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Boomer - My .50 BMG Bluegrass Armory Viper

11K views 14 replies 8 participants last post by  virtual-rj  
#1 ·
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I bought this .50 BMG Bluegrass Armory Viper last October but I followed the well meaning advice of an online guru who owns two Vipers and that was largely responsible for me not shooting the .50 BMG for many months. In retrospect, I should have trusted the guy who designed and builds the Viper when he said there is almost no difference in accuracy between their mil-spec chambered guns and their match chambered guns. The match chamber means different things to different manufacturers. The mil-spec Viper is chamber reamed as small as the mil-spec tolerance allows, which is also the high end on the match chamber spec, so the mil-spec chambered Viper is also a match chamber by the loosest definition.

I was told I'd need to turn the case necks with the match chamber, and I was fully prepared to do that. I planned on reloading for it 100% anyway (I can't afford to shoot it otherwise), so turning case necks adds little and I figured I wanted the best possible accuracy. Well, I learned that the case necks weren't the problem. My resized brass wouldn't fit, but it was because the case head was too large just above the extractor rim. I eventually decided to modify my reloading die and I machined .075" from the bottom of the resizing die so the tapered die would go down further over the tapered brass and resize it more. I realized I'd still need to remove at least another .075" more from the die before the case head would chamber, and that would push the shoulder back too far for the .50 BMG specification. >:(

I shot one PMC commercial round at the Spring Kentucky KTOG Konvention (against my better judgment and in a fit of frustration) and the brass stuck in the chamber. I expected a steep learning curve with the .50 BMG but I was becoming a little frustrated.

I returned the Viper to the manufacturer. They're only 21 miles south of me. The shop manager told me they've made about a hundred match chambered Vipers and maybe ten still have match chambers on them. Bluegrass Armory is currently running way behind in production and aren't very customer friendly before the sale, but once you have one of their guns they'll go to extremes to make the customer happy. They knew about my situation before I called. When I called, I was told, "I heard you wanted us to saw that barrel in half so you could shoot two 25 caliber bullets at once." :-?

I visited while they swapped my barrel as I watched. It was very interesting.

Now, I couldn't be happier. Reloading is a breeze... at least after that way oversized once fired brass from the loose chambered machine gun is resized. That's an aerobic workout.

We all took turns shooting the newly re-barreled Viper at the KTOG National at Knob Creek last month, and we blew up a lot of stuff. I had loaded 150 rounds of cheap South African ball ammo, twenty rounds of armor piercing incendiary (API), ten rounds of armor piercing (AP), ten rounds of incendiary and ten rounds of tracers. The API and incendiary are a lot of fun. KY-*******-Geek's old HP LaserJet 4 laser printer was a lot of fun, too. It threw toner into the air and ignited it into a huge rolling mushroom cloud! Photo courtesy of KY-*******-Geek.

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An API round into an old hard drive will typically char the front and easily punch a hole through it, but occasionally the hard drive would explode in a blinding flash of light with nothing left but a ball of plasma. I'm not sure if we were accidentally hitting the more massive spindle motor, or maybe someone was shooting incendiary ammo.

I gave the Viper the nickname Boomer, mostly for the booming percussive muzzle blast that will rearrange internal organs, but partly because she seemed to need a girl's name and I had recently caught up on all the Battlestar Galactica DVDs. Lt. Boomer is kinda cute. :)

On Saturday of the KTOG National, we shot 63 rounds and around 60 rounds, the Leupold 6.5-20X50 VX-III scope was internally disassembled by Boomer. I sent it back to Leupold that Monday, which cost me $21 in shipping. I felt a bit silly insuring a destroyed scope.

On Sunday, we shot forty-some more rounds using the very nice Sightron 4.5-14X50 scope I pulled off my SU-16E. It has the Leupold quick release rings, so it was easy to move over and zero using the Leupold Zero Point Bore Sighter (highly recommended).

Many people had their intro to .50 BMG shooting at the KTOG National. A couple of the New York guys bought .50 BMG rifles of their own afterwards. I'd like to think I was partly responsible for that gun buying craziness, but it was really all Boomer... and probably a bit of concern for the gun bans they may face in the near future.
 
#2 ·
The Leupold scope came back last week and I re-installed it and my brother and I took Boomer, my .50 BMG Bluegrass Armory Viper to the range on Saturday and fired 51 rounds. Here's my brother Joe, and Boomer. Joe had a good time.

