Muzzle brake or shoulder break?

[Kelemvor]

Okay, so the Barrett M82’s and MacMillan Tac-50’s and pretty much all other .50BMG chambered rifles have huge muzzle brakes to bring the recoil down to a reasonable amount. While this does take like 60% of the recoil off, how do snipers manage to not totally give away their positions with a huge cloud of dust when they shoot one of these rifles? I know that they have the ports to the side, but it still doesn’t make sense that the pressure being directed to the sides will prevent dust kick up.

Do they shoot them without the brake on?

I have seen silencers made for .50BMG as well, which they cannot port in any direction. Is the trapping of the gasses enough to reduce the recoil to manageable levels?

Speaking of manageable levels, the AAC Cyclops is supposed to reduce the report of a .50BMG rifle to hearing safe levels. Can anyone here attest to this?

[Smith]

It's hard to see a cloud of dust a mile away and hear a shot 2 seconds after the bullet hits your buddy. Good question though.

[nightrunner]

i believe that most use a suppressor when they use the .50bmg as a sniper rifle. a suppressor does reduce felt recoil, how much i cant say.

go to youtube and you will see that shooting a high-caliber rifle will produce significant muzzle blast, whether it has a brake or not. talking .338lapua and up.

[Kelemvor]

It's hard to see a cloud of dust a mile away and hear a shot 2 seconds after the bullet hits your buddy. Good question though.

If it was 1 sniper, a mile away, shooting at a lonely group of a half dozen insurgents, sure, they are all dead. However, what happens when they are closer and larger in number, or even worse, there is a counter sniping unit looking for said sniper?

If nightrunner is right, then that answers my question, a suppressor would eliminate the problem of the dust cloud, muzzle flash, and a considerable amount of recoil.

My other question still stands, though. Can a suppressor really bring the sound within "hearing safe" levels?

[Smith]

If it was 1 sniper, a mile away, shooting at a lonely group of a half dozen insurgents, sure, they are all dead. However, what happens when they are closer and larger in number, or even worse, there is a counter sniping unit looking for said sniper?

If nightrunner is right, then that answers my question, a suppressor would eliminate the problem of the dust cloud, muzzle flash, and a considerable amount of recoil.

My other question still stands, though. Can a suppressor really bring the sound within "hearing safe" levels?

Just trying to be humorous.

[Oh Shoot]

There is a section in Patriots where one of the heroes wets down the ground area around the muzzle just for that very reason.

- OS

[Jasongar8]

Every .50 that I have been around was still loud even with a suppressor. They do help a little, but not enough to shoot very much without hearing protection. Plus .50's are super sonic so you are always going to have the crack of the bullet down range.

-Jason G

[Guest 1shot]

The 50 is not used all that much for close contact snipping. It does make a lot of noise and the case goes flying out the side bouncing around and it does stir up dust at the muzzle. You can place a piece of tarp or something down at the muzzle area to cut down on the dust cloud. Most 50 snipping is done at very long ranges and at light armor or non armor equipment to take it out. If you want to sneaky peat snipe a target you use the M24 or something like it. Shoot and scoot.

[323ssplt]

First, after more than a decade in the Marines and having been a Scout/Sniper for many of those years I have never personally used or seen used a suppressor on a M82A1/M107 50 cal. I know they have them, but, as has been stated they wouldn't do a lot of good. The reason behind a suppressor, even on a supersonic round is threefold, 1, it does reduce the sound signature pretty well, and that sound that is emitted is "redirected" at angles away from the shooter, making it harder to pinpoin where the shot came from. Second, the suppressor reduces muzzle flash to almost nil. This is an awesome advantage for urban sniping and for engaging targets at night. Thirdly, on most guns, the suppressor actually makes the weapon more accurate. On my last deployment to Iraq, I chose to carry the MK11 almost all of the time becasue of the aforementioned benifits of having a suppressor. Our M40A3's are not so equipped.

Now, as to the role of the 50 cal. It was designed as an anti-material weapon. The Marine Corps doesn't even classify it as a sniper weapon system. The reason...it doesn't meet the accuracy definition of a sniper weapon, being 1MOA. The Barrett's, most notably the older M82A1's were 3-5 MOA guns, the new M107's are better, but not by much. Therefore the Corps designated them SASR...Special Application Scoped Rifle. The one and only time I actually fired a Barrett in anger was on a mission that I was prepared for multiple vehicles and wanted something to disable them. Ended up I had to take shots at IED emplacers. I was prone next to a rock building and fired two rounds. The muzzle blast and cuncussion were so bad I knocked myself silly. And I'm still partially deaf in my left ear as well.

As to sniper tactics. In places like Iraq, we roll deep. Most of our teams nowadays are 4-6 man teams. We carry enough firepower to hold our own till the cavalry can arrive i.e, we carry SAW's M203's, Claymores, LAW's and s**tloads of ammo. However, we need this many men for security as well as to bring along something as heavy as a Barrett (34 pounds plus ammo=HEAVY). A conventional sniper mission would not include something like that and would envolve 1-3 well placd shots from a bolt gun and then the team would relocate/egress.

Hope this clears up some questions for you.

[323ssplt]

Last thing......Sonic Crack.. It doesn't matter if the round is ssupersonic or not, because the bad guy doesn't hear the crack until the round is over/near him, not from where the weapon was fired. Just like being in the target butts at a compettion or rifle range.

[Kelemvor]

Thanks 323. I knew it was an anti-materiel rifle, I just wasn't sure how often it is used.

Sucks to hear about your hearing loss. Do you guys not wear any noise limiting hearing protection?

[323ssplt]

I kept trying to get my wife to send my Peltors, but they arrived too late for this little occurrance. Most of the time we don't/can't wear hearing pro because then you can't quietly communicate with your team and can't hear those subtle little sounds that let you know something is wrong. However, it was my fault, I took a prone position RIGHT AGAINST the damned building .If I had been smart about it, I would have crawled a few more feet away before setting up. Oh well, good guys 1, bad guys 0.1:p

Edited July 23, 2009 by 323ssplt