.50 BMG AR conversions

[horseshoe3]

Anyone know much about these? I'm going to an auction tomorrow that has a SHF .50 on it. Can't find a lot online except the typical magazine articles praising it and one discussion in a forum from 3 years ago.

Are there any .50 conversions that are good, bad, ugly?

I like the idea of having a paperless upper from an auction, but I'm not sure if that's a great way to get into .50 shooting.

[big country]

Are you sure its .50BMG and not .50Beowulf?

One will cycle the action and work like a "normal" AR, the other is bolt action only (IIRC). My thought it why make a semi-auto into a bolt action when a dedicated bolt action from the get-go would probably be better. The AR makes a wierdly shaped bolt-action in my opinion.

I've heard good things about the .50 Beowulf conversions though.

[horseshoe3]

It's BMG. It's a huge bolt action upper that pins on to the AR lower. I think the buffer has to be taken out to give the bolt some place to go when retracted.

I agree that a dedicated bolt action would be better. But, they start at 3x the price of an upper for an AR, and they come with paperwork. I just don't know if the upper conversions are enough worse to not mess with them or if they would be a good value for the money.

[big country]

Ok, Just wanted to make sure!

Another thing to think about is that the AR lower isn't designed to handle the recoil from a .50BMG. Are the pins of an AR strong enough (and where they pin to the lower especially!) to handle the recoil...and is it possible that the pins could wallow out the holes?

If you get it I would make sure to put it on a metal lower. Not sure I would trust a polymer one to the recoil!

[steyr_m]

If you want an AR with the big 1/2", I would go with the .50 Beowulf. If you really want the .50 BMG, I'd look for a tried and true bolt action design.