What's more powerful, a 50-caliber revolver or a 50-caliber sniper rifle?

Question

Forgive me if the question sound basic; I'm just learning about guns.

Thanks!

Answer 1

50-caliber sniper rifle is more power full

Answer 2

The most powerful .50 caliber handgun cartridge is the .500 Linebaugh Long.  It shoots a 500 grain bullet at about 1200 feet per second and produces about 1599 foot-pounds of energy at the muzzle.  Effective hunting range is probably in the neighborhood of 200 yards.

The .50 Browning Machine Gun cartridge, for which the Barret .50 caliber rifles are chambered, fires a 720 grain bullet at 2810 feet per second and produces 12,630 foot pounds of energy at the muzzle.  That is all most eight times as much energy and more than twice the velocity.  Mil-spec barrels for the .50 BMG are required to produce minute of angle groups at 2,000 METERS, that is more or less a 21 inch group at a range of ONE AND ONE QUARTER MILES.

Does that answer your question?

Doc

Answer 3

50 BMG by far

Answer 4

BMG. Not even close.

Answer 5

sniper rifle it can pierce through tanks

Answer 6

Your answer to this question can be found on youtube.

Answer 7

Pretty much the answer to your question is that the rifle is always going to be more powerful than a handgun.  Rifles shoot rounds at an incredibly high velocity.  

On a side note:  I shot the .50 Smith and Wesson Magnum earlier this year and it was a blast (pardon the pun).  It's like someone punching you in the chest, throwing powder in your eyes and clapping real loud all at the same time (but in a positive way). WOW!  I loved it.  I might buy me one in next few years.  Too bad the rounds are so expensive.

Answer 8

Q: What's more powerful, a 50-caliber revolver or a 50-caliber sniper rifle?

A:  Hands on is the best way to learn so...  Do yourself a favor:  Take a .50 caliber revolver round (this will the .500 Smith & Wesson Magnum, probably the most common .50 caliber revolver round) and a .50 Caliber Browning Machine-gun bullet (this is what the .50 caliber anti-tank rifle will use as there is no such thing as a 'sniper-rifle' until such rifle is used by a sniper for the nefarious purpose of snipering) and place them side-by-side. This should allow you to answer your own question.  

In case you don't have access to these two rounds then I'll tell you that the .50 BMG is considerably larger than any revolver bullet in any caliber.  It is five, ten or more times larger.  So the .50 BMG bullet is going to be way more powerful everytime.  The only thing that the .50 Action Express (pistol bullet), the .500 S&W Mag. (revolver bullet) and the .50 BMG bullet share is the bullet diameter.  The .50 BMG fires a 750 grain bullet out of a bottle-necked casing that is the size of a small bottle.  The other two fifties are straight-wall cartridges slightly longer but even more narrow than a sewing thimble.  The bullets weigh around 300 or 350 grains.  They never achieve anywhere near the power or velocity of the big Fifty Browning Machine-gun bullet.

I hope that helped.

H

Answer 9

Although both are called a 50 caliber, the pistol cartridge is .50ae while the "sniper" rifle fires an accurized version of the .50cal browning round which was used for anti tank, and anti aircraft use. The .50  caliber browning round is far and away the more powerful round. I did see an idiot who had built a special handgun to fire the .50 browning round. When fired, it would dlip up and back completely out of the guys hand and either strike him violently in the head (drawing blood) or would land many feet behind him. Some people are slow learners.

Shoot safe

Answer 10

The diameter is the same, (forgive me gun experts if I am off by a few hundredths of an inch or something) but the casing is totally different. A .50 caliber "sniper" bullet is really the .50 BMG. It is a BIG round. While the .500 Magnum or .50 AE are big rounds, they are nowhere near close to the power put out by the .50 BMG. Off the top of my head I want to say it has something like 13,000 ft/lbs of energy. Let me check actually.

Ok here are the differences

                                  Bullet Diam.  Case Leng.       Ener.

50 BMG                         .511              99mm       ~13,000ft/lbs

.500 S&W Magnum      .500              41.3mm   ~2-2500 ft/lbs

.50 AE                             .500             32.6mm   ~1230 ft/lbs

As you can see the .50 BMG is going to do serious damage to anyone it barely touches. I hope this helps you in your quest for knowledge.

Answer 11

Can a Desert Eagle bring down a helicopter 6,000 ft away? No. An M99/M107 can.

Answer 12

i think a 50 caliber sniper rifle is alot more powerful the sniper would make the bullet go farther and faster with alot more power behind it than a 50 caliber revolver  

Answer 13

try the Barrett 50 cal sniper rifle, can kill a person behind a concrete barrier a mile away it smashes a hole in the concrete first ..the charge and bullet case is far bigger and i would think the charge its self would be a more volatile mixture than a hand gun

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Answer 14

.50cal BMG or your sniper bullet, is alot bigger and can do the same damage as ur .50cal revolver from a little less than a mile. so that should answer your question.  

Answer 15

The sniper rifle using the .50 BMG will drive a far larger bullet far faster and deliver far more energy than a revolver round like a .500 S&W magnum. A ..500 S&W magnum revolver will fire a 440 grain bullet at around 1,625 fps yielding around 2,600 ft·lb of energy (at the muzzle). A 50 BMG round drives a 700+ grain bullet at around 2900 fps yielding 14,000-15,000 ft-lb of energy (at the muzzle).

Answer 16

A .50 caliber revolver shoots bullets that have a diameter of .50 inches or 12.7mm. This bullet is usually fired at velocities of about 1600fps and weighs 29grams or 440 grains. The entire cartridge is 53mm long and 13.4mm wide (the bullet is seated in the case, which holds the powder and primer which propel the bullet. The entire package is called the cartridge or round)

A .50 caliber sniper rifle usually fires a cartridge called the .50 BMG or Browning Machine Gun. This shoots a bullet with a similar diameter as the revolver, but at 2895 fps and weighs 800 grains or 52 grams. The whole cartridge is 138mm long and 20.4mm wide.

So, obviously, the .50 sniper rifle is more powerful, Also, even if the sniper rifle was firing the same round as the .50 revolver, it would still be more powerful, as the sniper rifle has a longer barrel, so the bullet will have a higher velocity.