I have shot my .50 unbraked, but the beast weighs 42 pounds. I certainly wouldn't want to shoot an unbraked .50 that only weighed 20 pounds, talk about painful and probably dangerous.
Lets see 800 gr bullet at 2650fps. out of a 20 lb. unbraked rifle. That equals about 175ft/lbs of recoil. That is about what the old 4 bores dished out. You can tolerate it once or twice, but its in the realm of broken collar bones. The recoil pulse of a .50 BMG is slow so you probably won't lose control of the gun. It will just clobber you! Now why in the world would you shoot a beast like that when fully functional muzzel breaks are available that cut the recoil by 50 %?-Rob
Posts: 6314 | Location: Las Vegas,NV | Registered: 10 January 2001
You will notice that all the guns in the FCSA Pics from the previous post have clam shell brakes that cut the recoil by 50 %. In the heat of a match one time I forgot to re-install my muzzel brake on my 40lb heavy class .50. It was an experience I won't easily forget. -Rob
Posts: 6314 | Location: Las Vegas,NV | Registered: 10 January 2001
Heard of a guy that did it once to 'feel' the recoil...
He pulled the trigger and wasn't holding on tight enough (ever seen Saeed's T-Rex videos?). The scope came at him so hard, it gave him a half moon cut down to the bone above his eye. The scope was also ripped off the gun either from the impact on his skull or the impact from the ground. He was knocked completely off his bench and the gun landed about 6ft from him.
Now have I ever shot any of mine without a brake? Heck no! I'll let someone else try that. My brains arent that scrambled...yet ;-)
I used to have a 17 pound (YES, I said 17 pound) bull-pup .50BMG that my buddies and I would take out to the desert and up to the range. The recoil was, lets just say, dramatic. My 230 pound buddy would shoot it from a standing position and it would rock him back on his heels. Another friend of mine got too close to the scope while on the range and it cut his forehead to the bone as described above. Fortunately the rangemaster's wife fixed him up and even made us sweetrolls ! I can only honestly compare the recoil of that weapon off the bench to being punched in the side of the head. It was as accurate as any rifle I have ever shot . . . but painful. Oh yeah, it HAD a break on it.
JohnTheGreek
Posts: 4697 | Location: North Africa and North America | Registered: 05 July 2001
Quite a few years ago I shot about 60 rounds out of my 46lb. bench rest 50BMG at a two day 1000yd. Bench Rest match. It had no brake on it at the time. I later built and installed several different brakes for it. The recoil was more like a very quick shove with no sharp hit. Had to sit up straight at the bench so as to rock back with the recoil. Would not want to lean into it. Got a headache from the fast shove after a while, but really felt very little on my shoulder.
Posts: 239 | Location: North Smithfield, RI USA | Registered: 09 March 2002
Acually, its a piece of cake, I customized my 50 BMG to 9 lbs. and removed the brake, so I could carry it all day, recoil is quite shootable...give it a try, be a man!!
Ray- Todd E and I will pay to see you shoot it! In fact we will charge admission! If we make enough,perhaps it will cover the reconstructive surgey costs.-Rob
Posts: 6314 | Location: Las Vegas,NV | Registered: 10 January 2001
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