[Polish Taipan]

It sounds like a hell of a lot of fun to me, a SAW type gun firing that devastating of a round. I was also thinking that if you were going to have a Kalashnikov .50cal, why not make it a RPK (has nothing to do with the fact that they are my favorites, lol). The 24" heavy barrel with a muzzle brake and clubfoot stock I think would help out with the beefier recoil, which Meepers said was like a 12 gauge in normal AK config. After talking with Meepers it sounds doable, if a little pricey (but no more than any RPK). So what do you think?

 

[Rhino_66]

As long as you use the plum furniture on this one... :lol:

Meeper's quick-change FAL conversions are REALLY cool. His .50 Beowulf AK is freakin' fantastic! Have at it!

Since all you will really need to change is the barrel and bolt, this shouldn't be difficult. Order up a .50 blank and get to work.

Did you notice that I have no problem spending your money? I'm also the guy who says "So you'll be a little late... Have another beer, she won't mind."

In all honesty, a .50 Beowulf RPK wouldn't be tough to do and would be a unique project. The RPK gas block is big enough that you can keep some pretty decent barrel wall thickness. Meeper will probably be more than happy to provide some helpful tips and prevent you from making mistakes. He's a great guy and does beautiful work.

 

[Polish Taipan]

As long as you use the plum furniture on this one... :lol:

Did you notice that I have no problem spending your money? I'm also the guy who says "So you'll be a little late... Have another beer, she won't mind."

Man, I'm running into dead ends everywhere looking for the plum stocksets. I think that would be the best on this one, or even a real nice black set.

You're right man, I don't need to pay those pesky bills, they'll just send another next month, lol, j/k.

I need to talk to Meepers again and see if he could modify the trunnions or something so that it would accept Gallil .223 mags. That way I could buy the steel 50 rounders which by my calculations may accept around 17 of the beowulf rounds.

This is obviously a little longer range project than my RPK74F, but I should be able to get most of my parts fairly cheap. About the only thing different is the barrel which Meepers will make from the 50 blank. To put it all together, barrel price included, he quoted me about $800. Not tooooo bad. Was thinking Global receiver w/ new trunnions. 74 style muzzle brake. (ooh this sucker will be loud).

Notes from Defensive Review:
The .50 Beowulf Entry carbine launches a 325-400 grain half-inch slug downrange at 1900-2000 fps. Now, without doing the actual math, that translates to some serious energy numbers. Suffice it to say, the .499 cal. is one powerful little pellet.

The .50 Beowulf would appear to render body armor fairly irrelevant. Even if the .499 caliber round failed to penetrate the armor, who cares? That 325-400 grain round would hit the target with so much energy/force, it would probably take all the fight right out of the badguy, penetration or not.

From Gunblast.com:
The word most commonly used to describe their collective opinion was "awesome"! At Raton, we fired the Beowulf at targets of both steel and paper, and at rocks ranging in distance from 135 yards out to 577 yards with great success.

The .50 Beowulf can easily penetrate barricade material and still engage the target with power to spare.

.223 and .50 beowulf comparrison:

Factory-loaded ammunition is available from Alexander Arms. Currently offered is a 400-grain Jacketed Soft Point (left) and 325-grain Jacketed Hollowpoint (right). Jeff considers the big 400-grain JSP to be an excellent choice for big game, while the 325-grain JHP should be a fine performer on medium game such as deer or wild hogs.

As this "exit wound" in a 10-inch treated wood post shows, the accuracy of the .50 Beowulf is matched by its power! Author considers the .50 Beowulf to be one of the best things to ever happen to the AR-15 design.

