The .50 BMG is perhaps one of the most iconic, and highly recognizable, calibers in the rifle shooting world. Whether we’ve shot one or not, most of us have at-least seen this round highlighted in many war movies over the years. It’s the same round you see fed through the machine guns attached to military vehicles. The BMG stands for Browning Machine Gun, denoting both who made it and what it’s intended purpose was for.





The .50 BMG was first developed in the late 1910s by none other than John Browning himself. His purpose in creating the beefed up was to give the US Military, and its allies, an anti-aircraft round that was both feasible and effective. After looking at using a German anti-tank round, Browning decided to go with a scaled-up 30-06 design, especially since the intention was to feed the round through an automatic machine gun.





When it was all said and done, Browning has developed a round that would prove to be useful, even in today’s military battles, and why not? The bullet, itself, is over a half inch in diameter, while the entire round is over five inches long. TO make the round even more successful, and useful, the Barrett M82 .50 rifle, and similar variations, were created. This gave Military riflemen a round they could use to engage enemy combatants from as far away as a mile, given a clear line of sight. While it’s effectiveness on the field of battle is unmatched, many civilians use it to shoot mainly at the range, seeing as it would obliterate most animals.



