I have an AR50 and love it.  A friend wants to buy a 50, but is less of an accuracy guy, at least not yet.  But he will be reloading for it.  He was talking semi-auto barrett forever until he read reports of the accuracy.  

Is there another option he should consider?  Is the semi-auto Serbu close to the accuracy of the AR50.  What other options would you guys recommend?

Any good deals on the AR50 or other 50 you'd recommend?

Thanks in advance...

Look into the Bushmaster BA50; it's a magazine fed bolt action, 1moa rifle with similar controls to an AR15 that also separates into an upper/lower the same way. They have a 30" barrel model along with a 20"-ish "carbine" size. I bought one last week that should be arriving at my FFL tomorrow, I'm excited to try it out! They run about $4400 (mine was $4200 plus pesky state tax on a transfer), I didn't like the idea of a bullpup Barrett in the sub-$5k price range and this seemed much better than the other bolt action single shot options.

Edit to add: I forgot to mention that the bolt is on the left side and ejects to the right, so you can keep your trigger hand in position and keep your eye on the target while fiddling with the bolt offhand.

I'll second the bushmaster BA50. I bought on a few weeks ago (3rd 50 BMG I've owned). Great shooting rifle, very soft on recoil, and allows for follow up shots quickly due to the left handed bolt.   Buds had them for $4100 cash price with free shipping.

Picked up my BA50 this morning, it's much heavier than I thought (same weight as a Barrett M82 29" but it's been a few years since I picked up one of those and forgot how hefty they are). I yanked off the fore-end rail to cut some weight, I don't need it for my scope and my thermal scope would replace the day scope if I shot at night for some reason. It's very well finished, and the bolt is smooth cycling through a magazine of snap caps. I went with this over the Barrett because of the difference in accuracy, plus for about the same price as a bare M82 I got the rifle plus a Nightforce NXS 5.5-22x56 scope and mount and a couple boxes of ball ammo. Can't wait to get it over to the east side of the state and shoot it (only two ranges on the west side allow .50s, and only one day per month at 600 yards). I didn't realize it when purchasing, but Bushmaster did away with the big blocky muzzle brake and they come with a brake mount for an AAC Cyclops suppressor. That'll come in handy down the road if I form 1 a can for this thing or buy the Cyclops.

Another vote for the Bushmaster BA 50!! I've stretched mine out to 500 yards with ball ammo and I am very pleased!!

You want accuracy, you get a good bolt gun.
You wanna blow trees down and rocks to smithereens, you get a semi auto.
I only have three 50 cals now.
A custom left hand AR50, a Serbu Semi and a shellholder carbine.
I've done some tweaking on the Serbu and while it's more accurate than any Barrett semi I've owned or fired, it's not close to an AR50's accuracy at long distance( Past 1K), even in it's stock factory configuration.
The serbu semi (and some M107's)will however hold it's own against any rifle up to 800 yards in semi auto function with quality ammo.
It does much better to and past 1K with longer pills loaded single shot, but that defeats the purpose of having a semi auto.
If I had a choice between a BA50 or any Semi auto for a plinking play toy 50 cal, I'd buy the semi auto.

I've had an AR50 for a decade or so. Like the gun. Also picked up a couple M107A1's a couple years ago. For plinking and general fun the semi's are a ton more fun.