Guns I want to shoot – The Barrett 98B
Being a gun enthusiast I often find myself reading about or handling firearms (thank you Martin B. Retting) that I would like to shoot.
Well today I want to shoot the Barrett 98B. It was on the cover of this months American Rifleman. Join the NRA. Its big, black, scary to hoplophobes and uses big scary bullets. Since we in California do not have access to the the uber scary 50 cal. BMG rifles the .338 cal. Lapua Magnum is really the next best thing. This is not a rifle for shooting 100 yard bullseyes at the local range. I am sure it can do that with no problem, but you could do that with your 22 cal. rifle and $20 scope. If you want to shoot things that are so far away they are small even in your really expensive 20X scope then this is the way to go. The maximum effective range is about 1750 meters compared with the 50 BMG’s 2430 meters (longest confirmed kill). Very respectable when you consider it fires a bullet that is one third the weight of the 50 cal. The 98B also weighs about one third the weight of the 30 lb. Barrett 50 BMG 82A1. I doubt that too many of us would ever have to hump this anywhere on foot except from our cars to the shooting bench, but for those that may have to lug a large rifle around the reduced weight of this rifle is likely much appreciated.
I would say more, but this guy pretty much sums it all up.