Ammo Spotlight: The .50 BMG (Browning Machine Gun)

Thassa lotta boo-lits. With each cartridge weighing in at around $1.75, they're not the best thing for your savings account.

A while back, I blogged about a giant cartridge called the .458 Winchester Magnum. I'm sure some of you out there thought it was the biggest, baddest mother of a cartridge you ever saw. Well, I'm here again to do you one better. Say hello to our good friend, the .50 Browning Machine Gun cartridge. Better known as .50 BMG or 12.7x99mm NATO, this sucker's been here for a long time and will stay here until the good Lord returns.

Back in the good old days, before World War One, a request was sent to the desk of Our Patron Saint of American Firearms, His Ballistic Majesty John Moses Browning. The miserable pea-brained commanders of the United States military wanted Browning to develop a cartridge and a weapon suited for anti-aircraft purposes. John shook his head and exclaimed "Can't these yokels do anything without my help?" Having said that, he went to the drawing board to make his creations. He started with the help of a previous design, the M1919 series of machine guns, and used that as a template for his new AA gun. For the round, he turned to the .30-06 cartridge as a starting point. He had an idea to "grow" the .30-06, and basically almost doubled the size of it. He then built his super-M1919 to fit around his new round. The results were successful: in 1914, Ol' Moses trotted out his M-2 heavy machine gun, along with the new round: the .50 Browning Machine Gun. The military loved it so much, they married it. However, they waited for three years before making it official. Typical.


The Browning M2 HMG, in its original anti-aircraft role. Sweet.

From there, the .50 had a great life in the military. The M2 was taken into the air aboard the B-29s and B-52s, mounted into the wings of the P-51s and P-40s, taken to the sea aboard Navy destroyers, battleships, and PT boats, stayed on land as a crew-served emplacement, used as a coaxial gun on Shermans, and almost went into space. (Actually, that's a lie. It would be cool, though.) The most amazing part of all this? It's still here! You see them all the time, mounted on HMMWVs, M1A2 Abrams, Strykers, and set up on fire bases and posts all around the world. Some of them are in the hands of ordinary citizens who have a lot of money and time on their hands. And some of the guns in the field are actual vintage, with receivers and side plates dating to the 20s and 30s. Now that's a testament to American craftsmanship.

But enough about the M2. Let's get back to the round. The .50 BMG earned its stripes in more ways than one, and here is a list of some of the variations that were cooked up by the U.S. military.

• Cartridge, Caliber .50, Tracer, M1

Tracer for observing fire, signaling, target designation, and incendiary purposes. The M1 has a red tip.

• Cartridge, Caliber .50, Incendiary, M1

This cartridge is used against unarmored, flammable targets. The incendiary bullet has a light blue tip.

• Cartridge, Caliber .50, Ball, M2

This cartridge is used against personnel and unarmored targets.

• Cartridge, Caliber .50, Armor-Piercing, M2

This cartridge is used against lightly armored vehicles, protective shelters, and personnel, and can be identified by its black tip.

• Cartridge, Caliber .50, Armor-Piercing-Incendiary, M8

This cartridge is used, in place of the armor piercing round, against armored, flammable targets. The bullet is colored with silver tip.

• Cartridge, Caliber .50, Tracer, M10

Tracer for observing fire, signaling, target designation, and incendiary purposes. Designed to be less intense than the M1, the M10 has an orange tip.

• Cartridge, Caliber .50, Tracer, M17

Tracer for observing fire, signaling, target designation, and incendiary purposes. Can be fired from the M82/M107 series of rifles.

• Cartridge, Caliber .50, Armor-Piercing-Incendiary-Tracer, M20

This cartridge is used in place of the armor piercing round against armored, flammable targets, with a tracer element for observation purposes. The tip of the bullet is colored red with a ring of aluminum paint. This cartridge is effectively a variant of the M8 Armor-Piercing Incendiary with the added tracer element. Can be fired from the M82/M107 series of rifles.

• Cartridge, Caliber .50, Tracer, Headlight, M21

Tracer for use in observing fire during air-to-air combat. Designed to be more visible, the M21 is 3 times more brilliant than the M1 tracer.

• Cartridge, Caliber .50, Incendiary, M23

This cartridge is used against unarmored, flammable targets. The tip of the bullet is painted blue with a light blue ring.

