The .50 BMG can produce more than 80 ft-lbs of recoil energy, which, to be curt, is ridiculous.
Just for comparison, let’s consider the .300 Win Mag, which is generally considered another hard-kicking cartridge; it only produces around 30 ft-lbs. The .50 BMG kicks nearly three times as hard.
Now let’s make this even more accessible. A 12 gauge shotshell loaded with an ounce of fine shot – which everyone has shot at some point or other – will produce around 17 ft-lbs of energy.
You can see where we’re going with this. On paper, a rifle like the ArmaLite AR50 should kick like a beast, not just a mule.
It doesn’t, though, and there are two big reasons for this. If recoil has been your obstacle to long-range shooting with a .50 cal, don’t let that stop you here.
The Rifle Itself
First, let’s look at the rifle. The ArmaLite AR50 weighs nearly 40 pounds – 37.1, to be more precise – which is just ridiculous by most metrics.
Just think about a rifle chambered in the aforementioned .300 Win Mag, or even a 12 gauge. Those platforms will likely weigh somewhere between 7 or 8 pounds, give or take.
This means that on one end of the spectrum, the AR50 weighs not just more, but in the area of five times more.
Note that the cartridge doesn’t necessarily produce 5 times as much recoil energy, and you can see how the math stacks up.
The point is the rifle is heavy enough, just on its own, to eat up most of the recoil produced by its cartridge.
That alone is quite a big deal, but even if it weren’t there’s another big reason that this platform actually doesn’t produce the recoil you’d expect from it.
It’s Outfitted with a Muzzle Brake
The ArmaLite AR50 has one more secret trick up its sleeve, although it really isn’t too much of a secret.
Just take a look at the rifle for sale from some vendor that sells it. Now look closely at the front of the gun.
See that? It’s a huge muzzle brake. Pretty much every dealer that sells the AR50 sells it with one.
Now, the muzzle brake goes a long, long way towards effectively redistributing gasses at the muzzle, not just cutting back on muzzle rise, but also keeping your sight picture clearer and, you guessed it, keeping a lid on recoil.
Between the fact that the rifle weighs almost 40 pounds and the fact that it comes with a muzzle brake, you’re really not looking to shoulder that much recoil.
And guess what. The rifle has a threaded barrel, so even if by some chance you were looking at a seller that didn’t package it with a muzzle brake, you could add one yourself.
Where to Score a Deal on an ArmaLite AR50
Yes, you read that right, even though by most reasonable people’s standards, this is a ludicrously expensive rifle.
Take a look at B&B Firearms, where the ArmaLite AR50 is listed for sale (currently, this is subject to change) at $4,500. That’s a fair sum for a long-range rifle.
Now let’s say you don’t have all the cash to pay up front or you just want to keep some in the bank generated interest (rates are high right now after all).
B&B Firearms offers an interest-free payment plan. You put down 20% and make the rest of the payments in installments – with no interest accrued.
In a market like this, if that’s not a deal, nothing is.
