50 Bmg info needed

[cinch]

I will soon be ordering a Barrett 99 50Bmg. Does any one know what brass and bullets are good? Where is the cheapest place to get supplies? What are good loads? Are there any good 50 Bmg websites? Any help would be great and thank you.

[CatShooter]

I shoot a 50BMG.

Everybody who shoots a 50BMG, shoots GI brass... it is the best and the cheapest. I have accumulated about 2,500 pcs over the years, most of it for 25 cents or less, about 1,000 for free.

This one of the more popular 50 cal boards

http://www.biggerhammer.net/barrett/wwwboard/

There is a fair amount of BS there, but it's no different than any shooting forum board. THey all have their blowhards.

Ask for sources there - there are several posters that sell supplies on that board.

Mil pulldown powder is CHEAP and good (~$30 for 8 pounds vs $110 for 8 pounds of H-50BMG)

But H-50BMG is slower, and if wou want the best velocity out of the Hornady 750 A-Maxs, this is the powder to use.

.

[Ian M]

Cinch
I don't have the experience with .50's that Catshooter has but I have recently been shooting quite a lot with a pair of Barretts for articles in the Barrett Annual that is about to come out. I shot ammo from a company called SUMMIT AMMUNITION and it is superb. They load both ball and match/hunting ammo. Their match/hunting ammo is 750 grain AMAX and LAPUA - I got my best 100 yard 3-shot group with the Lapua, exactly 0.250". Another source of good ammo is called TTI ARMORY, they load Barnes bullets in a 647 gr. XTP-HP load and one called Tactical Match with a 750 grain solid.

As for brass you could contact the fellow who runs LV STEEL TARGETS (www.lvsteeltargets.com) . He is selling new .50 brass very reasonably.

I am impressed with the accuracy of the M99's, hope you enjoy your new toy. Just remember to get the best ear protection, I would suggest face protection because the brake sends a lot of stuff backwards, tends to challenge your concentration when shooting prone.

We do the shooting down in the U.S. at a friend's ranch.

[MachV]

Cat covered it preaty good.Good surplus ammo aint as easy to find anymore and niether are good cheap bullets.The Amaxes will run ya $1½/piece these days.
Be carefull of pulldown bullets=they need to be resized properly to be real safe.Some of the loaded ammo you will find will also be suspect.Ben a while but seams like S African ammo was to hot and Yugo is blasting ammo at best.
Enough of the bad.The 50 is a blast to shoot and you will not likely put a whole lot of ammo through it.The guy that had mine before me had it for 8 years and didnt have 50 rounds through it.I had it for 8 more and was lucky to put 50 through it a year.
Have fun and enjoy.The wide open spaces of Wy will give you a lot of long range opertunities.Just be carefull with API,APITs,Bue tips and spotter tracers.Thier real fun to shoot but will start a fire in a rain forest let alone the dry prairiie!!
I might as well burst your bubble now the 50BMG only puts a ½" hole in a prairie dog or coyote and will put every prairie dog heading for his hole within 2 miles whe you pull the trigger BTDT.
Be real patient with the biggerhammer board and use the search funtion,you will have better results.If you can find a 50 cal shoot try to attend they are real fun and you learn a lot from guys that have ben doing it for a while.

[waylon]

Cinch I also shoot the 50 but in a state arms but if you want information on the 50bmg look a www.fcsa.org the have a vistior form but to get the real good information you'll have to join and there's a world of knowledge there. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[CatShooter]

One other thing I would like to add.

A lot of 50BMG owners buy the gun, shoot it a few times and put it the back of the safe.

If you are going to really become a 50BMG shooter (hundreds of rounds or more a year)... you are either going to have to hand load, or you are going to go broke fast.

Loaded ammo (even MilSurp) is very expensive.

The BEST-est loading press is the Hornady, and there is no second place - it is like the RCBS, but very much inproved.

Same with the Hornady dies - they are match type with the sliding collar in the seater.

I use the Hornady dies (and bought a neck sizer from them also), and the Hornady seater for A-Maxs, and I use an RCBS seater for MilSurp bullets, so I don't have to change the adjustment... plus the Hornady seater is so close to the match bullet diameter that it will get stuck with the pulled MilSurp bullets - no problem with the RCBS, precision wise, the RCBS seater is a pig!

The most fun are blue tips, brown tips-VLRT, (Very Long Range Trace) and M-48s which are a hoot!!!

And a word of caution... I shoot an AR-50, that has a muzzle brake that has been discribed as a condominimum for pigions.

The blast is formidable, and the first day I shot the gun (over 100 rounds) that night, my front teeth hurt from the concussion.

Now I shoot with my mouth closed [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Enjoy it... it's a "Blast" (I made a pun [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] )

.

[cinch]

Does anyone know if the Magtech brass is good? It seems fairly resonable in Midway. My buddy has a McBros that is actually serial #50 with a Lilja barrel. I think he has gotten me into an expensive journy. This seems like you have to learn about reloading all over again. Anyhow, thank you all for your comments.