• Cartridge, Caliber .50, Ball, M33

This cartridge is used against personnel and unarmored targets. Can be fired from the M82/M107 series of rifles.

• Cartridge, Caliber .50, Saboted Light Armor Penetrator, M903

This is a Saboted Light Armor Penetrator (SLAP) round, which uses a smaller 355-360 grain bullet fitted in an amber colored plastic sabot. For use only in the M2 series of machine guns.

• Cartridge, Caliber .50, Saboted Light Armor Penetrator-Tracer, M962

Like the M903, this is a Saboted Light Armor Penetrator (SLAP) round, with the only difference being that the M962 also has a tracer element for observing fire, target designation, and incendiary purposes. Uses a red colored plastic sabot for indentification. For use only in the M2 series of machine guns.

• Cartridge, Caliber .50, Ball, XM1022

A long-range match cartridge specifically designed for long range work using the M107 rifle.

• Cartridge, Caliber .50, Armor-Piercing-Incendiary, Mk 211 Mod 0
  

A so-called "combined effects" cartridge, the Mk 211 Mod 0 High-Explosive-Incendiary-Armor-Piercing (HEIAP) cartridge contains a .30 caliber tungsten penetrator, zirconium powder, and Composition A explosive. Cartridge is identified by a green tip with a grey ring, and can be used in any .50 caliber weapon in US inventory with the exception of the M85 machine gun.

• Cartridge, Caliber .50, Armor-Piercing-Incendiary-Tracer, Mk 300 Mod 0

As with the Mk 211 Mod 0, but with a tracer component. Cartridge is identified by an unknown coloring, and likely can be used in any .50 caliber weapon in US inventory with the exception of the M85 machine gun, as with the Mk 211 Mod 0.

Whew, that was a whole lotta nomenclature. For the three of you still reading this, the .50 has many more applications than just military use. It has also traveled off the battlefield and into the hands of civilian shooters and enthusiasts. Barnes and Hornady have developed .510-caliber bullets, most notably the A-MAX, with the highest ballistic coefficient that I have ever seen. Hodgdon developed its own powder specifically for the round, H50BMG. As far as I know, surplus is the only known source of brass, but a skilled operator can buy some ordnance-grade brass and turn some cases out on a lathe. Wildcatters have been busy making new rounds from the original specs, and are still making even newer ones. If you don't reload, a couple of manufacturers make .50 BMG ammo, but expect to pay up the ass for them. Rifles range from the mundane to the bizzare; a Barrett M82 or McMillan TAC-50 will set you back $7,000 while a Cobb or Serbu is only $3,500 or so. With the right loads and rifle, and the will to use them, you too can score top marks in one of the several .50 matches held nationwide each year.


A .50 BMG round next to a standard 12-gauge, 2¾" shotshell for comparison. Dang that's big!

Unfortunately, some people on God's green earth don't think you can be trusted with this simple cartridge. My conservative audience will tell me "Mah state ain't got no silly restrictions on no .50 BMG, an' I ain't never heard of no laws about 'em, neither." Ask the gun owners of California, like me. We've heard of a law. It's called AB50, and was passed with a saddening lack of opposition in 2004. Some California Assemblymember was watching too much CNN (Communist News Network) and saw something about .50-caliber rifles, and got his panties in a bunch (Assemblyman Paul Koretz) and wrote up some nonsense legislation to submit to Congress. Sadly, his crap got through all the checks and balances with nary a scratch.

Here's the skinny of AB 50 that the bubbling dunderheads over at Sacramento made law to further their agenda of Nanny-State Re-Stalinization.

-Any and all .50 BMG rifles within the SHPDSRKA* are classified as "assault weapons" pursuant to the Penal Code.
-The .50 BMG cartridge itself is banned form ever entering or leaving the state. The law spells out the exact measurements for the cartridge as well.
-Anybody in possession of a .50 BMG rifle had two years to register it with the CA Department of Justice in order for them to hang on to it. Illegal confiscation of same rifles on the list to be named at a later date.
-No .50 BMG rifle may be imported into the state at any time.

This is what happens when you elect Commies to positions of power. They take their inch that you've given them and create so much boiler-plate language that stretches that inch into 100 leagues. Right now, all the California pro-gun groups are working their butts off to get these laws repealed, and I am proud to say I'm in the fight as well. I will not retreat like a coward when it's obvious that we can win this fight.

