It finally arrived! If you never seen a Windrunner M96, This thing is pretty awesome and well worth the 5 month wait. The quality of the machining and finish is just superb. Bill at EDM arms provides the best customer service in the biz. The rifle arrived in a little briefcase size case, which I could never imagine being able to house a full size 50BMG rifle. The takedown design of this rifle is so unique that it allows the entire rifle to breaks down into a small enough package to fit in this little case.
Bill guarantees every M96 rifle to group 1MOA which translates to a 10" or less group at 1,000 yards and a 20" group at 2,000 yards. He personally holds the current 50bmg 1000 yard record with an identical rifle scoring an amazing 5.5" group at 1,000 yards. I can't wait to shoot it, and try out the rifle with my new US optics SN3 scope. So, does anyone know where I can open this baby up? as I am pretty sure that FT. Devans is not longer open. I would like to get at least out to 800 yards if possible to sight it in.
I originally purchased a Barrett M107 and then a Barrett M82A1 which both did not impress me with their accuracy. So I contacted Barrett to see if I was doing something wrong and was informed that the Barrett was not designed to be a sniper rifle, but as a anti-material weapon. Even though the Barrett looks cool, I wasn’t going to be shooting at moving trucks in Iraq, so I decided to see if there was another rifle out there that was capable of shooting better than the 2.5MOA I was getting with the Barretts. After doing some extensive research and like Mark mentions, hearing about that 2300 yard shot made by Canadian Corporal Rob Furlong using a McMillan Tac-50 50bmg rifle (Rob actually missed the initial shot, but corrected quickly, fired again and got the kill), I spoke to several manufacturers and was most impressed with EDM Arms, as I received great customer service from the company. I was able to speak directly with the owner of the company, Bill Ritchie, who took the time and spent over an hour talking to me about different options I had. Bill has been setting world records in 50BMg long distance competitions since the 1970’s. Bill is a very knowledgeable individual and extremely friendly. He did not push his product on me and instead told me to do more research so I would be happy with my purchase. So finally, I was able to narrow my choices to three rifles: The McMillan Tac-50 which was very accurate but its lightweight made for heavy recoil; the CheyTac .408 Intervention Rifle, which actually was designed by EDM and shares 90% of all components with the M96, but the .408 is a proprietary cartridge and costs almost $10 per round. So finally, I decided on the EDM Windrunner M96 Take Down rifle in 50 BMG because of the customer service I received, the 1MOA Lifetime Guarantee, the rave reviews it got from the 50 bmg community, its takedown capability and manageable recoil. Besides, frankly I just love the way this thing looks.
Tonight I finally installed my long awaited US Optics scope on the rifle. BTW, if you are looking for superb clarity, function and a tank of a scope, the US Optics SN3 5-25x TPAL can’t be beat. This thing is a monster. Here is a pic of what the scope looks like on my rifle.
US Optics specifically custom build each SN3 scope tailored to your individual rifle, the BDC is also calibrated specifically for the ballistic coefficient of your particular load, so there’s no guess work when doping shots at long distances. They also offer several tube sizes ranging from 30mm to 35mm and objective sizes from 44mm to 58mm to best suit the type of shooting you are going to be doing.
I would like to try out the Reading range and Woodcock Rd Range that were mentioned but ultimately, I would like to organize a trip to Montana to Bill Ritchie’s and Tom Miller’s 2000-yard range to which I was invited by Bill to come out and bring a few friends along. So anyone who is interested in stretching the legs on their 50BMG , let me know.
Bill guarantees every M96 rifle to group 1MOA which translates to a 10" or less group at 1,000 yards and a 20" group at 2,000 yards. He personally holds the current 50bmg 1000 yard record with an identical rifle scoring an amazing 5.5" group at 1,000 yards. I can't wait to shoot it, and try out the rifle with my new US optics SN3 scope. So, does anyone know where I can open this baby up? as I am pretty sure that FT. Devans is not longer open. I would like to get at least out to 800 yards if possible to sight it in.
I originally purchased a Barrett M107 and then a Barrett M82A1 which both did not impress me with their accuracy. So I contacted Barrett to see if I was doing something wrong and was informed that the Barrett was not designed to be a sniper rifle, but as a anti-material weapon. Even though the Barrett looks cool, I wasn’t going to be shooting at moving trucks in Iraq, so I decided to see if there was another rifle out there that was capable of shooting better than the 2.5MOA I was getting with the Barretts. After doing some extensive research and like Mark mentions, hearing about that 2300 yard shot made by Canadian Corporal Rob Furlong using a McMillan Tac-50 50bmg rifle (Rob actually missed the initial shot, but corrected quickly, fired again and got the kill), I spoke to several manufacturers and was most impressed with EDM Arms, as I received great customer service from the company. I was able to speak directly with the owner of the company, Bill Ritchie, who took the time and spent over an hour talking to me about different options I had. Bill has been setting world records in 50BMg long distance competitions since the 1970’s. Bill is a very knowledgeable individual and extremely friendly. He did not push his product on me and instead told me to do more research so I would be happy with my purchase. So finally, I was able to narrow my choices to three rifles: The McMillan Tac-50 which was very accurate but its lightweight made for heavy recoil; the CheyTac .408 Intervention Rifle, which actually was designed by EDM and shares 90% of all components with the M96, but the .408 is a proprietary cartridge and costs almost $10 per round. So finally, I decided on the EDM Windrunner M96 Take Down rifle in 50 BMG because of the customer service I received, the 1MOA Lifetime Guarantee, the rave reviews it got from the 50 bmg community, its takedown capability and manageable recoil. Besides, frankly I just love the way this thing looks.
Tonight I finally installed my long awaited US Optics scope on the rifle. BTW, if you are looking for superb clarity, function and a tank of a scope, the US Optics SN3 5-25x TPAL can’t be beat. This thing is a monster. Here is a pic of what the scope looks like on my rifle.
US Optics specifically custom build each SN3 scope tailored to your individual rifle, the BDC is also calibrated specifically for the ballistic coefficient of your particular load, so there’s no guess work when doping shots at long distances. They also offer several tube sizes ranging from 30mm to 35mm and objective sizes from 44mm to 58mm to best suit the type of shooting you are going to be doing.
I would like to try out the Reading range and Woodcock Rd Range that were mentioned but ultimately, I would like to organize a trip to Montana to Bill Ritchie’s and Tom Miller’s 2000-yard range to which I was invited by Bill to come out and bring a few friends along. So anyone who is interested in stretching the legs on their 50BMG , let me know.
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