.50 BMG in a Shotgun
YouTube: Edwin Sarkissian

Testing .50 BMG Rounds in a Shotgun Yields Surprising Results

This firearms experiment doesn't seem safe...

The mighty .50 BMG is one of the most powerful rifle rounds on the planet. It's a massive bullet that flies at a blistering 3,000 feet per second and can deliver up to 14,000-foot pounds of energy to a target. There's a reason it's called an anti-material round.

Since firearms YouTube became popular, we have seen a lot of crazy experiments using .50 BMG simply because it often delivers spectacular results. However, we have not seen an experiment quite like the one you're about to witness.

Watch as Edwin Sarkissian takes some ordinary .50 BMG rounds, and instead of feeding them into a Barrett or a Serbu, he places it into an ordinary shotgun and attaches a string for a remote fire experiment. This cannot possibly work right? Surely the shotgun will be annihilated.

We must be honest. We were expecting the results of this experiment to be much more explosive than what ended up happening. It seemed certain that Edwin was going to be minus one perfectly good shotgun after trying a stunt like this. However, if it has a primer, it seems a shotgun can handle shooting just about anything. Who would have thought?

Obviously, something like this should come with a "don't try this at home" warning label. We'd never recommend anyone putting anything other than manufacturer recommended shotgun shells in a pump gun. Still, the firearms enthusiast in us was fascinated with the results, especially the way the shotgun expanded the necked portion of the casing.

We do have to agree with Edwin that those rounds were not leaving the muzzle of this shotgun at their normal velocities. Normally a .50 BMG would blow right through all those reams of paper and they would likely never find it. Still, you would not want to be on the wrong end of a shotgun with a .50 BMG in the chamber. Thanks Edwin, for the fascinating experiment. Once again the Internet experts answer a gun question you always wanted to know, but never thought to ask!

For more outdoor content from Travis Smola, be sure to follow him on Twitter and check out his Geocaching and Outdoors with Travis YouTube channels

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