But enough of the sob story. In closing, the .50 BMG cartridge is a wholly American design, it has been with us almost 100 years, and it will stay with us forever more. It is a true legend, and that's why it's so great.


*Shiny Happy People's Democratic Socialist Republic of Kaliforniastan. The State of California no longer exists.

I'd like to give a big thanks to:

-AmmoGuide.com for help with the bullet weights and some history,

-ChuckHawks.com for a little more history and some load numbers,

-Wikipedia for the list of cartridge nomenclature and some more history,

-The Fifty Caliber Institute for a LOT of history and info on AB50.

Thanks guys!

Ammo Spotlight: The .30-06 Springfield

104 years and over 10 million rounds can't be wrong: the .30-06 rules.

This is a tale of a cartridge that has been in the United States for over a century, and will remain for many more to come. I'm talking about none other than the .30-06 Springfield.

The ,30-caliber cartridge was developed directly against German ordnance, who had their successful 7x57mm and 8x57mm Mauser cartridges. It was preceded first by the introduction of the 6mm Lee-Navy, in 1895 and the .30 U.S. Army (.30-40 Krag) in 1892. The Krag had a rimmed shell casing and was fairly accurate. The Krag-Jørgensen rifle that fired it is renowned for a butter-smooth action and an ingenious feeding system, but the bolt wore only a single locking lug. This kept the .30-40 round from being loaded over a certain pressure to keep from breaking the action. In 1903, the .30-40 was replaced by the .30-03 (pronounced thirty aught-three) cartridge, which was chambered in the new Springfield Rifle, Model of 1903. The .30-03 had a 220-grain round nose projectile, similar to the bullet of a 6.5mm Carcano or very early 7.62x54R.

The round was well-constructed and worked just fine, but there was one slight problem: by this time, the entire world had switched to the lighter and more accurate spitzer-type bullets. The United States needed to upgrade, and fast. Three years later, enter the .30-06.

Basically a wild-catted .30-03, the case neck was shortened by a few hundredths of an inch, the powder charge was slightly reduced, and the 220-grain RN was replaced with a 150-grain full metal jacket (FMJ) spitzer bullet. And there you have it, folks: the .30-06 Springfield, realized. The metric measurement is 7.62x63mm, although that name didn't really take off. Since it was a smaller size than the .30-03, it could be chambered and fired in the same rifles without any modifications, but accuracy and precision would suffer greatly. So, the U.S. military recalled all the current .30-03s, re-rifled the barrels to optimize the new bullet's performance, re-chambered the bores, and beefed up the actions.

So, what were the guns that were chambered for this round? For starters, there was the Browning Model 1895/14 "Potato Digger" machine gun; the Springfield Rifle, Model of 1903; the Model 1917 Enfield Rifle; the Browning M1928 BAR, the M1 Garand rifle, the Model 1941 Johnson, the Browning Model 1919A4 and A6 machine guns, some Gatling Guns with the hand cranks, the Benet-Mercie 1909 Machine Rifle, the 1917 Chauchat, and the Lewis Gun. The .30-06 had a great run as a military cartridge until 1954, when the U.S. Army decided to play with it some more. With a shorter shell casing and a modernized bullet, from the .30-06 was born one of the best intermediate centerfire rifle calibers ever made: the .308 Winchester, or 7.62x51mm NATO cartridge.

The .30-06 Springfield was the U.S. military's main cartridge for over 50 years, so naturally it was designed to perform more duties than simply anti-personnel use. Among the many versions of cartridges that were made were ball (FMJ), armor-piercing, incendiary, tracer, dummy, blank, rifle grenade launching rounds, explosive targeting rounds for marking areas of fire for artillery, and match rounds, which are highly accurate.

After the .30-06 cartridge was officially retired from military service and replaced by the .308 Winchester, it was already the favored hunting caliber of the country, well-suited for deer, elk, and other medium game. Several attempts to create new cartridges through wild-catting have produced four popular rounds still available today: the .25-06 Remington, the .270 Winchester, the .280 Remington, and the .35 Whelen. But it doesn't end there. This cartridge is being made continuously by nearly every major ammo manufacturer out there, in all sorts of bullet weights, powder charges, bullet types and velocities for everything from super-accurate match ammo to bonded hunting rounds designed to take down the toughest game. If you are an avid shooter, you are guaranteed to shoot a .30-06 Springfield at least once in your life. I have, and it is an awesome round, and I guarantee you will like it, too.

