The .416 Barrett (10.4×83mm),

centerfire Two rounds of .357 Magnum, a centerfire cartridge; notice the circular primer in the center A center-fire (or centerfire) is a type of metallic cartridge used in firearms, where the primer is located at the center of the base of its casing (i. ...

rifle A rifle is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting and higher stopping power, with a gun barrel, barrel that has a helical or spiralling pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus o ...

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 Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division (NSWC Crane Division) is the principal tenant command located at Naval Support Activity Crane (NSA Crane) in Indiana. NSA Crane is a United States Navy installation located approximately southwest ...

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

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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. Barrett has also introduced the MRADELR rifle in .416 Barrett.

416 Barrett competition rifles

Today, many competition-driven shooters build custom 416 Barrett rifles with longer barrels ranging from 35-40" to make the most of the 180 grain+ of powder loaded in this cartridge pushing 550 grain solid bullets past 2900 ft/s, significantly higher than the original loading. This has made the rifle very popular in Extreme Long Range Matches where steel targets are engaged out past 2 miles with specialized optics such as the March Genesis ELR Scope, allowing these rifle systems to deliver accurate precision rifle fire to impressive ranges. This is further facilitated by the weight of these extreme long range rifles often hovering around 18 kg all in. Read more about the 416 Barrett competition rifles.

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 In ballistics, the ballistic coefficient (BC, ''C'') of a body is a measure of its ability to overcome air resistance in flight. It is inversely proportional to the negative acceleration: a high number indicates a low negative acceleration—the ...

of .720, and keeping the projectile supersonic out to 1,737 meters (1,900 yards, ~1.2 miles).

.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 A Doppler radar is a specialized radar that uses the Doppler effect to produce velocity data about objects at a distance. It does this by bouncing a microwave signal off a desired target and analyzing how the object's motion has altered the fre ...

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.

Muzzle velocity

Legality

A few jurisdictions in the United States, most notably

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, as well as a few nations such as

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, and

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, as well as the Australian state of

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, 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.

References

Barrett , Ammunition

External links

TGR Co. LLC Firearms website
{{.30-03 Springfield Barrett Firearms Manufacturing Paramilitary cartridges Pistol and rifle cartridges Weapons and ammunition introduced in 2005 10.4x83mm