Well my brother put down an order for a LAR Grizzly last weekend at the Las Vegas show, now I have a bunch of questions for someone:

First, the gun is supposed to have a "Match chamber" which prevents it from chambering gov't surplus ammo. It seems to me that this would probably be shorter freebore rather than a tight chamber but haven't gotten an answer yet from anybody.

Anyone have any experiences/opinions about the Grizzly? I guess the loading is somewhat unconventional but should work fine for a target rifle, which is all this will ever be. Any other thoughts from someone with a sore shoulder?

How about reloading? I suppose the RCBS ammomaster is the most economical press, unless a rockchucker can work but again I have NO experience at all loading for this!

TIA,

Mark

Mark,

1. It MIGHT have a slightly tighter throat or neck. I have heard that people using milsurp brass frequently have to neck-turn for civilian rifles. Forster sells a kit for this.

2. In RCBS, the Ammomaster is the only way to go. The case won't even fit in a Rockchucker.

There are a large number of varients of the .50 BMG cartridge that are called ACCURACY chambers. The most common use the JGS .50 BMG accuracy reamer and it has a neck much tighter in dimensions than the military .50BMG. The throats will also vary in length depending on whether it was set up to shoot military ball or 750 A-max's. Most people throat these guns seperately anyhow.
Most grizzly LAR's I've seen shoot OK with a load of 220grs of 50BMG and 750 A-max's.( don't buy the crap about <1moa out of them, you will be lucky to shoot 2-3 MOA particularily in the wind. Not because the gun won't shoot, but because you won't be able to hold consistently ( it won't ride the bags) and you will not at first be able to judge the wind.
Buy good brass and don't scrimp and use old military stuff. Turn the neck till the cartridge just fits. If possible make a cerrosafe cast of your chamber and measure how far out the throat goes. Keep the cast and evey 200 rounds do another one. This way you can see how much barrel erosion a .50 causes. ha ha!
A ammomaster press will work fine, but get good dies.
Remember a .50 BMG primer must be armed to seat properly and if it isn't armed ,it's the biggest cause of misfires. You will have big problems at any santioned rifle range if your .50 BMG misfires. You could even lose your hand if you open the bolt on a misfired cartridge and it goes off. Be really really careful! I've seen it happen!
Finally, buy a nightforce scope ($1000)and really stout rings. These guns break scopes like mad and a cheap scope will be destroyed very quickly.
I've just given you some very solid info on the world of .50BMG, that I've had to learn the hard way over 10 years of shooting them. I hope it helps.
These things are extremely expensive and not the best choice for toting to the 7-11 as Dianne Feinstein would like us to believe.-Rob

Mark-
Ask the men who own one. Biggerhammer board is all about BMGs...and the occasional .338LM or Solothurn. Lotsa guys have the less expensive BMgs so you should get plenty of good advice.

http://www.biggerhammer.net/barrett/wwwboard/index.cgi?#61940

Rob and anyone else:

What sort of dies are the "good dies"? The only ones I've seen so far are the RCBS ones. At $211 from Midway I'd hope they would be good quality, but any other suggestions?

LDO: Geez the biggerhammer link looks like a real time-sucker! You're right, lot of information there!

CH4D makes bushing dies for the 50BMG that are truly excellent. They also cost a whole lot more. You will need them if you get a match chamnber ( i.e. tight neck). RCBS dies are not set-up for 750 A-maxs unless you alter them and most importantly they may not properly size your neck depending on what dimension it actually is! You will not be the first to learn this lesson! The world of .50 BMG's literally is the same as competition benchrest but at 5 times the cost.-Rob

If your rifle has a match chamber, then personally, I think you would be penny wise and pound foolish to buy dies made to "generic" standards, like the Hornady or RCBS. The CH4D dies are second to none, and for neck sizing you can purchase individual and inexpensive ($15) neck size bushings to fit your exact chamber/case dimentions. They are only expensive until you spend $200+ on "cheaper" dies only to find out they don't work well with your tighter chamber. For all I know for certain the RCBS and Hornady MAY work just fine, but I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that you would be bucks ahead in the long run and much happier with CH4D dies. The one's I have are not so much tools, but machining works of art. You are spending thousands of dollars on a match rifle; don't try to save a few bucks and cheap out on dies or your scope. Those are the two biggest mistakes I see by newbies, cheap dies and cheap scopes.

[This message has been edited by Big Bore (edited 02-10-2002).]