You can buy a.50-cal. Whether you’re looking to buy a.50-cal rifle or a.50-cal, these are the best.50 BMG ammunition on the market. Many still enjoy shooting it, even though it isn’t for the sake of its incredible power. Some people love it for its lesser-known ballistic properties. We’ll also discuss the cartridge’s general utility, as well as a selection.50 BMG ammunition to suit different budgets and purposes. A.50 BMG cartridge next to a 1 Euro coin. Photo: Wikipedia. A Brief Guide to.50 and.50BMG History. The 50 BMG or.50 caliber Browning Machine Gun (also known as 12.7x99mm NATO or.50 Browning) was designed for heavy machine guns. John Moses Browning, at the request Gen. John “Blackjack”, Pershing, did the initial design work. This was shortly after the end World War I. The idea was to have a heavier machinegun that could fire heavy ammunition and powerful enough for penetration of the armor of the day, mainly tanks that were common in WWI. Pershing specified a caliber 0.50 and a muzzle velocity at 2,700 feet per second, based on the German 13.2mm TuF (“tank and plane”) and 11mm Vickers rounds. .303 British next a 13.2mm TuF cartridge. Photo: Wikipedia. Browning developed the ammunition and Winchester worked on the gun. You may have heard that the.50 BMG is a “scaled up.30-06,” which it is. Browning created the gun for it. His idea was to increase the M1917.30-6 water-cooled machine gun. He did this and the weapon was adopted by the M1921. Although the M1921 was a successful weapon, it was still too heavy for its intended purpose and was difficult to use. Winchester was eventually able to achieve 2,750 feet per second with a 660-grain FMJ round. The armor-piercing load could penetrate 1 inch of rolled metal at 200 meters and 0.75 at 500 meters. The US Army realized that the M1921 was not sustainable and began replacing it. Browning died in 1926. The design work was then taken up by others and eventually culminated in the M2 Browning machinegun. Additional load development includes multiple versions of armor-piercing projectiles and incendiary, incendiary arm piercing, tracer, sabot light arm piercing and other sniper rounds. There are a variety of linked.50 BMG cartridges, as well as a 5.56 and a S&W Magnum. Third from the right is a.50-caliber SLAP cartridge. Photo: Wikipedia. Stay Away from SLAP Rounds. Just as AR shooters have a strange love for green-tip 62 grain ammunition (which can cause feeding problems and even damage your rifle), so are some.50 BMG shooters who are fascinated by SLAP tracers. Sabot Light Armor Penetrating round are hard to find on the commercial market. Most of the lots are either very old and unsafe to use or counterfeits. The same problems that plague Bubba’s Wicked Hot Handloads with other calibers are evident with.50 BMG ammunition. Although it is fine to use AP to destroy bowling balls and tracers if you want to, a closer look at Kentucky Ballistics’ neck may be helpful. YouTuber’s Serbu RN-50 exploded on film due to a SLAP shot. Kentucky Ballistics’.50 MMG rifle exploded after a hot SLAP cartridge, severely injuring him. Image source and more info: Kentucky Ballistics. The.50 BMG Blooms into a Long-Range Cartridge. One of the most well-known early uses for the.50 BMG was during the Vietnam War. Carlos Hathcock successfully shot 1.3 miles using a scope mounted on an M2 with a scope attached to it. The idea of the.50 BMG being useful for more than shooting planes and light armored cars was a new one that began to dawn on militaries around the world. Over time, it was also adopted for long-range sniping and anti-materiel/anti-vehicle use where it has since excelled at the role. A rifle chambered with.50 BMG was responsible for almost all of the long-range sniper kill records at greater than a mile. It is incredible because of its insane ballistic coefficient. A.50 BMG load has a G1 ballistic coefficient of 0.7 to 1.0 due to its long bullet length (upto 2.27 inches) as well as its large mass. It cuts through the air like butter, losing velocity at a slower pace than any other cartridge, and slices through the air like an open knife through butter. It can stay supersonic up to 3,500 yards depending upon the load and still carries more energy at the