50 BMG for hunting?

[jakerazer]

Has anybody ever heard of hunting with a 50 cal BMG rifle. Do they even make expanding bullets for that monster rifle.

[Amphibious]

contact Rick @ www.albertatacticalrifle.com (http://www.albertatacticalrifle.com) . he hunts with his. when it's 1/2" you really don;t need an expanding bullet, but yes, a 759gr Amax has show itself to be a vyer nice hunting bullet in the BMG

the bigger question is.... why would you want to lug around a 40lb rifle and fire ammo that is $10 a shot if you're hunting?

[Brambles]

a couple guys on gunnutz were using their 50 BMG's for hunting last year, interesting results, very accurate long range rifles if they are set up with the proper scopes and stuff. A touch overkill though even in my books, but what the hell, fire away

[greybark]

:lol: Just after the Korean War there were a lot of 50cal guns (Used as a spotter round A/T RR) available to the USA public . Several clubs formed using them mounted on old jeeps and very successfully hunted Elk with them . Wildlife branch than made that use illegal.


REMEMBER -- Keep Your Fingertab on --

[brotherjack]

I dunno about hunting, but I seen a fellow with one showing off on a show on discovery channel or somesuch that could shoot groups at 1000 yards that most of us would consider pretty adequate, if not good, at 100. The 1000 yard groups looked tight enough that I'd expect the gun to make what you'd call 'hunting accuracy' at 2000. (assuming you were prepared to compensate for the trajectory at that kind of distance).

[Kirby]

I dunno about hunting, but I seen a fellow with one showing off on a show on discovery channel or somesuch that could shoot groups at 1000 yards that most of us would consider pretty adequate, if not good, at 100. The 1000 yard groups looked tight enough that I'd expect the gun to make what you'd call 'hunting accuracy' at 2000. (assuming you were prepared to compensate for the trajectory at that kind of distance).

This is the same cartridge that was used by canadian snipers to disable targets(nice way of saying shoot terrorist) out to 2750m. Guys use it for hunting, can't say I understand why, but to each their own.

Kirby

[jakerazer]

Great info guys! A 50 BMG on a jeep for hunting elk! Now thats crazy!
I don't use one but imagine that cartridge in a bush carbine guide gun for Grizzly protection. Super nasty recoil and muzzle blast even with muzzle a break but that would stop them.
I heard the 50 is just a scaled up 30-06 round.

[Rod]

I built a 50 many years ago, used a surplus bbl from the US and built the reciever/bolt from scratch. The bolt had a "T" handle that held the cartridge and was loaded from the rear.

If I remember correctly it weighed upwards of 50lbs and even with that weight it kicked like a mule. We played with it quite a bit and it was accurate enough to make a fatal shot on a man size target on the first round out to a mile!

To each his own but I would never consider the 50 for hunting... just doesn't fall within my opinion of a sporting cartridge.

Cheers
Rod