Ammo Spotlight: The 7.62x39mm M43

A bunch of 7.62x39mm cartridges, namely the Yugoslavian M67 type. It featured a bullet with a lead core and a hollow cavity on top to promote yaw once it hit flesh.

AK-47. SKS. Mini-30. RPD. You hear these words and think of assault rifles, machine guns, weapons of terror, deadly killing machines that can mow down an entire field of troops with one pull of the trigger.

Or, that's what the media wants you to believe. What all these guns have in common is they share the same ammo. That ammo is the well-known 7.62x39mm.

The history of this cartridge starts at the end. The end of World War II, to be exact. The Russians loved their Mosin Nagants, but these rifles were too big and bulky, and the 7.62x54R rounds were just too powerful for the close-in fighting that was going on. So they took a hint from the Germans, and based a new round off the 7.92 Kurz (of MP44 and FG42 fame) to be used in auto-loading carbines, assault rifles, and light machine guns.

First in the family is the Samozaryadnyj Karabin Simonova, or SKS carbine. Although they weren't perfected and issued until 1949, they were tested in the front lines in 1945 to much acclaim, and the 7.62x39 round started its tour as Russia's new cartridge.

In 1947, the much-acclaimed Avtomat Kalashnikova was issued as the standard infantry rifle for Soviet military, and remained so until 1974, where it was replaced by the AK-74. But the 7.62x39 didn't stop there. Far from it.

Before the 5.45mm takeover, the Soviets sold several million AKs and ammo to other groups, some benign, some malicious. They also sold the plans for the AK to several countries, who in turn started producing their own variants. Soon, the AK population exploded as everybody was building more and more of these rugged and dependable rifles, and selling them for peanuts on the dollar.

In 1987, Ruger produced a version of its Mini-14 autoloading rifle chambered for 7.62x39, called the Mini-30. These guns are not as well-known as the SKS or the AK, but they are in the same family nonetheless.

Now, back to the bullet. The 7.62x39mm M43 cartridge as we know it today was designed by Mikhail Timofeyevitch Kalashnikov - who also designed the rifle of the same name - to be an intermediate-range cartridge designed to provide aimed, rapid fire in offensive or defensive situations. The projectile itself is a 123-grain full metal jacketed boat-tail with a steel core and lead filler in between. The case is Berdan-primed, which means the anvil is a part of the cartridge case and is not included in the actual primer bit. These cartridges are not the easiest to reload, and is not recommended to be attempted by handloaders, who prefer to use Boxer-primed ammunition.

The steel core of the projectile has one drawback, though - it keeps the bullet stable, and yaw only begins after passing through about a foot of organic tissue. Not an effective anti-personnel round by average means. The Yugoslavians improved on this misgiving by creating an air cavity in the nose of the projectile - the M67. This air cavity moves the center of gravity to the rear of the projectile, and yaw in organic tissue begins at half a foot. Not as effective as an expanding bullet, but an improvement nonetheless.

There is some dispute that the 7.62x39 has as much power as the .30-30 Winchester cartridge. This is not true. The case size can't hold enough powder to propel that projectile to .30-30 velocities. Also, a common misconception is that the 7.62mm projectile is .308 inches, like the American 7.62mm projectile. This, too, is wrong. Russian 7.62 ammo is actually .310 or .311 inches, but can be fired safely in .308 bores, which might cause a slight swage in the bullet. The Mini-30's barrel is .308" diameter, but it can accept the surplus .311 ammo just as well.

Also, the Mini-30 doesn't stand up well to the surplus corrosive-primed ammo. After firing corrosive ammo through any firearm, you should immediately swab the bore, chamber, and bolt face with a 50/50 mixture of Windex and ammonia on a patch, and then a dry patch to get it all out of there. If left unchecked, all that superheated salt can turn that rifled bore into a sewer pipe.

7.62x39 is one of the cheaper centerfire calibers that can be found in the shooting world, but by no means is it a big boy's .22LR. Ammo prices aren't that cheap, but you can still have lots of fun when you buy in bulk.


No matter what your take is on the rifles that chamber it, the 7.62x39 is a versatile, reliable, if not underappreciated cartridge that certainly has a place in the shooting world