.50 BMG
Sign in to saveAlso known as .50 Browning Machine Gun, 12.7×99mm NATO, 50 Browning, 12.7 x 99 mm
rifle cartridge designed by John Moses Browning
Key facts
- Type
- Heavy machine gun , Anti-materiel rifle
- Place of origin
- United States
- In service
- 1921–present
- Used by
- NATO
- Designer
- Winchester Repeating Arms Co. and Frankford Arsenal
- Case type
- Rimless, bottleneck
- Bullet diameter
- 0.511 in (12.98 mm)
- Land diameter
- 0.498 in (12.65 mm)
- Neck diameter
- 0.560 in (14.22 mm)
- Shoulder diameter
- 0.714 in (18.14 mm)
- Base diameter
- 0.804 in (20.42 mm)
- Rim diameter
- 0.804 in (20.42 mm)
- Rim thickness
- 0.089 in (2.26 mm)
- Case length
- 3.910 in (99.31 mm)
- Overall length
- 5.450 in (138.43 mm)
- Case capacity
- 292.80 gr H 2 O (18.973 cm )
- Primer type
- #35 Arsenal Primer
- Maximum pressure tm43 0001 27
- 54,923 psi (378.68 MPa)
via Wikipedia infobox
~21 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Test barrel length: 45 in (1.1 m) Source: Ammoguide.com
The .50 BMG (.50 Browning Machine Gun), also known as 12.7×99mm NATO, and designated as the 50 Browning by the C.I.P., is a .50 in (12.7 mm) caliber cartridge developed for the M2 Browning heavy machine gun in the late 1910s, entering official service in 1921. Under STANAG 4383, it is a standard service cartridge for NATO forces. The cartridge itself has been made in many variants: multiple generations of regular ball, tracer, armor-piercing (AP), incendiary, and saboted sub-caliber penetrator rounds. The rounds intended for machine guns are made into a continuous ammunition belt using metallic links.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “.50 BMG” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.