Did anyone read the article in February Field and Stream about people hunting deer, elk, etc.. with those big 50 cal sniper rifles taking animals from hundreds of yards away? If so what is your stance toward that method of hunting.

Personally I do not support the idea at all. No one can safely account for a bullet traveling that far no matter how many precautions are taken and also where is the sport in it? They calimed it was hunting bc they have to take in account for windage,elevation,and distance and do some math problems before they shoot. I dont call this hunting, I call it doing math.
Just my two cents on the issue.

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If so then I say yes. If you go by the argument that it is so far away then we should maybe have hunting be restricted to dropping rocks out of trees to count as REAL hunting. Here in MN there are two firearms zones, one for shotguns with slugs and the other for legal rifles. Big difference between shots out to 100yds and shots well beyond. The distance shooters will eventually get bored if it is to easy but I doubt it is really that easy.

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Gotta have hounds in heaven!

i wouldnt mine tryin it,,but i hate math...so im gonna pass..hate to wound somthuin jus cause i cant add

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Antler Valley Coon & Big Game Hounds est. 1999

Personally i dont think theres an animal i would shoot with a 50 bmg, but it does take alot of skill and 3 people to do it. One to carry the gear and do the trajectory, one to judge dis, wind, and backstop and one to shoot. it sounds like "over kill" but shooting 2 miles away takes skill also. my brother inlaw was a sniper in the marines...he has taught me alot. when i first met him i didnt own a high power and swore that i wouldnt. now i have a few and love shooting 200-600 yds it does take practise and skill. back to hunting with a 50 cal i'll leave that up to my knight.

Considering that the .50 BMG was designed to blow apart the engine block in turboprop airplanes, hitting a deer or even and elk with a .50 might be overkill just a bit. I wouldn't stop anyone from doing it, and would do my best to block those who would, but I probably wouldn't myself. Would love to shoot one of those big .50's if given the chance, though.

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Raven Gunsmith
Sales and Service of Fine Firearms and accesories
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Was looking at a guy who has recovered a lot of bullets that pilots who were in training dumped on beaches along the coast of Florida back in WWII. That was by using a metal detector. I think he was really hoping to find some old spanish coins but there were lots of hits on these so he kept them. Lots of fighter pilots did strafing runs so they could get good visual on the bullets hitting sand. Not many tourists at the beach down there back then. LOL Big bullets, two and a half inches long I believe. Definitely meant to tear up something big.

Im not saying dont own 50 cals or that they shold be outlawed ( I wouldnt pass up the opportunity to shoot one)nor am i saying we should be chasing animals with sticks and rocks. Honestly after reading the article i was even convinced its not overkill at the distance. My biggest concern is saftey becasue it doesnt matter how much precaution you take at that distance there is no real way to gurantee your shot being safe from hittting something you didnt plan on. And like someone said it takes three people to carry out this method, in my experience if you get three people together your going to get three diffrent ideas which can easily lead to a big mistake. I think if i was the person pulling the trigger on such a deadly weapon i would want to be the one running every possible situation through my head, i dont want some guy doing all this math and saying yah shoot about 4 feet to the left and the wind should push the bullet right whee you want it. I myself dont like the idea but i would never stop someone from enjoying a hunt, I just wouldnt want to be within about a 20 mile radius of someone doing it.

I didn't see that article yet. Really, with so many decent hunting loads and rifles available this is not something you would be seeing done very much. Did the article list the range of this load as twenty miles? I wonder with all the work it would be to set this up sniper style if you would be anchored to one decent overlook and have your range coordinates figured for likely target opps. Reminds me of a prof. in college, Dr. Kramer of Old Testament studies, who was part of an artillery unit in WWII. We used to get him off topic when we could. They would go after German occupied towns and use the church steeples to sight in their large artillery guns and mortars. He said, 'What a shame what we did to some of those churches but you had to see your hits to figure your calculations'. They figured in range, wind, earth rotation and atmosphere density: makes my brain hurt. He was a smart farm kid from Iowa who tested high on math when he was drafted. I guess then after they had it figured they could drop a whole bucket load of bad times on them. Anyhow, reminds me to pray for our troops today.

I understand, there are alot of factors involved, especially safety. I think in the right environment, it would be OK, there would have to be alot of room between hunters.

no it didnt list the shot distance as being twenty miles but its just the simple fact i dont think its safe, just my opinion. With so many available weapons i dont see what the need is for such a hot/heavy load how ever you want to refer to it. TEchnically I can see this being done in a controlled state but I just dont see the need to take such a long distance shot. I know in my area of the country there is no way you could pull this off. we cant use a rifle period to deer hunt. Ive said it once and ill say it again, I really dont see the point in it but i would never stop anyone from doing it or put down someone who does this. I am not trying to offend anyone with this topic by the way, nor do i hope i have.

interesting discussion though. Thanks for bringing it up, it's not something I ever heard of or thought of doing. Does seem to be not very practical and I think it wouldn't be safe unless it was done by someone who had full training in using that weapon and in a place that was suited for it. Can't think of anywhere like that where I live either.

Personally I don't think it would be very practical. I would'nt want to haul that heavy beast all over the place and it have to shoot it off a bipod. My biggest fear is that if you ban it outright for hunting you give the anti's an in to ban it outright. Perhaps you have to have a special .50 BMG permit that requires proficiency? I dont know, it is a tricky subject. Now that I am in the firearms business I see and hear all amazing the dirty underhanded things the anti will do to take your guns away from you. I really don't want to encourage them in any way.

The .50 BMG(browning maghine gun) using civiline rounds would be limited to not much more than 1000yds. I've seen people shoot them and you have to be in the prone postion to shoot it because of the great recoil. Plus because of the weight(18 lbs.):shock: I wouldn't hunt with it. Could you imagon hualing an 18 pound gun through the woods plus when or if you shoot someting. Plus there would be little to no meat!!!

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I'M BORED!!!! -How 'bout you?

That reminds me, I once held an 8 bore double rifle. The thing weighed 25 pounds and shot a shotgunshell sized brass cartridge full of powder! I was told the recoil was 100 times of a .30-06 (which explains why it weighed 25 pounds. ) No wonder they hired bush natives to carry those things. Even an 18 pound gun you'd need a gun bearer!!

I would love to shoot one! I would never hunt with one personally but I am not against people hunting with them if they choose. I would think that would mess up an animal pretty bad but then again I dont know everything.

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mike coleman