10 month wait on Big Bertha and she's finally made her landing!

[Iamero]

I got this project started back in January when I put in an order for the McMillan Tac-50 repeater with Strategic Arms Corp (McMillan's parent company). The batch was supposed to be done in June, but got pushed back to mid-August when it finally showed up at my FFL in town. At this point in the process I only had the receiver and the barrel because I intended on selling it off and letting someone else do the build. My sale fell through here on the hide for the action and the barrel, so I decided to just build the rest of the gun since the major expenses (other than the chassis) were out of the way.

I put a call in to Jewell and got a trigger on the way (uses a bottom safety style that I couldn't find in stock anywhere).

I called up Matt at XLR and got a XLR Evo BMG chassis ordered. I wanted to go with the Cadex chassis but I wasn't sure my barrel would fit in the barrel channel on the chassis, plus this chassis comes at a very pretty penny.

Lastly I called up Heritage Arms and got their "Shark" 50 BMG brake ordered. I wanted to go APA Gen 1 XXX on it (Gen 2 was too small for my barrel diameter) but APA unfortunately didn't return my two voicemails that I left. Very happy with the Shark brake, though.

With everything now in my possession I shipped it all off the Robert at RWS Gunsmithing in Iowa (he is the only one with a lathe big enough for this giant freaking special contour barrel). The barrel took a little detour from Grand Rapids, MI to South Dakota, to Iowa, back to Detroit, back to Grand Rapids, and finally out to South Dakota and down to Iowa (15 days!). Robert did phenomenal work as always (I have 3 of his guns in my safe now) and had the thing turned around in just over 3 weeks.

Once I had it back in my hands I brought it over to Tuebor Precision here in Grand Rapids (I highly recommend checking out their actions and their gunsmithing work). They did the final fit and finish assembly on the chassis (McMillan changed their design and XLR had a few design flaws on the chassis), and the got the whole package cerakoted (barely fit end to end in their cabinet, haha).

Well I picked the beast up yesterday and I couldn't be more happy with the way that it turned out. Robert at RWS and Matt & Justin at Tuebor are top notch gunsmiths and do one helluva job! I will get some more pictures today if it ever stops raining/sleeting.

Build specs summarized:
- McMillan Tac-50 repeater with 30 MOA rail (they shipped it with the rail on backwards, lol)
- Lilja Special Contour 33" 1:15 SS barrel with deep flutes (1.75" straight taper to 1.5" at muzzle)
- Jewell trigger set to 3lbs
- XLR Industries Evo BMG chassis (with their BMG stock)
- Heritage Arms Shark muzzle brake
- GG&G XDS bipod
- Cerakoted Elite Midnight and Patriot Brown (or something similar, I don't 100% recall)

Let me know what you think! Can't wait to get some Hornady ammo and get it out to the range.

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[RampedRaptor]

Very nice looking build. What’s the overall weight on that monster?

 

[Iamero]

Just weighed it today at 36.2 lbs! She's not getting hiked around the fields, haha

 

[Rockfish Dave]

Very nice. A 50BMG is on my list as well, looks like you did yours right.

 

[SubOptimal]

If nothing else, when fired from the prone, that should clear all the small debris for 5 or 6 yards around the firing point. You know, leaves, twigs, chipmunks etc. Kinda expensive for a leaf blower.
Really nice looking rifle, is should shoot as well as it looks. Good luck with it.

 

[Iamero]

Haha I figured I can pull it out in the winter and plow the driveway with it.

 

[Strykervet]

That looks damn nice... I wish I'd done something like that as opposed to going with the DTA HTI, but I figured on swapping with .375CT at the time. A dedicated rifle in any caliber is the way to go, and that, the Harris and the AI were on my short list before I ended up with the HTI. At least I got it for a really good price a few years ago. I'm going with the McMillan Tac-338 for a .338LM FWIW.

If you are considering suppressing that beast, Elite Iron is a reliable and honest company that makes a damn nice can for the .50 and can index your brake and install wrench flats to go on and off without a washer if you like (nice when swapping between brake and can). It's comparatively inexpensive considering other makers and it's a tank, a real monster. I have their .338 QD can already too, haven't used it yet but it sure looks nice!

Only thing I'd actually change, because a custom rifle is YOUR rifle, but if I were you, I'd look into the LRA bipods --IMO, that's the only way to go with .50BMG bipods. Expensive, but worth it. They're wider, more solid and stable, and have more adjustments and don't spin compared to the Atlas. I think I have the "Lightweight Tactical" and it's perfect "all around" .50 bipod, but they make others. Atlas makes the 5H but I think for the same price, the LRA is a better buy.

 

[Iamero]

Haha I actually have several items posted with a LRA or Atlas 5H needed in trade. I think either would be very nice.

 

[Jeepguy97]

Very nice looking rig. If you need to reach out to a mile let me know.

 

[Dirty D]

RWS does kick ass work for a reasonable fee and doesn't take forever, I'm not a yuge fitty fan but that looks like a well thought out build.

 

[steve123]

Yep that LRA is perfect for a heavy rifle, I didn't know what I was missing until I got one. My 24 lb rifle shoots so much better with the LRA! It was like I had found the perfect load all of a sudden.

Nice 50!