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I never finished shooting the last six rounds on paper to get it properly sighted. As soon as it was close I started blasting fist sized rocks at 50, 100 and 200 yards. What fun! They make a very satisfying puff of smoke as they disintegrate, and there is only a little gravel left afterward.

When I missed, my brother would say "high" and I'd crank the scope down a few clicks. By the end, we were hitting almost every time at 200 yards. I set up a 4"X4" post at 200 yards and knocked it over with one shot. I walked down and looked at it and the impact was about an inch from where I was aiming. We set it up again and my brother shot it, and split it in half with a nearly center hit. Neither of us have any real experience shooting bench rest, or any serious rifle shooting experience at all. Two different inexperienced rifle shooters, two hits, each within an inch or so at 200 yards. That seems either very lucky, or .5 MOA! I'm happy!

This was plinking ammo using pull-down military surplus powder and low cost South African projectiles and resized brass that didn't have annealed or turned necks, wasn't fire formed, and wasn't sorted by weight. It was still very accurate.

I did weigh the powder to within .1 grains of 210.0 grains, a fairly light load, but otherwise I hadn't done anything to accurize the ammo. I'm looking forward to getting serious about the accuracy of the ammo and improving my shooting technique and seeing what I can do with Boomer.

For now, I'm very impressed with the initial accuracy with my plinking loads.
 
#3 ·
Boomer was certainly the highlight of the weekend.  I probably didn't thank you sufficiently for your overwhelming generosity, especially where the costly ammo is concerned.  Basically, there were a couple of ammo cans full and everyone shot as much as they could stand.  That was great fun.  However, I have yet to see the video taken remotely by your camera that was placed down range when we blasted some alcohol filled containers.  This is as good a place as any.  Boy, that was fun!  :cool:
 
#4 ·
You know, I had to carefully clean my camera's lens and LCD after shooting the can of hairspray, which wasn't as fun as I thought it'd be. That can of hairspray was at least 30 feet away!

Sadly, because of all the delays, the camera cut off just as the interesting shooting started. I have a lot of "interesting" targets and I'll make some more incendiary rounds and make a good video, hopefully without melting my new camera. :eek:

Blowing up stuff is fun, but I'm most anxious to put some half inch holes in paper at 200+ yards and maximize my accuracy.

In addition to the most accurate ammo I can make and the best shooting technique I can develop, I plan on cheating like crazy. My goal is accurate first shot placement at long distances, and I'm not concerned with shooting technique as a necessary part of the pursuit. I'm going to try to get as much of the human element out of the process as possible. I want micro-adjustable bi-pod legs and a mono-pod back on the butt stock. I'm not above remote trigger activation. I have no inclination to compete with others, but I do want to compete with myself to be the best I can be.
 
#6 ·
That's all so cerebral.  I just wanna blow stuff up and film it exploding into a fireball.  Well, you've got the better part of a year to cook up some roll-your-own tannerite. Kansas!   [smiley=evil.gif]
 
#9 ·
Talus said:
.50 BMGs are amazing rifles.  Nothing short of a cannon comes close to the experience of standing near one of those when they go off.
You ain't kidding! I love the muzzle blast effect of them when they go off, cleans out the sinuses...forcefully! ;D Kind of like standing beside a Top Fuel dragster when they take off, if your insides don't jiggle like Jello then somethings wrong. :)


BamX2
 
#12 ·
Brewster6514 said:
bring it up to N.Y and we can shoot all 3. :cool:
You guys got rocks in NY that we can use as targets, or do I need to bring my own? :D

I'm half afraid to bring any fun guns to NY. I'm afraid they may be confiscated. >:(

Maybe we need a special Other Guns thread for .50 BMG Braggin' Rights where we post targets, ala the Braggin' Rights thread in the SUB-2000 forum. Bob's young eyes should give him a big advantage. I hope my advantage would be reloading, so I can make more accurate ammo specific to my rifle, and so I can afford to shoot more. More shooting helps two ways. Obviously, technique should improve with more trigger time, but there's also statistics. A five shot clover leaf at 200 yards may be a one in a million chance, but if I shoot half a million targets, my odds are 50/50.
 
#13 ·
we like the don't ask, don't tell philosophy. ;)
and we have more rocks than you have bullets, i believe they grow here.(i picked enough as a kid out of the garden every year :eek:)