By Kevin Reese
SHOT Show, January 2016
Six part series: Part 2 of 6 : Bushmaster BA50 .50-Cal BMG Rifle
United States -(AmmoLand.com)- As an 8-year Marine Corps veteran, I’m fed up – fed up with the hordes of Washington thugs who have deemed time and time again that we’re too stupid to know what’s best for us when it comes to the Second Amendment.
By all appearances, their sole strategy to disarm law abiding American citizens is to simply lob ill-educated, naïve and often ignorant opinions, mandates and proposed legislation into the air hoping enough anti-gun rhetoric will stick and finally reveal the mosaic of a socialist society populated by subjects. Well, I have troubling news for those who deem it appropriate to tell us by what means we can defend ourselves.
The segment of our industry they hate the most continues to grow by leaps and bounds, especially with respect to production of those scary black rifles.
Anyone walking the SHOT Show floor with an ounce of brain activity can see that our tactical segment is alive and well… and I couldn’t be happier! With that in mind, I’m in the mood to really piss some people off by talking about a handful of the “scariest” black rifles at the 2016 SHOT Show had to offer. And by scariest, I mean exceedingly bad ass!
(This will be a series of Six(6) linked articles, the following is number 2 of 6. Click the Next button below for more.)
While not presented in any specific order, take a look at a handful that deserve some serious respect and lots of trigger time!
Bushmaster BA50 – A .50-Cal BMG Rifle Deserving Of The Name As I See It
Bushmaster, the rifle anti’s love to hate, assigning the label to virtually any rifle a nutcase uses for virtually any crime. Of course, rational, law abiding firearm owners the world over know the Bushmaster brand to mean uncompromising, consistently reliable performance and the BA50 rings just as true to the brand as any offering.
The exceedingly capable, Bushmaster BA50 holds its own in virtually any environment and reaches out to extreme distances to bang steel with unrelenting authority. The BA50 boasts a performance designed and machined T6-6061 billet aluminum lower receiver, 30-in. barrel with 1:15 twist that is free-floating within the vented fore-end, Magpul PRS adjustable buttstock capped by ridiculously comfortable Limbsaver recoil pad, a MIL-STD 1913 rail that spans the upper and runs the length of the fore-end, and a left bolt, right port action for optimum efficiency when cycling. While a hard anodized black finish provides ample defense for your aluminum BA50 parts, all steel rifle parts are protected by a premium manganese phosphate finish. Both coatings were scientifically formulated to stand up to even the harshest elements.
An added bonus for Leathernecks like me is that the upper and lower breakdown like standard AR platform systems for easy, efficient cleaning and maintenance.
The Bushmaster BA50 doesn’t just offer great accessories, it includes them. Every BA50 ships with an ErgoGrip Deluxe Tactical Pistol Grip, steel bipod with folding legs, two 10-round magazines, eye and ear protection, and a Storm deployment case. Scary? Yes, if by scary you mean awesome. Who else but Bushmaster would put BA in the name of a bad ass rifle? Okay, so it really stands for bolt action. Still, it’s more than worthy of its place in this lengthy feature.
Click the next button to read part three:
A Not-So-Scary Wrap-Up
As an obvious disclaimer, AmmoLand is poking fun at scary. While antis bounce around using loose terms like “scary”, “assault” or “clip”, generally because they are ill-educated and have no business discussing topics they know nothing about, or care to learn about for that matter, we had fun using the terms “scary” and “black rifles” as descriptors, by our definition, synonymous with super cool modern sporting rifles! They hate, we love! In fact, we want to see more! I can’t wait to see what the amazing folks hard at work in our firearms industry have in store for us down freedom’s road.
As rifles go, were there others worth talking about? Plenty! But, you’ll have to read about them in another AmmoLand feature in the 2016 SHOT Show series, 5 Rifles that Rocked the 2016 SHOT Show – a combination of more scary-cool rifles, including the mind-blowing FN M249S Semi-Automatic Saw, and other phenomenal classic-style bolt actions. If anything was clear at the 2016 SHOT Show it was that tactical is still alive, well and booming;
…however, I also noticed greater separation between the scores of we’re-just-assembling-parts-and-branding guys and those who are laser focused on improving, innovating and pushing tactical performance limits with rifle systems truly worthy of serious recognition.
Stick around. There is more to come in my 2016 SHOT Show wrap-up…
About Kevin Reese:
Kevin is an award-winning outdoor writer, photographer, videographer, speaker, host of Global Outfitters TV Show’s GO Tips and a Marine Corps veteran. He owns and administers www.mainbeammedia.com and Main Beam Blog at blog.mainbeammedia.com. The Main Beam Blog offers great articles, press releases, outdoor industry news and reviews.