Living with the AR-15

Living with the Big .50
The Shooter's Guide to the World's Most Powerful Rifle

by Robert H. Boatman

Copyright 2004
Softcover
164 pages
121 B/W photos
Personally Signed to YOU by the Author

$24.50 (+ $5.00 shipping)

Here’s the Table of Contents from Living with the Big .50:

1    What the Hell is That?: The author’s introduction to the world of extremes
2    The .50 in Perspective: How big and bad is the .50 BMG really?
3    Thanks Again, John Browning: A brief history of BMG time
4    What Carlos Hathcock Taught Us: How the greatest sniper did his best work a mile and a half away from his targets
5    The Seduction of Long-Range Shooting: By “long-range” he means “lo-o-o-o-ong-range”
6    The New World of Recoil Compensators and Muzzle Brakes: Retinal detachment got you down? Soften the blow
7    Other Heavy-Duty Accessories: Complementary equipment such as silencers, range-finders, scopes and supports
8    Single-Shot Rifles: Sometimes one shot is all you need
9    Bolt-Action Repeating Rifles: The one-two punch from hell
10    Semiautomatic Rifles: Laying down the line
11    Machine Guns: The way things were meant to be
12    Ammo: The Fuel and Warheads of the .50: Armor-piercing, tracers, frangible, incendiary, take your pick
13    You’re not Alone: The brotherhood of all shooters
14    Max Joseph on Sniper Training: TFTT founder whomps mines from afar
15    Russ and Chick Menard on Building Your Own .50: It’s like building a rocket ship in your backyard
16    Mark White on Silencers: Heavy-duty muffler for your monster
17    Robbie Barrkman on the .50’s Evolution: “If it’s ‘good enough,’ then it ain’t good enough.”
18    Dale Schuerman on the Future .50: “I can customize these rifles at little or no extra cost.”
19    Rock McMillan on Accurate Rifles: “From the time I was little I remember my dad had a hobby shop building guns…”
20    Jim Schmidt on Coyotes, Ammo and .50 Things in General: “Brass is far more crucial than people realize”
21    Stewart Wilson on the Raufoss Revolution: Is that a armor-piercing high-explosive incendiary round in your pocket?
22    Skip Talbot on Ragged Holes at a Thousand Yards: Reaching out to all shooters
23    John Yenason on Hunting Africa with the .50: Preparation is half the hunt
24    Scott Hively on Hunting North America with the .50: Sometimes the projectile weighs as much as the quarry
25    Wendy Henry on Women and Children and .50s and Ballet Dancing: And holding the world’s long-distance hunting record
26    Ma Deuce is Alive and Well: The 128-pound mother of all .50s
27    Come and Take It: You are fighting for everyone
Conclusion and Comprehensive List of .50 BMG Suppliers

The New Terrorist Weapon!

Modern 50-caliber rifles have become the latest scapegoats not only for anti-gun politicians, but for much of the gun fraternity at-large. Granted, the platform is defined by its extremes, but before we condemn this unique firearm learn the truth about the historical significance and awesome power of the weapon that has the greatest gun-smithing minds and most accomplished sharpshooters enthusiastically supporting it.

If you are already a .50 shooter, then in Living with the Big .50 you will meet other shooters utilizing your favorite gun in diverse environments for various purposes. If you are new to the .50, allow Living with the Big .50 guide you out of the propaganda forest into a new world of appreciation for this highly capable and fun gun. Along the way you’ll learn why it is actually among the least likely weapons to be used by terrorists, while actually being one of the most important cornerstones of your Constitutional Rights.

The gun fraternity is a large one, made up of an extremely diverse group of individuals. When the members stick together, the gun fraternity is one of the most powerful political forces for freedom in the world. When the members fall prey to petty internal politics, fight among themselves like spoiled children, and degenerate to the level of self-absorbed jealousies and squabbling we expect to find in the local PTA or a city council meeting or a riotous barroom on a Saturday night, then gunowners become their own worst enemies.

Every person who owns a gun should be a member of the National Rifle Association. The NRA is the largest and most effective gun rights organization we have. Only 4 million of us gun owners are card-carrying NRA members. There should be 10 times that many. Still, and with whatever faults such a large association is bound to have, the NRA is a powerful political force for the good of all shooters.

Every shooter worthy of inclusion in the great firearms fraternity must stand tall and proud, shoulder-to-shoulder with his fellow shooters, with no apologies to his critics, no compromises with his enemies, no hiding in the closet when the heat gets turned up. He must defend with all the ferocity of which he is capable not only his own guns and his own shooting activities but those of all others, no matter what kinds of guns they own or what they shoot with them or where or when or who or why.

I hesitate to repeat Ben Franklin’s timeless admonition for the billionth time, but I will anyway because he might have had the gun fraternity in mind when he wrote it: “We must all hang together or assuredly we will all hang separately.”

Robert H. Boatman
Chapter 13, Living with the Big .50

The 50-caliber rifle is infinitely more powerful than any other shoulder-fired rifle on the planet. No matter how you measure energy or stopping power, the .50 BMG is well off the charts. In the hands of police and military snipers, it can reach out, over, through and into places and things no other rifle can come close to approaching. In the world of civilian shooters, a rapidly growing international group of competitive marksmen cover five-shot groups on targets 1,500 yards away with the palms of their hands. For hunters, it’s possible to kill a pull elk cleanly at more than 900 yards with the .50 BMG.

Living with the Big .50 is the most thorough book ever written on this powerhouse rifle. Author Robert Boatman takes the reader out to the range and examines the single-shot, bolt-action, semiautomatic and full-auto variations of the rifle; advanced and specialized ammunition for military, police, competition and hunting applications; and recoil compensators, muzzle brakes, sound suppressors and other heavy-duty accessories. He then documents the words and wisdom of 13 of the biggest names in 50-caliber shooting today, including premier rifle builders Robbie Barrkman and Rock McMillan and renowned shooters Skip Talbot and Max Joseph.

The first time I fired a .50 BMG it was at a big steel drum 40 yards downrange. I delighted in the deafening roar of the muzzle blast, the stream of fire shooting out the barrel, the violent recoil that told me I was definitely operating heavy machinery. Frankly, I didn’t care if I hit that big target or not, or where I might have placed the bullet. I’ve come a long way since then, and so have most .50 shooters. Today, I wouldn’t bother to pull the trigger on a steel drum unless it was a mile away.

Robert H. Boatman
Chapter 5, Living with the Big .50

Perhaps more than any other firearm, the Big .50 is under assault by gun banners who see no “legitimate purpose” for such a powerful rifle. Read this book and learn not only its many purposes but why it is vital that free citizens always maintain the right to own one.

While a muzzle brake reduces the recoil of a .50 BMG to tolerable levels, it also creates certain problems - the increased muzzle flash and dispersal of gas lights you up and raises a cloud of dust and debris all around your muzzle that clearly identifies you as a target; the muzzle blast redirected back toward your face and its attendant increase in the sound level by about eight decibels and blast overpressure by about 50 times does nothing to improve your concentration; and the whiplash effect of compensated recoil can be death on complex circuitry such as the kind you have in your head. A good suppressor reduces recoil almost as much as a muzzle brake with none of the problems and with special benefits of its own.

Robert H. Boatman
Chapter 7, Living with the Big .50

Say Hello to the Big Fifty!