 

[Dirtalert]

With Hell yeah as one of the choices. It was a no brainer vote. :=)

 

[Polish Taipan]

That's a lot of lead with not that much punch . It would not be my firsit choice for the penetration factor . now don't get me wrong it thing looks cool but a .445 super is almost as big as is the .454 I just can't see this as highly rated rifle round.IMHO

Please elaborate, I don't doubt you but it would be nice to see some numbers. From ballistic software the Beowulf round starts off at 1900 fps dropping to 1146 at 200 yards, which gives energy at 2606 fpe at 0 yards dropping to 947 fpe at 200 yards. I've seen pics of cinder block being destroyed with one shot. Another tester siad it produced one of the largest permanent wound channels he'd ever seen in ballistic jelly.
Can we get some numbers up comparing it to 7.62 X 54R, .308, .445super, and .454?
Another factor to take into consideration is that this is a relatively easy mod. Would these others be so near drop in as the Beowulf?

 

[Polish Taipan]

I'm seeing you're point Cephus, I went back and looked at a chart of the 7.62 X 54R and it still has over twice the energy at 200 yards that the Beowulf. So is it just hype about this round? I mean they talk about it penetrating engine blocks.

 

[sks_hunter]

It would be like getting hit by a freight train, or a speeding Corvette. Either one would ruin your plans for tonight.

 

[Polish Taipan]

I'm just learning about bullet physics, but another guy put it well at another forum. Its about momentum the Beowulf does penetrate really well because of its mass and the energy it carries. He saw video of tests on "bullet proof glass" which included .308 and many others, only the Beowulf and 50BMG penetrated and did so reliably. I'm not sure this round is going away anytime soon, so many Beowulf AR15 uppers have been sold that Cabelas is carrying them and reloading dies are available. My real question is whether it would be worth it to build one in RPK configuration. I have some serious doubts about a project like this but at the very least it sounds like it would be a hell of a lot of fun to shoot. Another good question that came up was whether the 24" barrel would actually slow the bullet down before it exited the muzzle.

 

[sks_hunter]

why would it slow down?
because it has a longer barrel?
this would make it speed up, as long as you had the right loading.
more barrel, the projectile is under pressure longer, and exits faster, using more of the pressures produced by the powder, instead of just exiting the muzzle as flash. I thought you could (rule of thumb) plan on 100fps increase for every 2" of barrel length.
Cephus???
little help, please???
Am I way off in left field?

 

[Polish Taipan]

why would it slow down?

I think you're right SKS, that was just a question brought up on another forum. After looking at numbers and talking with several people I'm thinking this is basically a short range cannon (0-100 meters). Inside that range it destroys whatever is in its path, but past 100m the velocity and energy level (though may still pack a decent punch) drops off dramatically. I'm cool with that. I'm not looking for it to be a field sniper rifle, I'll build a PSL for that.
This is a project I'll just have to put on a slow burn. There are some other things I want to get done before this one, but I'm going to start to accumulate parts and more info. Have to talk with Meeper again about receivers and mags (stamped vs milled and whether he can make it work with Galil mags). :thankyou:

 

[sks_hunter]

I bet it would be one hell of a bear hunting round, even a great backup gun for dangerous game, within 100 yds. out to 50-75 yds, it would be very nasty. Even for our big Northern Maine moose.

 

[Polish Taipan]

To be honest I haven't seen the video either, but I think I found a link (which is down of course) that eludes to what he was talking about:

Shootout at Blackwater
... previously during the glass-busting discussion, the .50 Beowulf was the only round that penetrated the ADS ... carried stopping power. The .50 Beowulf, paired with LeMas ammo, would be ...
www.afji.com/blackwater/blackwater5.html - 30k - Cached - More pages from this site
Beowulf

I personally don't know exactly what ADS glass is (isn't it aircraft glass?), so the bullet proof thing may have been a stretch, but that link is from an Air Force Journal. LOL what are they looking at, whether it can take down airplanes?

 

[Polish Taipan]

Oh another side note, I found a review of the Beowulf Overwatch. Its the 24" version and the review states that the extra length adds 150 fps to the velocity. Which would add up to about 2200 fps at the muzzle using the 325 gr bullet.

 

[Polish Taipan]

Great news, Meeper said no problem to the milled reciever and thinks Galil mags should work fine. :thumbup1: