Hey all,

Looking to pick a 82A1 in near future and am partial to the 20in gun. I read over on the Barrett forums that the 20in barrel only costs you around 250FPS of muzzle velocity compared to the 29? Can anyone confirm this? I have a custom 50BMG bolt gun for long range work. Just figured it would be fun to have the 82CQs shorter tube just for grin factor. Just wondered what the actual numbers were?

Frankly if I can get to 1000-1200M with the CQ I will be happy since it seems the 82A1 would be shooting 24in+ groups out that far anyways.

Thanks for any help!

You questions would need to be loaded with intended round/ammo of use. Need a baseline or it's unicorn farts and fairy dust. We can use a known standard a go from there. I love my M82 but it's never brough up in any "impressive" accuracy discussions. Let's say you employ a very high BC round.

Hornady 750gn AMAX - 24" barrel = ~2,820fps -

100M - Velocity: 2,716 fps, Engery: 12,284ftlbs
1,000M - Velocity: 1,883fps, Energy: 5,905ftlbs
1,500M - Velocity: 1,487fps, Energy: 3,681ftlbs
2,000M - Velocity: 1,148fps, Energy: 2,194ftlbs (barely supersonic at 1.2 miles)

Chop 250fps, 2,570fps, (I don't think you'll lose that much but for argument sake) you get the following.

100M - Velocity: 2,472 fps, Engery: 10,178ftlbs
1,000M - Velocity: 1,683fps, Energy: 4,716ftlbs
1,500M - Velocity: 1,310fps, Energy: 2,859ftlbs
2,000M - Velocity: 1,054fps, Energy: 1,850ftlbs (round is now subsonic)

The weapon is an energy king but you still need to connect. Tthe semi-auto Barretts were designed for the anti-material role and they shine in that function. Even with a match round like the 750gn AMAX you will find accuracy is sub par to other platforms. But, you don't own a semi-auto .50BMG for long range competition. You own it because it produces 12,000ftlbs of muzzle energy (in your case around 10k) and few things survive that kind of punishment. Get yourself a Magnetospeed or other modern system that will measure muzzle velocity, know the BC of the bullet in use, and employ one of the many online ballistic calculators to get a better idea of what your rifle is producing. Let us know what you find. Enjoy!