My good friend has a Barrett M82A1 he bought bran new and has a $2500 S&B scope on it. We were trying to zero it using American Eagle in the black box with white letters. The best group we got was several inches at 100 yards. We were laying prone and rock solid. His trigger control was perfect and did not  pull or flinch single shot. We both shot and got the exact same results. We were disgusted and disappointed in this accuracy. We pulled some of the cartdriges apart and found the powder charges were not consistent at all and varied greatly. After researching this ammo we both feel this is about as good as it get with American Eagle .50 ammo. Are we correct or should we be getting much better accuracy with this set up? With the best ammo for the Barrett, what kind of accuracy is it capable of? What is the best known load for the M82A1? Below is the group size we got. Thanks for any help!

Not sure why picture is rotated on its side....grrrrrr

Some guys who would know said 2-3 minutes is the best you should expect but with good anmo sometimes they do close to 1 minute.

I would also suggest shooting for groups no closer than 300 yards.

At 100 I can make 5 rounds touch each other most of the time but not every time. At 1200 yards I was able to hit am 18x18 inch steel plate about have of the time. the 750 match is much better,

Maybe 100 yards is too close for what the parallax on the scope is set for (?) If so any adjustment in position with your hold would move the reticle.

If I had the budget I'd have a big ACOG on an M107A1 CQ

Several years ago, a very finely tuned M82A1 was used in FCSA competition. Don't have the exact group size but remember it as being in the 11" range at 1000 yards.

You need better ammo !!!

Learn to reload for best accuracy control - its not easy but can be done with a little training.

I do the training and my training is FREE, except for purchase of components used, and a donation to my heating fund.

I had a M82a1 for a few years, with m33 ammo, 2.5 to 3 inch groups are about all you can expect.  With 750 gr Horndry I could get 1.5 inch groups all the time.  You have to remember that the M82a1 doesn't get great lockup from shot to shot.  I also have a M95 and its gets 1 inch groups all the time with the 750 gr bullets.

Out of curiosity, what barrel length is the Barrett?

That definitely is less accurate than even I was anticipating a Barrett could shoot.  How much off was the powder difference? Maybe take 5 cartridges and share their weights?

Most of the time M33 ball will only produce 2.5-3 MOA.  Winchester did produce some solid copper hollow points that weighed around 700-750g. They were very accurate in rifles that had barrels that were hand selected to upper receivers.  We used to do it that way when I worked there. It is no longer done that way now, barrels are machine lapped into the uppers. You don't get the "feel" of when you just right in a hand fit. Something you should expect in a $10k rifle now a days. Sadly that is the path Barrett took now.

But you should try some handloads in your rifle.

His is a 29" barrel and he said that of the 5 rounds he pulled the powder charge from they were 15 grains off. Some were 230gr and some were as high as 245. He thinks that is what it was but he is going to go check his log book to be sure.

The .50 doesn't shine until you hit the sweet spot, at least 300 as noted above.

Unless your having a scope issue (like parallax error), distance won't matter. The bullet doesn't change its coarse once it leaves the barrel (actually some errors are compounded at longer distances).

I'm pretty sure the accuracy you saw is what is expected from an m82a1. I've read you can fine tune your load, fine tune the trigger, and fine tune some other things associated with the barrel/upper engagement and possibly get closer to 1moa.

I purchased one box of American Eagle Ammo mostly because it was priced right but I never ended up shooting the whole box.  The loads varied so much and some were so hot it scared me.  I pulled the bullets and reloaded them using AA8700 and got much better results.  No more American Eagle for me.  I have also found that even with shooting pulled API bullets, if I take my time and sort my cases by type and weight and the same with the bullets that I get better accuracy at 300-500- yards than I do at 100.  I believe it has something to do with bullet stabilization. Although the physics don't make sense in my mind. .

15 grains off on powder charge...that's just plain outrageous....not to mention dangerous.  My AR-50 can shoot hand loaded, resized api's, of all things,  in the area of a quarter @ 100 yds every time provided the barrel is at the right temp.  I realize the 82 isn't as accutate as a bolt but would perform MUCH better with hand loads for sure.

That is completely a myth. As proven by byran litz , the bullets stabalize within the first few feet. If you want to test it, put up a piece of paper at 50 feet and shoot it. If it was still stabilizing you wouldn't see the nice clean round holes, but you would see holes that look sideways.

Most of the closer vs long range accuracy is all either parallax issues (which are much larger at 100 than 300+) or completely mental. Many times people chase their last shot, without even noticing. Try shooting at 100 yards again but decrease your zoom to 10x, see if that helps.

Purchase some rounds from survivalops.com and see if they work better for you. Never had a problem shooting there stuff. Your close enough to go pick it up, pretty sure they are in utah. They are slow to deliver though. Better off reloading though or find someone you can trust to reload some for you. Have heard allot of complaints on american eagle ammo so have never shot it. I reload now so don't have to deal with those high prices for 50 bmg ammo.

American Eagle is inconsistent. I've had overly hot rounds stick brass in my gun. I was getting about 3" @ 100 yds the few boxes I shot. Your dissection of these cartridges explains it. Match ammo should tighten up your groups.

He says right on page 159 that bullets can yaw significantly coming out of the gun until they stabilize.

He even calls it going to sleep.

I thought it was fairly common with some of the heavier target bullets? I had a friend that would fine tune his high power loads at 200 for that reason.

My 82 was never really accurate with ball but then again I never expected it to be.

I'm not calling you out here, just clearing things up. The book is at home so I can take a look at it.. However, I'm guessing you might not have read it fully or missed some important parts. Here is his website talking about it, for those that don't have the book:

http://www.appliedballisticsllc.com/epswerve.html

Basically he said that not only is this yaw cycle completed in the first 7 to 8 yards, no matter how he ran the data, but for it to actually make any PERCEPTIBLE difference (like 1/2") you would need 620G's of upward force, which is realistically not even close to possible.

It's really not rocket science. Go to the range an put paper behind each other at 100,200,300,400 etc.. yards. Make sure to put the height of them correctly for drop. Shoot at the 100 yards(the paper won't effect flight). You will see that your farther groups will never be smaller (MOA wise) than your closer ones (as long as its a no wind day, otherwise the wind can 'luckily' scoot some bullets closer or farther from the 'center'). Then shoot at the 400 yard target only and if you observe that your groups are smaller (MOA wise), you can now rest assured it is you.

The phenomenon is purely either optics error (attributed to improper use by the operator) or operator error for 'mental' reasons.

I don't think a Barrett 82/107 is the gun you buy if you want compelling accuracy. I think (as they say) it's good for immobilizing cars/jets/stuff.

Once I heard that a Barrett was a "1 MOJ" (minute-of-jeep) gun I knew I had to go EDM windrunner.

My older cousin bought one a few years ago. He didn't know shit about it; just wanted to coolest looking .50 there was. He paid me to buy a scope, sight it in, etc. The results you got were about the way his did with Magtech or surplus LC 53 ball ammo. Hand loaded barnes solids did better. But with regular ball ammo, 6-8 inches at 300 meters was about all I ever got out of it, despite my best efforts.

Although you have to keep in mind that these things were made to hit vehicles or other such targets, and for that they are perfectly adequate. The experienced convinced me never to own one myself, though. If I spend that kind of money I'd rather get a .330 lapua and night vision.

Thats no joke, i got to shoot a edm with a kepplinger trigger and couldnt believe it. Still the best trigger ive ever felt.