The Barrett Mk. I VLD was designed from the start to be as efficient as possible, remaining supersonic past 2,150 yards. It has a ballistic coefficient of .730.

The .50 BMG is an impressive long-range cartridge, especially when paired with a high-quality bolt-action or semiautomatic rifle and a good optic. The ability to hit distant targets is only limited by the man behind the trigger and his spotter's ability to read conditions. Hits on two-legged predators with this cartridge in excess of 2,000 meters have been recorded in our latest conflicts. That's an obscene distance well beyond the capabilities of most of the world's riflemen.

In 2002, Canadian sniper Rob Furlong put his McMillan Tac-50 to work against a Taliban weapons team in Afghanistan. He picked out an RPK gunner and let fly. According to reports, his first round missed, a second round struck the militant's backpack, and the final round was a torso hit. The range was 2,657 yards. Furlong was at 9,000 feet, and the thin air certainly helped, but man, what an amazing shot!

But to say that the .50 BMG is the world's ultimate long-range cartridge is pure hogwash. It is an awesome antimaterial round and the choice of our military, but the best precision, long-range cartridge it is not. There are myriad factors that lead to the adoption of a rifle or cartridge; in the case of our military, economy, commonality, and expediency far outweigh ballistic coefficient and muzzle velocity. Just like the 7.62x51mm, the .50 BMG was adopted as our big-bore sniper round because it is what we had--lots of it in fact--and not because it was the best cartridge for the job.

Barrett Firearms did not invent the material-destroying, long-range, big-bore sniping rifle, but it was the company that allowed the U.S. military to put a practical rifle in the hands of infantry companies and special operatons forces. It also made big-bore rifles accessible and practical for civilian shooters. As is often the case, innovative companies never quit innovating, and Barrett soon began developing a purpose-built cartridge that could rightly wear the crown of the world's best big-bore, long-range precision round.

From Concept To Reality
Chris Barrett, son of Barrett Firearms founder Ronnie Barrett, grew up in the firearms business and has worked as a gun designer at the Tennessee-based company since 1996. He was tasked with turning an idea into something that went bang.

"The California legislation (banning .50-caliber rifles) prompted us to get the cartridge done, but we saw the handwriting on the wall long before the law that there were military groups and civilian shooters that wanted to hit man-sized targets at 2,000 meters and beyond," Barrett said. "The cartridge was designed from the start for long-range accuracy. Everything centered around this principle."

The new cartridge would also have to fit into a man-portable rifle in the same class as the current Model 99 or Model 82A1. It turns out that was an easy bill to fill because the cartridge got smaller instead of bigger. Taking a cue from decades of development by benchrest and long-range competitors, Barrett knew he needed an efficient cartridge and bullet, not just a good bullet with more propellant behind it. The new cartridge would go far beyond just necking down a .50 BMG case.

One of the keys to long-range accuracy is a bullet's ability to stay supersonic. When a bullet starts to slow down to transonic speed--an area of aerodynamic purgatory of sorts--strange things start to happen to the airflow. The air moves faster in some places, slower in others--remember Bernoulli's Principle from high school physics--and the bullet becomes less stable. Barrett's bullet would have to be as aerodynamic as possible and have an extremely high ballistic coefficient. That would be the result of the right combination of diameter, length, shape, and weight. There are quite a few very low drag (VLD) bullets in production, and the Barrett bullet borrowed from them heavily.