Re: Which 50 BMG to buy?
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: RifleWizard</div><div class="ubbcode-body">M33 ball is most certainly capably of MOA accuracy.
Your statement that it is not is based on what......something you read, something someone told you, or your own first hand experience?
If your statement is based on your own first hand experience, fine, but if your answer is "because it shot like crap in my rifles" that is not a valid metric with which to weigh accuracy potential of ammunition. Chamber size, headspace, action design, barrel design, barrel size, brake design, etc.... all have a large effect on accuracy.
Most of the .50bmg M33 available on the market is surplus where the bullets were pulled and then reloaded (according to federal law). How the reloading was done and the equipment used has a HUGE effect on accuracy potential....specifically that the bullets themselves were properly die re-sized.
I have 4 different lots of surplus M33 ball on hand. 3 are Lake City and 1 is Israeli. I ordered small samples of each lot (40 rounds each) prior to purchasing a large quantity. I pulled bullets on 80 rounds of this ammo and shot the other 80 rounds. The Lake City ammo (not broken down and reassembled) was very consistent in terms of powder charge and bullet concentricity across the 60 rounds/3 lots I pulled. The Israeli lot was loaded hot and seemed a bit sensitive to temperature fluctuations. Accuracy of the BA50 out of the box was 3 MOA with this ammo.
Based on observation of fired brass, I sent it back to Bushmaster along with some sample ammo and they re-adjusted the headspace and muzzle break. When I got it back, it shot 1 MOA with the LC M33 consistently out to 600+ yards. I got a good deal on some reman M33 and some M8 API and this shot .7/.8 MOA...this is really good ammo, especially the M8 API. I bought 1000 rounds of each.
Something to note is that the chamber on the BA50 is a slightly oversize match chamber and NOT based on machine gun chamber dimensions.
Based on 300+ rounds of M33 surplus fired thus far, my BA50 is averaging 1.035 MOA at 500 yards.....I shoot over a chronograph 90% of the time and I have logged every .50 BMG shot I have fired since 1991......statistics do not lie. </div></div>
First off, it appears that now you're trying to change the definition of "Surplus M33 Ball". Surplus is surplus - not pulled bullets and reloaded by Summitt or someone else. If the latter is what you're talking about, that's not surplus ammo. You claimed 0.8 MOA with surplus M33 ball and "less than half of that" (eg, <0.4 MOA) with hand-loads.
In your above post, you just changed your claim that your BA50 is a .8 MOA rifle with M33, to it being a 1.035 MOA rifle with M33. I don't follow.
Anyway, I don't shoot mil-surp M33 for groups - it's a plinking round. Mostly because it's 2-3 MOA accuracy. Since you're so sure that mil-surp M33 Ball ammo can be sub-MOA, it sounds like ATK (yeah, the multi-billion dollar defense contractor) could use your mystical ability to transform M33 Ball to a sub-MOA round.
http://www.atk.com/capabilities_defense/cs_as_ma_sc_.50-caliber.asp
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">.50 Caliber M33 Ball
PHYSICAL DATA
Height (max) 5.45 in
Weight 1762.5-76.5 grains
PERFORMANCE DATA
Muzzle Velocity 2910 ± 30 f/s
Chamber Pressure (typical) 55,000 psi
<span style="color: #FF0000">Accuracy Mean radius = 12 in at 600 yd</span>
The .50 cal M33 Ball has a plain bullet tip. The cartridge has been adopted and made by at least 30 countries, including the U.S., Britain, Canada, France, Belgium, Israel, Netherlands, Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan. The cartridge has a soft steel core bullet and is mainly used for practice. It is used in machine guns M2, M3, and M85.
Synonyms:
.50 Caliber Ball, 12.7 x 99mm
NSN:
1305000286574 (with M9 Link)
1305013702594 (4 Ball M33, 1 Tracer M17 with M9 Link)</div></div>
Of course, ATK (and bear in mind that ATK is the largest ammunition manufacturing entity <span style="font-style: italic">in the world</span>) is probably just spouting something they read somewhere, right? I'm sure you have more experience with M33 Ball ammo than ATK does.