enough.

 

[mljdeckard]

I don't agree with that at all. .50 BMG is already too big for most shooters, seriously expensive to shoot, and limited by law from getting any bigger in diameter. What, are we going to start selling those above-pictured converter 20mm wildcats? the .408 Chey-Tac and .416 Barret already have better ballistics by going SMALLER. We're not going BIGGER.

 

[Hangingrock]

Here in North Carolina we believe the 22RF is perfectly adequate for deer the 50 Browning would be considered a bit much. Ain’t from here would apply. If you really want the ultimate firing experience it would be the 50 Browning spotter on a 106mm recoilless rifle. Now that’s an exhilarating experience the 106mm makes the Browning 50 spotter look rather mundane.

I apologize for being snide. I’ve drank more than my fair share of Pepsi this day and the caffeine has me torque up.