Travis Olander 12.28.23
For many people who love weapons, proudly owning a .50 cal rifle is a lifelong dream – and, whereas simpler than ever earlier than to get your arms on one, some governments merely don’t permit it; there’s a gun ban in place. Us Individuals should take care of a patchwork of state legal guidelines that fly within the face of the Second Modification, however we’re not alone. Many Europeans love weapons as a lot as we do, however, with out their very own Constitutions enshrining the fitting to bear arms, they’re usually left to undergo much more restrictive legal guidelines. So, in 2007, as soon as Frenchman – Eric Danis, then proprietor of French arms maker Dan Tec – determined to do one thing in regards to the widespread gun ban of .50 BMG chambered rifles: he merely reinvented the cartridge to bypass these legal guidelines.
50 BMG Rifle Protection on AllOutdoor
Gun Ban – Enter .510 DTC EUROP
At a look, this massive ole’ piece of brass appears an identical to any .50 BMG spherical. However small, key variations within the casing differentiate it from John Moses Brownings’ invention and, importantly, exempt the spherical from numerous gun bans. The specs for the .510 DTC cartridge might be learn beneath:
Specs – .510 DTC
- Bullet Diameter: 0.510″
- Shoulder Diameter: 0.76″
- Base Diameter: 0.80″
- Case Size: 3.81″
- Total Size: 4.93″
- Case Capability: 296 gr. H2O
Specs – .50 BMG
- Bullet Diameter: 0.510″
- Shoulder Diameter: 0.735″
- Base Diameter: 0.80″
- Case Size: 3.91″
- Total Size: 5.45″
- Case Capability: 293 gr. H2O
Evaluating specs exhibits simply how extremely comparable each cartridges are. They each use the identical 0.510″ diameter bullets, with the identical casing – besides .510 DTC’s casings are reduce down 0.10″, with a steeper shoulder. Case capability is virtually an identical, however when each are loaded with 647-grain heads, .50 BMG produces only a bit extra energy: About 13,310 ft. lbs. of power on the muzzle, whereas .510 DTC produces round 12,764 Ft-Lb, a distinction of about 4%. Though efficiency is almost an identical, these variations within the .510 DTC’s casing imply it won’t slot in any .50 BMG-chambered rifle. But it’s this fitment difficulty – a deliberate one – that enables .510 DTC and its area of interest rifles to skirt numerous gun bans. This contains one which hits near residence, too.
California Gun Ban of .50 BMG – .510 DTC Involves America
On January 1, 2005, California’s “.50 Caliber BMG Regulation Act of 2004,” which banned all gross sales of .50 BMG rifles within the state, went into effect. The legislature of California claimed that such rifles “posed a terrorist menace,” regardless that .50 BMG weapons had by no means as soon as been utilized in any recorded crime. However as a result of the state’s legislature was so overzealous about banning this famed and beloved cartridge, it made a important error that successfully defeated the invoice the second it was handed. Language all through the invoice particularly focused .50 BMG cartridges:
“‘.50 BMG cartridge’ is outlined as a cartridge that’s designed and supposed to be fired from a centerfire rifle and that meets all the following standards: (1) It has an total size of 5.54 inches (141 mm) from the bottom to the tip of the bullet. (2) The bullet diameter for the cartridge is from .510 to, and together with, .511-inch (13.0 mm). (3) The case base diameter for the cartridge is from .800-inch (20.3 mm) to, and together with, .804 inch. (4) The cartridge case size is 3.91 inches (99 mm).”
Paradoxically, such language successfully excluded all different .50-caliber rifle rounds, together with these – like .510 DTC – that had been merely theoretical and never but manufactured. Due to California’s such strict language, all one wanted to do was reduce down the .50 BMG casing so it not met no less than one of many above parameters. So, French gun maker Eric Danis merely lowered the case size by a tenth of an inch, rendering the ban – and others prefer it all through Europe – fully moot.
Gun Ban – Rifles and Ammo Are Exhausting to Discover
Though the .510 DTC nonetheless serves its goal – California and plenty of different states and international locations have banned civilian possession of .50 BMG rifles – there merely isn’t a lot demand for the platform. If you wish to get your arms on considered one of these rifles, you’ll want to achieve out to the one present manufacture, Vigilance Rifles, in Valley Arizona. They produce the M18, a bolt-action rifle presently retailing for round $10,000.
Discovering DTC ammo can be a fair larger problem: no producers presently supply any rounds for retail sale. As an alternative, you’ll must make your individual. To do this, you’ll want reloading dies, which, at publication, are additionally not accessible for retail sale and should be particular ordered. However fear not, Californians and people who stay in not-so-gun-friendly locales: In direct response to California’s .50 BMG ban, John Barrett, proprietor of Barrett firearms – famed maker of the M82, M99, M107, and different .50-cal rifles – launched the arguably extra sensible and extra correct .416 Barrett.
The .416 is successfully a wildcat .50 BMG case, shortened to round 3.3″ and topped with a bullet weighing round 400 grains. The .416 produces larger muzzle velocity (about 3,150 FPS) and it retains extra of its muzzle power (round 8,770 ft. lbs.) downrange. In actual fact, it retains supersonic speeds at as much as 1,900 yards, with a ballistic coefficient as excessive as .720, making it probably the most correct and highly effective centerfire cartridges ever produced. So, if you wish to chamber a “massive, scary bullet” that anti-gun politicians definitely don’t like – however you’re not able to drop 5 figures on a rifle and cargo your individual .510 DTCs – head on over to Barrett and contemplate the .416-chambered M99.
