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We first talked about this gun on February 28… of 2011. It has taken over a year and a half for MICOR to take their concept for a 50 BMG bullpup rifle from the drawing board to full production, and now you too can own one of these compact yet massively overpowered firearms for the low, low price of $10,000. Well, actually you can’t have it just yet — they’re only taking pre-orders right now. Pre-orders, to the tune of $2,000 a pop. Needless to say we’ve asked for one for testing and evaluation, but if you can’t wait and want one for yourself head on over to their site where you can plunk your cash on a pre-order.

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35 COMMENTS

  3. The .50 cal in bullpup config has never appealed to me. The thought of having a catastrophic failure with a round that big, that close to my face scares the hell out of me. I fire a 5.56 bullpup a lot. I figure if that lets go with a kaboom, the receiver will likely save my face (for the most part). .50 cal? Not so sure. Could a kaboom even be life-threatening?

    • Their website claims the breech mechanism is machined from maraging steel. Yield strength and ultimate tensile strength for this type of material are measured in giga-pascals (layman’s version: tougher than the brick sh!t-house you hear so much about). If their claims are accurate, I would have no qualms about firing this weapon. I’d also want to see documentation of their alloying/machining/heat-treat process first.

        • Actually, without doing an engineering dissertation on maraging steels, the ability to resist brittle fracture at higher strengths and hardnesses is their primary sought-after attribute. That’s why you choose a maraging steel over a carbon-alloy steel: you want to prevent crack formation and propagation in the piece.

          Here’s typical attributes of maraging steel:

          http://www.steelforge.com/metaltidbits/maraging.htm

          I have to give MICOR full credit for using modern materials technology where it counts in a firearm, even tho I’m certain that doing so contributed to part of the lofty price here.

        • Dyspeptic Gunsmith, It is so nice to have someone else who knows how to science.

          I do wonder if they cryo it too, for that last engineering margin?

        • As a welding engineer who doesn’t know much about maraging steels, please, dissertation-ize away.

          Interesting how its got so much Ni and still gets martensite to form.

    • People say the same thing about the RFB, but there have been numerous case head seperations and over charged proof loads put thru them. The operators of those weapons suffered the same severity of injuries you would receive in similar circumstances with a convential rifle.

  11. “10-round detachable box magazine of proprietary design”
    ——
    Exceedingly bad move. There’s already a heavy-weight (so to speak) in the .50 BMG semi-auto market. It would have been an excellent investment to just pay said heavy-weight the royalties and use their magazines. Or even better, design your magazines and mag well such that the two mag types are interchangeable. At least on your rifle…

  12. I wish I could afford one, or even afford to feed one. Sadly i’d have to sell all my guns and my car to buy this.

    And whats up with the carry handle/optics mount? Did these guys go out of their way to offset the optic as much as possible from the barrel?

    And I wonder how pissed off the people on the benches next to you would be if you were to shoot this?

    • I was at an indoor range in Utah that rented full auto guns and silencers. They also had a barret 50 cal. I don’t remember the rental rate on the gun but the ammo was ungodly expensive, something on the order of 8-10 bucks a pop. And they let you shoot it indoors. I passed, there’s just some abuse even I won’t endure.

    • It depends on the baffle angles on the comp.

      I’ve been on some ranges with .50 BMG’s with big, clamshell-like comps, where the guys on either side of the .50 on the firing line are just fine. Yes, it’s noisy, but it’s no more offensive (and perhaps less offensive) than a “conventional” hunting rifle in some high-pressure magnum round – like a .300 WM, .338 WM, .300 Wby, etc.

      But if you’re standing to the rear and off to the side of the shooter… holy crap. You don’t so much “hear” the report as feel the shock wave ripple through your guts – literally. Guys who have been in the military in tube arty have told me you get the same sensation near the big guns. First time it happens to you, it’s highly discomforting.

  13. Didn’t I see some years ago a long stroke recoil operated .50 BMG bullpup? I read somewhere that the recoil on that was on par with a 12 gauge, even though it was light (for a .50) because of the long recoil action. A gas operated rifle just makes no sense, it’s sending all the recoil back to the shooter.

    • That would be the Barrett M82A2, Designed to be fired off the shoulder like the bazooka. The quick handling characteristics allowed for use against highly mobile targets such as helicopters. Not very PC. Wish Barrett would re-introduce it to the market. Or perhaps Serbu could make a bullpup version of their BFG-50A which is essentially a gas operated Barrett M82A1.

  15. Why does a muzzle brake that huge need to be closer to a shooter’s face? How does triple heading protection work? Plugs, muffs, and then a pillow tied around your ears with twine?

    • Again, the worst of the blast from .50’s with brakes like this tends to be off the sides, to the rear of the muzzle.

      Take another close look at the video. NB the camera’s focus shakes and get fuzzy at 0:16 to 0:17 – that’s when you can see the blast front pass over the camera from the brake.

  16. Wow,massively overpowered? Isn’t this a Recoil Magazine type comment?

    Also we as shooters need to remember the entire sport. Not just what we are into.

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