I was talking to a gun shop owner yesterday, and mentioned that I'd re-sleeved a couple of barrels lately. He became really interested, and asked if I could re-sleeve a .50 caliber barrel. He has a Boyes anti-tank rifle which is useless to him because he can't get ammo for it, that he'd like to have it sleeved and converted to .50 BMG. The $64,000 question is: assuming the sleeve was shouldered so that it couldn't migrate forward, do you think it would stand up to the pressures involved? Has anyone done this before with .50 cal?

I've sleeved barrels in .22LR, .25-20, and .32-20 with complete success, but .50 BMG is something I've never dealt with. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Porosonik.

Google says ammo is available. I have seen a couple rebarreled to 50 BMG. I don't know about sleeving.

Use a 50 M2 barrel in the first place. No need to sleeve anything.

This is not a job for the inexperienced. It has been done a lot in the past. Find somebody who has done it before. This not a job to fool around with. There is a tremendious amount of energy being pent up. The result of something being done wrong could be your death.

The last 55 Boyes ammo I tried to shoot was moslty duds. Very expensive too.

So this leads me to ask a question.

If someone had a rifle like this and wanted to keep the original parts, could a new .50 BMG barrel be installed and then keep the original barrel?

Scot4570 and I crossed messages. That sounds like the route I would go if I had the Boyes.