Hi,

I just watched the Weaponology episode on sniper rifles, and the show made a gross error that I'm really surprised wasn't caught in editing. (In fact, I'm shocked that such an error was made at all.)

The show starts of at the beginning introducing the semi-automatic .50 cal sniper rifle the narrator clearly identified as the "Barrett AS50," a name which was repeated again towards the end of the show. One look at the muzzle brake, and any shooter familiar with Barrett's rifles can tell you that the AS 50 is not a Barrett rifle.

Barrett doesn't make the AS50; it's made by Accuracy International, a British company. The weapon and its maker were featured in Future Weapons, and Weaponology's sniper rifle episode even featured several clips of the AS50 being demonstrated by Richard Machowicz from Future Weapons.

How do you make such an error when the episode your video clips are taken from identifies the gun correctly? Seriously now, this kind of mistake should never have made it past the editors. This kind of mis-attribution is embarrassing to Barrett, Accuracy International, as well as to the editors of the show.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: berkamin,

dude, i just caught on to that. For some reason i missed it the first time. They even had vids of both of them naming them the same gun. Some footage was the AS50 and some of it was the M82A1(if my memory serves me correctly). How does something like this happen!

I'll tell you how. They have tool hosting the show. When he demonstrated the Chey-Tac he was shooting at something like 1500 meters, missed and said "I'll just hold over next time"... Uh, that's what the knobs are for DA. I know he was a SEAL and all, but he constantly displays poor marksmanship skills. Good reads on SEALs Lone Survivor and Not a Good day To Die.

I know he's the host of Future Weapons. The "Expert" they use on Weaponology is a supreme tool though. Areh Neusbacher or whatever. I can't believe that he ever served a day.

Just saw it today, and I'm shocked at it. How could you make that mistake on tv. There is a very distinct difference between the AI's weapons(the L96 series and the AS50) and that of which are made by Barrett, both in style and purpose. The muzzle break or any other part of the gun's appearance does not resemble a Barrett in any way. In fact I would feel insulted if I was AI.

M82(Barrett's semi-auto .50cal)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Barr...run-exhibition-1.jpg

Accuracy Internationals AS50 http://www.defensereview.com/1_31_2004/Accuracy%20Inter...i-Auto%20Rifle_1.jpg

quote:

They have [a] tool hosting the show. When he demonstrated the Chey-Tac he was shooting at something like 1500 meters, missed and said "I'll just hold over next time"... Uh, that's what the knobs are for DA. I know he was a SEAL and all, but he constantly displays poor marksmanship skills.

I saw that episode, and if I'm not mistaken the target he missed (twice) and said "I'll just hold over a little next time" was the 2,300 meter target, not the 1,000-1,500 meter one, which I recall that he nailed at about 11:00 o'clock, 4 inches out with the first shot.

Also, he DID use the knobs after the guy running the demo (and spotting) took a new wind reading... they even said something about the wind had shifted just after he missed the first 2 shots. My question is what kind of spotter wouldn't have caught that BEFORE the first shot?

In "the world," your target isn't just going to stand there while two or three .50-cal rounds zing in around him, waiting for your spotter to notice the wind... you either score with the first one or pack it up and move.

Maybe I'm remembering a different show or episode, but I've seen this ex-SEAL shoot on several shows & episodes, including some Israeli and Scandinavian pieces, and they have never shown him missing, and the Israeli guy even commented on his marksmanship (positive, not negative). Either he has pretty good skillz and was done in by his spotter on this episode, or they've been editing out his misses all along and just failed to do so in this instance.

But as anyone who has "been there, done that" knows, a sniper is only as good as his spotter. Maybe we should cut this Veteran SEAL a little slack until we know for sure what happened, which is unlikely to occur just from watching these shows.

quote:

The "Expert" they use on Weaponology is a supreme tool though. Areh Neusbacher or whatever. I can't believe that he ever served a day.

You should check out the Aryeh Nusbacher comments on the "Top Ten Fighters" thread in this forum. "Supreme Tool" just doesn't begin to adequately describe this jerk, but I understand that you were trying to keep it clean for the kiddies.

Just saw the same thing today and it surprised me.
If I am not wrong I can rememer seeing a different show where they showed both the AS50 and the m95 as 2 different weapons and there they devided the manufactorers.
Odd mistake to make.

I thought I sorta caught it. Not being "up to snuff" on sniper rifles, I thought I was seeing maybe 2 different weapons made by the same company. Heck, even I can tell by looking.

Maybe it was a different show (Mac was on it), but I saw one rifle being a bolt-action while the other was a semi-auto. Is this the same show, or am I thinking of a different one?

I can't really rag on Mac, ex-SEAL or not, for missing a target I personally couldn't see without a good pair of binoculars, scope or not.

The life of ammo used by our local SWAT snipers is between 7 and 9 days. That's because they work 6 on and 3 off. They load their own ammo and after working their 6, they go to the range on one of their 3 off and burn it up.

I would think that in preparation for a show, first they make sure Mac knows his weapons, then give him 100 rounds (or however many his shoulder can take) and give him some good range time.

Bob

One thing I left out of my previous post (and I should write a macro for this), I agree that Areh Neusbacher is a twit