.416 Barrett

The .416 Barrett or 10.4×83mm centerfire rifle cartridge is a proprietary bottlenecked centrefire rifle cartridge designed in 2005. It is an alternative to the large-caliber .50 BMG in long-range high-power rifles. It was designed in response to a request for a medium/heavy rifle cartridge combination that was issued from Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division in late 2004.

Design

The Barrett .416 cartridge was designed by Chris Barrett, son of Ronnie Barrett, with the help of Pete Forras. The bullet was designed using some NACA low-supersonic-drag equations to design the shape.

The cartridge was designed as an improvement to the .50 BMG cartridge, a common machine gun and rifle cartridge. It is a wildcatted .50 BMG case, shortened to from its original length of and necked down to accept a .416 caliber, projectile; however, the case dimensions are proprietary. Because the two cartridges, the .50 BMG and .416 Barrett, have identical base dimensions, all that is needed to convert a rifle to use one or the other cartridge is a relatively quick barrel swap.

The Barrett Model 99 was initially the only commercially available rifle using the cartridge. In 2009, Zel Custom Manufacturing released the Tactilite .416 Barrett upper for AR-style rifles Zel Custom Manufacturing curtailed operations in 2018 which was subsumed by another manufacturer, McCutchen Firearms, after the BATFE classified barreled upper assemblies in .50 caliber to be firearms in and of themselves on July 17, 2018. There is now a range of options available from several manufacturers: Noreen Firearms makes a rifle in .416 Barrett, as does Desert Tech, and Barrett now also has a .416 Barrett option for its semi-automatic M82A1.

Performance

Barrett 398 gr solid brass boattail spitzer bullet

The use of a lighter, narrower bullet results in a significantly higher muzzle velocity and superior ballistic performance to the .50 BMG, and the .416 Barrett is claimed to retain more energy than the .50 BMG at distances over 1,000 yards. Barrett claims that this cartridge is capable of propelling a 398 gr solid brass boattail spitzer bullet out of the barrel of a Model 99 single-shot rifle at 960 m/s (3,150 ft/s), giving it a ballistic coefficient of .720, and keeping the projectile supersonic out to 1,737 meters (1,900 yards, ~1.2 miles).

In a second-season episode of '' Future Weapons'' the host (Richard Machowicz, a former Navy SEAL) engaged in a shooting competition with another sniper. Machowicz achieved a cold-bore first-shot "kill" at 2,500 yards (2,286 m, ~1.42 miles) using a .416 Barrett Model 99 rifle while his competition, using a .50 BMG, required three shots to achieve a "kill". The .416 Barrett Model 99 rifle Mr. Machowicz used during this competition was equipped with a Barrett Optical Ranging System (BORS) module attached to the telescopic sight.

.416 Barrett MSG bullet

Improvement beyond this standard while still using standard .416 Barrett brass seems possible, but the bullets have to be specially designed. An example of such a special .416 Barrett very low drag extreme range bullet is the German CNC manufactured mono-metal 27.5 gram (424 gr) .416 Barrett MSG (G1 BC ≈ 1.103 – this ballistic coefficient (BC) is calculated by its designer, Mr. Lutz Möller, and not proven by Doppler radar measurements). The solid brass .416 Barrett MSG bullet has an overall length of and derives its exceptional low drag from a radical LD Haack or Sears-Haack profile in the bullet's nose area. Rifles chambered for this cartridge bullet combination, with a cartridge overall length of , have to be equipped with custom made long 279 mm (1:11 in) twist rate barrels to stabilize the .416 Barrett MSG projectiles and attain a projected 1,032 m/s (3,385 ft/s) muzzle velocity..416 Barrett MSG Loads by Lutz Möller (including images)
/ref>

Muzzle velocity

* 25.8 g (398 gr) solid brass projectile: 960 m/s (3,150 ft/s); 8,767.4 ft·lb (~11,887 J).

Legality

A few jurisdictions in the United States, most notably California, as well as a few nations such as Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, and Denmark restrict or prohibit civilian ownership of rifles chambered to use the .50 BMG cartridge, but not other calibers (e.g., .416 Barrett).2007 Dangerous Weapons Control Law: 12275 thru 12290 Assault Weapons
". California Penal Code at the State Attorney General web site.

For California, Section 30905 of the California Penal Code governs exceptions/exclusions to the law:

Gallery

File:416barretand50bmg.png, .50 BMG cartridge on the left and a .416 cartridge on the right.

See also

* List of firearms
* List of rifle cartridges
* Table of handgun and rifle cartridges
* 10 mm caliber
* .50 Caliber BMG Regulation Act of 2004

References

Barrett , Ammunition

External links

TGR Co. LLC Firearms website

{{DEFAULTSORT:416 Barrett

Barrett Firearms Manufacturing
Pistol and rifle cartridges
Weapons and ammunition introduced in 2005