Binoculars

The AR platform is incredibly versatile and lends itself to amazing adaptation. The .22LR, .17HMR and 5.7 mm are at one end of the spectrum. At the opposite, the heavy hitters are the .458 SOCOM, the .416 Barrett and the .50 BMG. The two largest rounds rely on manual bolt-action operation, but this makes them very accurate and you can use almost the full range of AR accessories to customize them.

Zel Custom make some of these heavy caliber, bolt action uppers. Their 416 AR upper is a .416 Barrett upper receiver in single shot bolt action fitted with a 29″ LW19 Lothar Walther barrel. This barrel has a match chamger and 6 groove 1:11″ rifling. As with all Zel uppers, a highly effective muzzle brake is fitted. The upper receiver is machined from a single billet of 4140 steel, fitted with a MIL-STD 7075 T-6 quad rail made of 7075 aluminium – far stronger than the 6000 series aluminium often used for this application. You can use any of a selection of high quality target triggers on the market together with a stock, grip and bipod of you choice.

Zel decided to create an ‘entry level’ unit – the 50 BMG AR upper. This has a choice of 24 or 29″ barrels with a 1:15 twist and USGI dimensioned chamber for maximum ammo tolerance when shooting milsurp ammo. Mossberg make the barrel to Zel’s specifications. The chambering gives you a lot of latitude in using milspec rounds and brass without resizing and good long range accuracy.

The logical progression from the T-1 is the 50 BMG upper. This combines the Ultralite T-1 upper with the 5 round magazine of the Accuracy International AW50 sniper rifle. The mag well is positioned on the left hand side of the weapon and is made of steel for longevity. The result is an AR-15 based long range repeating rifle second to none. As this rifle does not rely on long-recoil operation as do some popular 50 BMG rifles, it is inherently very accurate.

Tags: rifle