Forum: Story Recommendations

there are two very good stories by The Blind Man that you might enjoy: 'Game World' and 'Gateway - What Lies Beyond'.

Gateway - What Lies Beyond is the story where the MC fires a .50 BMG caliber sniper rifle from horseback.
The muzzle blast of that .50 cal. rifle is louder and more concussive than a flash-bang grenade, and the rifle mentioned weighs 35 pounds.

where the MC fires a .50 BMG caliber sniper rifle from horseback.

Not having read the story, the most likely candidate in real world weapons would be a Barret (the first company to produce .50 BMG sniper rifle).

The weight varies depending on the specific model, but the heaviest is only 32.5 pounds. The lightest is just 23.

https://barrett.net/

You need a scope and sling and ammunition and those add weight.
.50 cartridges are about 4 ounces each (some less, some more).
A scope suitable for 2 mile shooting is not small or light.

A scope suitable for 2 mile shooting is not small or light.

You also need a very stable shooting position for that kind of shot. Off the shoulder on horse back wouldn't cut it. I think it safe to say that the shooter in the described scenario isn't going for a 2 mile shot.

The thing a lot of people forget is that while .50 BMG rifles are mostly made as long range sniper weapons, they are also useful at short range against light armored vehicles.

The thing a lot of people forget is that while .50 BMG rifles are mostly made as long range sniper weapons, they are also useful at short range against light armored vehicles.

Of which the cavemen in the world they were going to had how many of?

Of which the cavemen in the world they were going to had how many of?

Perhaps not in modern terms of mechanized armor, but if you have to kill Pleistocene epoch megafauna such as a mastodon or ancient bison...

if you have to kill Pleistocene epoch megafauna such as a mastodon or ancient bison...

An ordinary everyday elephant rifle will likely do that with less recoil or expense.

An ordinary everyday elephant rifle will likely do that with less recoil or expense.

If you've put the characters into a Pleistocene setting, it's not like they can go out and buy firearms they didn't bring with them in the first place.

If they have a Barret M82 and they don't have an elephant gun...

ETA: Also, if your characters are starting from the US, it's not like there are any mass produced elephant guns you can go out and buy off the shelf.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_gun

The American gun market produced several famous dangerous game cartridges around this time, such as the .458 Winchester Magnum, .378 Weatherby Magnum and .460 Weatherby Magnum and many of these were 'wildcatted' (to modify an existing case and rifle to fire a different caliber bullet). The rest of the old Nitro express calibers had faded to obscurity until a recent resurgence in safari hunting came about in the 1970s and 80s. This prompted a new boom in elephant gun development and calibers such as the .416 Weatherby Magnum and .416 Remington Magnum arrived in factory offerings. The late 1980s and 1990s produced the .700 Nitro Express and the new brass manufacturers allowed even more powerful elephant guns such as the .585 Nyati by Ross Seyfried, .577 Tyrannosaur by Colonel Art Alphin and .585 Gehringer by Karl Gehringer to be made by wildcatters. The .600 Overkill made by Rob Garnick represents at this moment the greatest power available from a standard hunting action.

Doing some searching, I can't find anything for sale new that takes any of the above listed rounds.

Lest weight and recoil I can believe. Less expense when you are talking a custom made gun and custom made ammo? That, I'm not buying.

IIRC the expedition in the story is not a US military operation, the only military veteran is the MC and he is prior service not active duty.
So you are looking at buying off the shelf not drawing from the armory and an off the shelf .458 Winchester can be bought for a lot less than the cost of a Barrett M82.

Rifles for the .458 WM are mass produced, at least as much so as the Barrett M82.

Even a horse used to the sound of a n M16 or a .303 would jump at the sound of a .50 going off over its head.

Has anyone considered that the rider might have chosen a deaf horse to ride?

Obviously the drawback would be the inability to have the horse fitted with shoes as that would prevent it reading braille.

:)

but it's be a real bugger to call in from the field each day.

Use radio.

All you'd need would be a stable signal...

:)

you still need to add in the weight of the 10 .50 calibre rounds to the weight of the rifle, and I can't find a weight on them, but I do know they aren't light weight items.

Depends on projectile weight but as an average call it 4 ounces each.

The muzzle blast of a .50 is beyond noise, the pressure wave would stun the horse.

You can bet those WW1 horses were not standing next to the front end of the artillery when it was fired.

The muzzle blast of a .50 is beyond noise, the pressure wave would stun the horse.

Not if you have the muzzle out in front of the horse's head when you fire. Those rifles aren't just heavy, they are long. The Barret 82A1 or 107A1 are 57" vs 43.5" for an M1 Garand.

The muzzle brake diverts some of the blast toward the back and sides to attempt to reduce the 200 ft/lbs of recoil.

The muzzle brake diverts some of the blast toward the back and sides to attempt to reduce the 200 ft/lbs of recoil.

Yes, but there would still be a conical "shadow" in the pressure wave directly behind the muzzle or firing it would stun the shooter too.

If you are firing over the horse's head with the muzzle out past the nose of the horse, that shadow is probably large enough to protect the horse.

The shooter who is directly behind the rifle is usually advised to use both ear plugs and ear muff style hearing protection, and even that is considered not really enough.

I can't say for sure but I would think that moving the animals back wasn't so much about protecting them from noise as it was to protect the additional ordnance that they would be carrying to support the guns or maybe it was just to get them out of the way as they do with modern vehicles that tow the guns. I know from watching my sisters ex-husband that they would pull the gun into place and as the gun was being deployed the vehicle that towed the gun was pulled a set distance away. I can't say how far the vehicles moved away as we where observing the movement from a televised feed.

As for decibel level yes a .50 beats a normal rifle but I put my money of an artillery piece be much stronger and louder than a .50 . Plus they did have hearing protection for animals as well as gas masks but who can say how well they where used as the life span of horses and mules wasn't very long.

Oh I just remember so it is out of order but I remember reading in one of the WWI books the horses where targeted by observers as they where easier to spot and harder to hide.

runs between 161 and 170 decibels

...at what distance? SPL needs the distance it's measured at to be meaningful, as the sound power drops off with distance - double the distance = 1/4 the power = 3 or 6 dB less (I can't remember if SPL is amplitude=pressure based for 3dB, or power based for 6dB).

ETA: It's pressure based, relative to a reference of 0,00002 Pa RMS.

Measurements of the Barrett M82 have been around 180 decibels, people do not realize that a muzzle brake makes the rifle louder.

muzzle break =/= silencer(which is itself a misnomer).

Muzzle break = loudener (hat tip to the Simpsons).
Silencer = muffler. I've shot a pistol with a silencer/moderator. It was still loud, it just didn't hurt without earmuffs.