AR-50 Velocity. I need to know what velocity i should be getting with my new AR-50 50 BMG

"Hard to find a place to shoot it". ?????

Not at my summer home,

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Ah that is a beutiful setting. I would love to have a pristine landscape like that. I live in michigan. Everything is pretty much flat and featureless and theres a lot of flat cornfields outside the cities lol.
 
Hi, if there is any fellow ar50 shooters please let me know what velocity i should except with any types of ammunition. Im specificly interested in hornady AMAX. But any information would be appreciated. thank you. I cant find anywhere a list of velocities. and ive posted on other sites. Nobody seems to know. I have some ammo to load but im also just curious. I have yet to shoot the thing. Another person said he was getting pretty low velocity about 2400 FPS but that was with his hand loads i believe. Im curious about other rounds such as pulled api/apit/ap and ball ammo as well.
3064 fps with 660 grain! Just loaded AMAX a couple of days ago...waiting on better weather to Chrono..
I will let you know!
 
Thats cool i just loaded up a couple amax myself. Ill lyk my chrono results as well. Im just waiting on my scope rings to get here. Ive searched everywhere on the internet and optis planet has factory 50bmg amax if anyone is interested. Ive been buting everything from them lately. I cant wait to try everything out and get her dialed in. After cycling the action on the ar50 it makes the 338 feel like a toy lol. Theyve got 285 grn eld match hornady 338 lm ammo as well.but i have yet to find any 168 grn eld 308 ammo
 
Im actually using a budget vortex diamondback tactical 6-24x50 and vortex presicion rings on both my savage 110 338 and ar50. I hope that can stand up to the recoil. Fortunately ive heard the ar50s are the lightest recoiling of the bolt 50s. I just cant bring myself to spend just as much on glass as i did on the gun lol. but in the future i may upgrade. for a scope base i use a 20 moa riser and i have a valdada ram200 which has a setting for 0,50,75,100,150, and 200 Moa.
 
As for powders the old 872 is gone, however US 869 is basically the replacement for it. For velocity, you'll lose around 11-30fps for every inch of barrel length under 36 inches. The closer to 36 being the less amount lost. For example
35" would be 11fps lost
34" would be 13fps lost
33" would be 15fps lost
32" would be 18fps lost
all of those numbers being compounding, assuming the use of US 869. Which is not super temp stable, however it's what comes with most powders suitable for the 50.

On top of that, the temp you're shooting at fan widely change the velocity. Hodgdon lists US 869 as losing or gaining 1.5fps on standard rounds (so possibly more for you) per degree under 75°. So if you are shooting in 30° weather you're losing at least 67.5 FPS just from the temp alone. And most slow burning powders (like 50BMG, and other powders meant for the 50) are similarly temp unstable. Combine that with what is lost with your 30" barrel and you should be in the 2450(worst case) to 2570fps (best case) range assuming 750gr bullet and US 869 at around 30°F. 2400 would not be out of the question but does seem a bit low, however using a bullet with a larger bearing surface could account for such a low velocity.
 
My buddy has an AR50, and we chronographed some Hornady factory 750 AMAX. I can't find the velocity numbers, but I remember it being right around 13,000 ftlbs, which would put the velocity at about 2800 fps.
 
Hornady factory loads are on the hot side. Out of a 25" barrel I was getting 2540, SD of 15. From your AR50 with the longer barrel I would expect up near the advertised velocity of 2750 would be pretty close. If your looking for for a lot of good information, I'd invest the money in a membership with the FCSA. There is a lot of good information on their forum. It's a cheap investment considering the cost of feeding the rifle.
 
Hi, if there is any fellow ar50 shooters please let me know what velocity i should except with any types of ammunition. Im specificly interested in hornady AMAX. But any information would be appreciated. thank you. I cant find anywhere a list of velocities. and ive posted on other sites. Nobody seems to know. I have some ammo to load but im also just curious. I have yet to shoot the thing. Another person said he was getting pretty low velocity about 2400 FPS but that was with his hand loads i believe. Im curious about other rounds such as pulled api/apit/ap and ball ammo as well.
Getting 2850 with 660gr M33 ball out of Barrett M107A1 29" barrel. Barrett listed 2750 typically, but newer chromed chamber/barrels run a little hotter with later spec tweaking.
 
I finally was able to get around to shooting my various factory hand loaded and reloaded 50 bullets in my new ar50. It was awesome.

In my 30 inch ar-50 at 20 yards i was able to achieve:

- w/ Factory match Amax magazine length 750 grain: 2760 FPS wi
- hand loaded Amax 750 grain w/ 215 grains RL-50: 2582 FPS
- I then loaded one with close to max charge 235 grains RL-50: 2785 FPS

I hope this helps anyone. It will at least give you insight if your using the new RL-50 powder. I have yet to try my h50 or us869. but i will updat the information when i get around to it. you can really feel the power increase just from the 8% +/- extra powder.
 
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