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But I recently got a Barrett M82A1 and love to see just how far I can shoot the .50 cal rounds to hit things.

Does this version sound any better?

Two words. Drone Season. There you go, its a self correcting problem. You can increase the tax base by selling licenses too. Just thing, for $75 bucks every gun toating, drunk ass redneck can fill the sky with lead.

No..its a fantastic idea!! Using one of these babys...load up and yell PULL as soon as you see a drone coming your way....

How exactly do you plan on shooting down a black hawk helicopter

Well, even one of these would make life very stressful indeed for a hostile Blackhawk, especially if you can secure some AP ammo. With several fighters equipped with these, that Blackhawk may quickly be doing a Mogadishu re-enactment.

http://www.gunsinternational.com/Browning-BAR-Grade-II-69-Belgium-30-06-Blond-Wood.cfm?gun_id=100304244

My father carried the full-auto military version in WW2. He told me it would punch holes in German light-armor like half-tracks, armored cars, etc. Even with standard FMJ ammo it penetrates walls, tees, bricks, and concrete extremely well. It was also one of the favored weapons of Bonnie & Clyde and the Barrows gang.

Of course, one of these could punch *big* holes in a Blackhawk or Apache and ruin their entire day.

http://www.barrett.net/firearms/m107a1

And it's legal to purchase and own in the US. And I know for a fact that .50BMG-AP rounds are readily available, even to the point they're not *that* much more expensive on the black market than legally-available surplus FMJ. Seems that since the US military has had so many different theaters of combat going lately that a lot of military weapons, ammo, and material has produced a bit of an overabundance of supply in the black markets around the world, including domestically in the US.

But heck, even without AP ammo, if one were to put a .50BMG round through both the side-doors, passing through without actually striking anything, the shockwave alone from the .50BMG round would likely kill or incapacitate anyone within a few feet of the rounds' path.

If a bunch of Jihadis in a 6th-century region can take out helos, depend on US citizens being able to take them down, even without Stingers or RPGs.

Strat

The gun is chambered for a 7.62 NATO round. That's like a .30 caliber bullet. A pretty common caliber for anyone who hunts medium sized game. It's a semi-auto rifle as well, so nothing incredible about that. If you ignore the 20 roiund clip, this rifle doesn't do anything out of the ordinary except look "scary".

A Barret .50 would have been much more exciting to receive.

    There's a limit of some sort. I'm pretty sure it's the total weight of the bag, just like any other checked luggage.

    I don't typically carry an assault rifle, since it's not usually what I need with me. :) I do carry a pistol and two loaded magazines. I pack it in a TSA/FAA compliant way.

http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/assistant/editorial_1666.shtm

    The pistol has to be in a locked hard case.

    I have one of this hip pouch holsters, even though I don't actually use it. I leave both magazines loaded in it, with the zipper shut. You aren't suppose to store the ammunition with the pistol, so the magazines don't go in the locked hard case.

    The in-the-pants holster goes in the locked hard case with the pistol. The tactical (leg) holster gets left loose in the luggage. I bring both, so I'm prepared for which every carry method I need. I usually carry concealed. I like having the tactical holster somewhere close by, in case I need it.

    Both the hip pouch and the pistol case get put into my one checked luggage bag.

    When I get to the airport to depart, I move everything when I'm getting my bags out of the car. That way I can go straight to the ticket counter, declare it, and leave the bag with them.

    When I arrive at my destination and get my luggage, I check to make sure everything is still there. When I get to the rental car, I rearrange it to my normal non-tactical carry position. That's usually in my laptop bag, so I can reach it quickly if necessary.

    It may not seem quite right, but I ask to verify every time I check the luggage at the airport. If they want it packed differently, I'll work with them. Having the ammunition isn't a big deal. If they told me that I couldn't bring it, I'd politely hand it off to a LEO. I have not been asked to surrender the ammunition yet. I can always buy more when I get to my destination.

    I know their rules have changed. Not too long after 9/11, I had to open the locked case, so a LEO could inspect to verify the weapon was not loaded. More recently (in the last few years) my assurance that it is not loaded is all they require. In both cases, there's a very small form for me to sign, which goes in the luggage.

