Price gap has narrowed

[nucone]

While I have no interest in owning or feeding one of these beasts, has anyone else noted that recently the 50BMG rifles and ammo have become suddenly more attractive (relatively speaking of course)? I would love to shoot one however.

 

[KoopaKGB]

If I had

A) Money to buy the rifle, high quality scope and lots of expensive ammo
B) At least a half mile worth of land to shoot it on.

Then they'd be very attractive to me. Until then I'll stick to 50-100 yard shooting or so with more common calibers.
There was a time I was interested in those cheap (cheap for .50) uppers that assembeled to the AR lowers. Safety Harbor Firearms sells these things for $1800. But then you're still going to have to buy a very high quality Optic. And the ammo

 

[50bmgshooter]

While I have no interest in owning or feeding one of these beasts, has anyone else noted that recently the 50BMG rifles and ammo have become suddenly more attractive (relatively speaking of course)? I would love to shoot one however.

They have always been attractive!

 

[shibumiseeker]

But then you're still going to have to buy a very high quality Optic. And the ammo
[/IMG]

Bah. A SWFA SuperSniper 10 or 16x42 scope runs $300, a set of quality 30mm rings can be had for less than a hundred. The SS is rated for .50bmg.

Yeah, you can't put a $50 BSA scope on it, but I wouldn't put a BSA on any rifle. If you want high quality glass you're going to pay for it regardless of the rifle you put it on.

Surplus .50bmg ammo was still able to be found for less than $3 a round, and I can load better quality for about a buck a round and precision for $2 a round, and you generally don't shoot a hundred rounds in a sitting. Usually 5-10 is enough.

Feeding my 2 .50bmgs is not that expensive, but I did put a NF NXS on my precision rig, and as soon as I can afford it my precision .308 will wear one too.

 

[mike4]

Even before the most recent round of craziness, ammo prices had me leaning toward more long range, lower volume, accurate fire activity for calibers > 5.56mm, like .308 bolt rifle. A .338 Lapua would be nice, but as Koopa notes the tab gets serious when you add appropriate optics.

At least in either case reloading has multiple benefits of cost reduction, working up accurate loads, and low volume of fire is more suited to low rate of production hand loading.

Another interesting metric I've started looking at, is for the complete cost of any system (not just bolt rifles) optics and all; what is the number of good factory rounds you can buy that equal the cost of the weapon. It's getting to where the hardware costs are not all that high anymore in proportion to ammo costs.

 

[KoopaKGB]

Bah. A SWFA SuperSniper 10 or 16x42 scope runs $300, a set of quality 30mm rings can be had for less than a hundred. The SS is rated for .50bmg.

Yeah, you can't put a $50 BSA scope on it, but I wouldn't put a BSA on any rifle. If you want high quality glass you're going to pay for it regardless of the rifle you put it on.

Surplus .50bmg ammo was still able to be found for less than $3 a round, and I can load better quality for about a buck a round and precision for $2 a round, and you generally don't shoot a hundred rounds in a sitting. Usually 5-10 is enough.

Feeding my 2 .50bmgs is not that expensive, but I did put a NF NXS on my precision rig, and as soon as I can afford it my precision .308 will wear one too.

The cheapest I've ever seen .50 BMG ammo was $4 a round. But if you're talking reloading at $1 a round that sounds much more reasonable! Of course you need to invest in the reloading equipment too. And I was assuming you'd need some top of the line glass for this thing and I dont know enough about magnified scopes to invest serious dough into one, other then a fixed magnification 4x ACOG. But anyway I dont want to argue the exact costs of it all. I'm just saying that owning the big 50 is way out of reach for ME due to lack of money and lack of the land I would be comfortable to shoot it on. Theres no way I'd want to stick to just 100 yards if I owned one of these beasts. Someday... maybe. Its free to keep dreaming about it tho!

 

[downrise14]

I've stayed away from the 458 socom because of the ammo prices. If the .223/.556 continues to rise I may just get into a 458 or 338.

 

[shibumiseeker]

The cheapest I've ever seen .50 BMG ammo was $4 a round.

That's because those of us who own .50s are good at scrounging the best prices. Everyone "knows" the .50bmg is expensive to shoot, but it just isn't so, at least no more than other less commonly owned calibers. I will grant you it's not as cheap as .308 or the like, but with most specialty rounds in other calibers running $2-3 a round, it's not wildly more expensive, and it certainly isn't the most expensive less-common round out there. There's a lot of reasons NOT to own one, but cost really shouldn't be a deciding factor.

I owned my first 2 .50s for several years before my home range went beyond 100 yards and had a lot of fun shooting them at 100 yrds. Yeah, it's a waste of the capability of the round, but so what when shooting 3 rounds in a day could put a huge smile on my face. Most centerfire rifle rounds are wasted only shooting 100 yards yet most folks don't think twice about it.

 

[1911ly]

I have a AR-50 50bmg. It's a hell of a gun! I love to shoot it. I'd let you but you'll do it buy my rules. Including extreme safety and you paying for the ammo :-)

It have a mono and Bipod so it is easy to get on target. A have a Leupold 6-18x40 scope. I am not sure where you live. I have a range I can use out to 200 yards but it is a fair weather range. Let me know. Maybe a few other owners might want to join