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- - 50 caliber (https://www.huntingnet.com/forum/guns/23021-50-caliber.html)

what kind of gun is this?

Depends. A 50 cal can be a fully automatic machinegun used by the US military, often mounted on tanks or light vehicles. A 50 cal could be a long range sniper rifle, like the Navy SEALS use. Could be a long range benchrest rifle used in competitive shooting, typically at a range of 1000 yards. Could be a Desert Eagle semi-automatic pistol, often seen in the action movies. Or it could be a single action revolver, used for big game hunting and target shooting. The term 50 caliber simply discribes the diameter of the bore of the barrel (1/2 inch).

Well the reason I ask is because this me and this teacher I have were talking about coyotes and he said he sits on a hill above his cow pasture at night and shoots yotes as they come out into the pasture with a 50 cal. he said he shoots them up to 1200 yards away. I just thought he was full of ****.

He might have a 50 BMG rifle. It is very possible to take 1000 yds shots with one, and the range of a 50 BMG is quite further than that.

Lets just say if you shot a coyote with a 50 BMG the only thing left would be a tail, MAYBE! LOL. It is over kill for about everything. And makes the 30-06 look like a bb gun.

what do you think the price would run on something like the 50 cal. BMG

The Canadian Army snipers used 50 calibre rifles in Afghanistan; they had been making kills up to one mile away.

You can get a 50 BMG for around $2,000 for a bolt action. Like any other rifle, you can get all the extras for more $$$. Some cost over $10,000. Type "50 BMG" in your search engine and you'll pull up many dealer websites. I think one round would cost around $5. It's an interesting subject, but my wallet (and gun range) isn't big enough for that hobbie! One of my in-laws shoots a 50 cal and he talks about 6" groups at 1,000 yards! I've even heard of people shooting prarie dogs with them at over 600 yards. The round is enormous but the guns generally have muzzlebreaks on them that reduce the recoil to that of a 12 guage shotgun or a magnum caliber rifle. The weight of the gun also helps eliminate recoil. The one my in-law shoots weighs around 34 pounds. Some of them weigh over 100 pounds. Get good grades in his class and talk him into letting you try that gun out.

I think the bullets for those things are like $12 each.

"Hey ya'll, watch this"

enough bs..... the cartridges for the .50 BMG do NOT cost 12 dollars each... you can buy surplus ammo for about 1.30 to 1.50 each. Hardly more than premium ammo for a .338 Win mag... Now, if you want target grade ammo, you will pay more, but certainly not 12 dollars each. You can buy a Barret semi-auto for about 7,000 dollars, and the bolt action single shots for around 2,000 and up.
RidgeRunner is correct... Gunnery Sgt. Carlos Hathcock started using the .50cal M2 machine gun, in semi-auto mode(I think) in Viet Nam as a sniper weapon... and for a long time, he held the record for the longest killshot... but I have heard that record has been beaten many times in Afghanistan.... different war, different location..
Comparing the .50 to the .30-06 is meaningless... like comparing a Chevy Cavalier to a AA fuel dragster... completely different tools and purposes.
RIP White Feather........

"Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness..those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Santayana

To add a little perspective between the 30-06 and the 50BMG. The 30-06 fires a 150 grain bullet at about 3000fps. The 50BMG fires a 650 grain bullet at about 3000 fps. A 30-06 case is 2.484 inches long and holds about 62 grains of powder. The 50BMG case is 3.9 inches long and holds about 250 grains of powder. The 50BMG isn't a hunting round, although a few people do take some animals with it mostly for fun. A gun that fires a 50BMG round will weigh anywhere fron 25 pounds on up to 50 pounds or more and have a barrel 30 inches or more long. Sportsmans Warehouse in Denver has a box of 10 loaded rounds for about $30. Not something you would wand to carry around in the
"deer woods".

That is definitely a mans gun!!!