    The first time I flew with a weapon, I had a friend drive me to the airport, just in case I was told I was carrying wrong. My friend thought it was amazing. Because I declared a weapon, I got special treatment, which was amazingly polite. My bag doesn't just get tossed with the rest. It gets a personal escort for TSA screening. That's just so the screener knows there is a declared weapon.

    Last time I was departing home, there was another guy with a huge custom rifle case. Judging by the size of the case, he probably had something like a Barrett Arms 50 BMG of some model. It made my .45 ACP pistol look like a toy. His ammunition probably cost more than my weapon. :)

.50 caliber BAR. Hmm, never heard of it because it doesn't exist.

Perhaps; but it is a very popular illusion (it is made in .50 BMG and in .416 Barrett.)

I'm surprised they don't have a scope that can be programmed with ballistic info for your round. Either using canned data for a given projectile/load or with custom measurements taken using custom loads to account for velocity, bullet drop, wind speed and direction and humidity.

They do have something like this, commercially available even. Barrett Optical Ranging System

The only thing out of your list that it doesn't have is 1) its own laser ranging system 2) it doesn't account for wind or humidity. Laser ranging isn't a big deal, there are some very good commercial units available, and you can also use the mil-dots in the scope to guess range up to 1000+ yards with reasonable accuracy (depending on the optic). Humidity and wind are often highly variable along the bullet's flight path, so there's no practical way to accomplish measuring and correcting for these variables. Ability to read wind will always make or break a sniper team, at least until we develop man portable ultra-high velocity rail guns, or anti-personnel lasers.

This will not work because:

• Have you ever considered the difficulty of using, say, an Armalite on the bridge of a cargo ship? Last time I checked, snipers did not use moving platforms, or aim at rapidly moving targets . Therefore, range would be greatly reduced.

It seemed to work for these (admittedly highly competent) snipers.

It could be several seconds, or even tens of seconds, between clear shots. So: you wound one pirate. The others start firing RPGs and AK-47s. These do not need to be accurate.

Excellent point: a couple of snipers armed with 5.56mm rifles (which is what I'm guessing you mean by "Armalite") would lack the kind of definitive firepower that brings about peace. In fact, it would be a highly uninformed choice; no snipers (certainly not in the U.S. Armed forces) use anything lighter than a .308. However, keeping your concerns in mind, I would suggest, at the very least, something like this...even if you miss the pirates, the holes in their boat spurting water will be damn scary. Of course, why take chances, spring for one or two of these babies, and you will truly make an impression. Note the photo shows the machine gun being fired from a small patrol boat. The old Browning 50 cal is cheap and ubiquitous. If your ammo budget allows, there's mounts where two or four of these MGs are ganged together. Seeing that quadruple line of tracers heading for you is the definition of "scary".

If pirates assume armed response, they will start shooting the moment they come within range. Therefore, casualties will mount.

You mean casualties on the freighter? Is the whole crew standing to attention at the railing? Are you assuming suicidal tendencies on the part of the crew, or some misguided notion of a "fair fight"? No, unarmed crew will be in a safe room below decks and behind steel bulkheads. The gunners will presumably at least be behind sand-bags. And why is the pirates' armory so much more fearsome than the defenders'? AKs fire 7.62 x 39 ammo, which is not a notable improvement over the 5.56 round. Sure, an RPG will do damage to the structure of a ship, but it would be very unlikely to be able to sink it. We are talking about huge ships here, not pleasure yachts.

Bottom line: I suggest before coming up with idiotic suggestions, you actually google a bit of naval history. (And yes, I did do a feasibility study on missile attack defenses based on cannon, not rifles, and even they are not a very good defense.)

Wow, I should google. I guess that's become the new excuse for not giving an argument—"just google it, and prove I'm right". Naval history, huh? Will I find that 18th century armed merchantmen or British ships of the line were ineffective against pirates? Oh, and you did a study, huh? And it made you an expert? I don't see any sign of your expertise here, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Care to publish a link?