which way to go AR-50 or AR-15 conversion ?

[locotrician]

i intend for my next purchase to be a .50 BMG, i know all about the barrett and i know its a wonderful weapon but i am looking for an alternative, as of now i am looking at the Armalite AR-50 and an AR-15 conversion kit from ALS. according to ALS there are no durbiltiy issues or concern of recoil on the small AR15 pins . so i amasking if anyone has any experience or opions/knowledge on eihter of theese or similar rifle setups. thanks

 

[James Jones]

I have a friend that has a Ferret upper for his 50 and he loves it , it does shoot well and he has had no issed with the reciever pins BUT , he is using a stainless steel lower he bought to build a heavy varmint gun , the pins look fine and I take them outand inspect them ever time I see him with the gun , he got around 500 rounds through it and the same pins are used and still strait , the concern I would have is not the pins but the pin holes getting out of round from the recoil as the stadard AR lover is aluminum.
His only trouble has been the factroy hammer and spring in the AR lower isin't not as strong as what would come on a dedicated 50 cal rifle and this has caused a few missfires.

The Ar-50 is certainly a better choice if it fits your budget , I think it would be alot better to go with a dedicated gun built for the round that somthing that was made to work with somthing else

 

[Pdvdh]

James Jones; I have a friend that has a Ferret upper for his 50 and he loves it , it does shoot well and he has had no issed with the reciever pins BUT , he is using a stainless steel lower he bought to build a heavy varmint gun , the pins look fine and I take them outand inspect them ever time I see him with the gun , he got around 500 rounds through it and the same pins are used and still strait , the concern I would have is not the pins but the pin holes getting out of round from the recoil as the stadard AR lover is aluminum.
His only trouble has been the factroy hammer and spring in the AR lower isin't not as strong as what would come on a dedicated 50 cal rifle and this has caused a few missfires.

I met a guy at the gun range with a Ferret upper also and he was having the same problems with misfires using the factory hammer and spring in his AR lower.

 

[James Jones]

From what I understand all the AR-15 upper conversion to 50BMG's have the same problem , the primer on the military ammo is a good bit harder to set off , he doesn't have any trouble with the stuff he got from "Hunt shack" but from what he does with it their no since in spending that kind of money , he just like to here is go off.

I have considered getting an upper chambered in 338 Lapua of the 408 based rounds ,that would be neat but for the cost of it I'd rathe spend a bit more and have a dedicated rifle

 

[jimmym40a2]

I would go with the AR50. It's a great gun and is low on recoil.Keep it dedicated as a 50.

 

[lazylabs]

I don't know exactly what kind of rifle you are building but I used an AR-50 receiver to build a custom rifle on. I wasn't a huge fan of the look of the stock rifle but the action built a nice rifle. I am just finishing the stock for it now and probably have 2K into building the rifle plus rings and scopes. It did come with a nice tapered rail base made for the action. I know thier action was less than 1/2 the price of the BAT or McMillan when I bought mine. If your planning on reloading for it I would suggest staying away from the RCBS ammo master press, mine is borderline useless. Good Luck!

 

[locotrician]

thanks for all the info i did not know you could buy just the receiver from armalite i dont see it listed. anyone know where i could find one or how much they run ? thanks.

 

[locotrician]

does anyone know who makes a replacement stock for the ar 50i currently own a manners i have on another gun do you think they would make one i dont see any of the big names saying that they make them on their sites.

 

[SES50]

I bought my 50 just before the ban went through here in California. I looked at bunch of them at the time including Barrett, Anzio, AR-50 and few others. Now I could not get a semi auto because of the assualt weapons laws that currently existed in California, but also did not want one for the added complexity, weight and accuracy trade offs. So I was looking purely at dedicated bolt guns. In pictures and everything I was really considering the AR-50 until I got to play with one. One of my requirements was that I could carry it into the field and shoot it out on our property. The pure size of the AR-50 made it unwieldy and heavy to transport. It did not seem very useful as a hunting rifle. I ended up buying the Barrett M95 for it size and the fact that is was a repeater. It is my shortest long range rifle and the easiest to put on my quad. I can even shoot it off hand if I wanted to even though I do not do it that often. I do not know what your budget is and what your usage would be that is just my 2 cents. If you are only taking it to the range it will probably be a good rifle because of the added weight will reduce recoil even though the recoil on the Barrett is less than my stock Howa 270 Win. I think the AR-50 is around 40lbs with out the scope and the Barrett 95 is under 30lbs with the scope. I have not shot any of the other 50BMGs but what gets me on the first couple shots from the M95 is the concussion from the muzzle brake. After two shots from the thing I have readjusted to the concussion and things are fine. Maybe the AR-50 with the muzzle brake further away from your face will reduce the concussion blast that the shooter feels.

SES50
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