muzzle than a 5.56mm M193 cartridge. Here’s the trajectory table for Hornady’s A-Max load using.50 BMG ammunition. It uses a 750-grain bullet at 2,910fps with a G1 BC at 1.05 (All calculations made using ShootersCalculator, 1.5-inch sight height, 10 mph crosswind, and no corrections to atmosphere). As you can see, it drops at a rate that is not dissimilar to other bullets…but loses only 100 fps every 100 yards. It is one of the most versatile cartridges for long-range shooting. This is why it was used in the GWOT as a sniper round as well as its usual anti-material roles. It’s a great tool for reaching out and touching things. There are many reasons to own a.50 BMG rifle. It’s not. It’s fine if you’re an armorer for a SWAT team and are in an area where vehicle destruction is a concern. But it doesn’t apply to most shooters. It would ostensibly be a dangerous game cartridge to end all dangerous games cartridges, but the sheer size and weight the rifles – the Serbu RN-50 at 12.75 pounds – make it a non-starter for a weapon you’d use free-hand or carry long distances with. You must also consider that an elk shot at 3,500 feet means you need to walk 3,500 miles to process it and then haul it out. This would be terrible. It also assumes that you could make an ethical hit on an animal within this range. To clarify, buying a black Stratocaster won’t make you sound like Dave Gilmour. So, who cares? Practicality is not everything. You can have a.50-BMG rifle for just because…by Jove. It may also prove useful against up-armored muscle cars in the event that the country goes mad Max. The.50 BMG ammo is the least expensive. Lake City’s M33 ballload is the most affordable. It is military surplus from the many ammunitions Lake City produces for the government. The M33 ball is a 660 grain FMJ bullet with a steel core, flat lead base and nominally loaded at 2,910 feet per minute. The M33 ball can be used to defeat barriers, but its main selling point is the price. It can be purchased online for as low as $3 per round, between $415 and $450, for 150 rounds. This is as cheap as it gets. Hornady Match Ammunition 750Grain A-Max.50 BMGHornady’s A-Max 750grain load has a G1 BC value of 1.05 (see the drop-down). This load is ideal for anyone who wants to touch and reach for something. The A-Max load, a hollow point boat tail with a ballistic-tipped hollow-point projectile, is loaded at an advertised 2,820 feet/second and 13,241 foot-pounds energy at the muzzle. There are few better options if you’re looking to ring steel from a mile away. However, it will cost you! The MSRP for a box of 10 is approximately $70 to $90. PMC 660Grain FMJBT is a common type of ammunition in.50BMG. The MSRP ranges from about $70 to $90 per box of 10. It is advertised as being capable of loading at 3,080 feet per minute and 13,688 feet pounds at the muzzle. There are usually boxes of 10 to 200, with a cost between $3.25 and $3.75 per round. It is a little more expensive than Lake City surplus but has a lot more power behind it. You want to make stuff combustible and set it ablaze? Freedom Munitions API (Armor Piercing Incendiary), a 647-grain bullet that can be loaded at 2,750 feet per second, is designed to do both. This bullet would be ideal for barrier defeat, but be aware of the environment it is shot in. Freedom Munitions offers a variety of.50 BMG-AP (including armor-piercing tracer) The API load is quite affordable at $450 per 150 boxes. It can also be linked if you have a belt fed to send it through. Lake City M17 Tracer 643 Grain Another variety of surplus.50 BMG ammunition to look out for if your goal is to get into the really awesome stuff is Lake City 643 Grain tracer. It will look like it has been warmed up, with obvious signs that it has been annealed (required under military contract). There will also be mixed tips (some painted but not), so don’t expect perfection. You can expect a.50 BMG tracer cartridge, which is usually less than $3 per round from most outlets. It is important to be cautious when firing it, as the pyrotechnic charges that create the trace burn at extremely high temperatures and can cause wildfires. Learn More About.50 BMG Ammo and Rifles. 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