What is the largest caliber rifle available to civilians?

Answer 1

Clearly the .700 Nitro Express is the largest. The Caliber was designed to take down elephant with a single shot. Its a heavy hitting and will leave your shoulder black and blue. It also has absolutly no purpose in anyones hands in my opinion.

I must ask why it is that you look for this answer ? Do you plan to buy a rifle so big ? Most of the big calibers above 458 are useless unless your african hunting large game. Then theres the 50bmg. A caliber thats only purpose is to fire ballistic bullets down a path that could lead to a mile or so. If in fact you did fire a 50bmg under 300 yards the bullet would give little or no effect to your target. Keep in mind, the slower the bullet travels the more knock down power it has as a general rule. This is why the dangerous game calibers like the 700NE and the 458Lott travel at reduced rates of FPS. When your looking down the barrel at a animal that can take you out without tring, the shooter better know what he is shooting will stop them. The 50BMG will NOT do this. In fact you would have a better chance of pulling out the trustly 45acp and pumping 10 rounds into him. Point being, If your looking to get the biggest on the block for bragging rights, by all means go for broke ! If your looking to get the most effective round in big bore style, go for a 458Lott. Others will say " Mine has more power" but ask them can it penitrate 30 inches of Oak ! The answer will be no, so how is theres more powerful ?

Answer 2

Largest Caliber Rifle

Answer 3

Short answer, .50 cal, in particular the .50 BMG would be the biggest cartridge. Muzzle loading guns are not considered firearms by the BATF and neither is anything made before 1898, so they are exceptions. (I wish I knew the exact wording of the law, because they DO allow rifled shotguns, a 12ga being up to about .70 caliber, but I'm not sure why they are exempt) Long answer, you CAN get bigger stuff, but it's classified as a destructive device so you have to jump through a lot of hoops to get one and in some states you can't. Most of the cartridges that are bigger than the BMG, (although they are rare and EXPENSIVE) are based on necking down the 20mm Vulcan cannon round used in many fighter jets throughout the years. SSK industries has developed a number of these, the largest CALIBER being .the 950 JDJ- even then the cartridge is drasticly shortened. The energy of these guns is unreal and they would be absolutly HUGE, most in excess of 100 pounds with LONG barrels. The smallest caliber I've seen it down to is the .50, which would make it more available. The cartridge is reduced to a fraction of it's lenth and resembles a BMG, only two or three times the diameter around. It will increase the velocity up to about 3500 fps with a 750 gr bullet. The same BMG round will go about 2700ish. So what's the biggest? Well, it's conceivable to chamber a rifle in the 20mm itself, or perhaps even bigger cannon cartridges, although they are then considered cannons, not rifles, but the cost is terrific and unless you're very wealthy and very bored, the .50 BMG will have to suffice.

Answer 4

Largest Rifle

Answer 5

Bound's hubby here:

For fixed metallic cartridges, the largest caliber currently available is the .50 Browning Machine Gun (BMG). However, it's days may be numbered since many politicians (read "Democrat") have the .50 caliber in their gun-banning sights. There is a minor exception. I believe Pedersoli makes a replica Sharps rifle in .54 Sharps. I've seen this rifle and .54 caliber brass sometimes listed in the Sportsmans Guide. The 54 Sharps is a black powder cartridge, not a smokeless cartridge like the .50 BMG.

In black powder (the Socialist Republic of New Jersey considers black powder guns to be firearms) you can purchase the Brown Bess in either .75 or .78 caliber. You will sometimes see these rifles offered for sale at Cabela's.

There are other .50 caliber metallic cartridges that are now available, but they are not as big or as powerful as the .50 Browning.

Good luck.

Answer 6

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Define best. I think the good old 30-06 is a good all around gun. Proven accurate in bolt action rifles and still available as government surplus so the cost is good, which allows for more practice. If you qualify, you can get a very nice M1A Garand from the Civilian Marksmanship Program for $600-1000.

Answer 7

All the above have truth to them the .50 BMG is the most powerful caliber available for civilian purchase. Shotguns and muzzleloaders come in larger calibers but pale in comparison to ballistic performance.

Answer 8

yes, a civilian can own this but you have to have an FFL.

The 14.5mm bullet, probably the heaviest "small-arms" round found anywhere in regular service (the British .55 in converts to 13.97mm), was fired from a massive cartridge case. When redundant in its anti-tank role, the 14.5 mm became a heavy-machine gun round, and was used as a long range sniper rifle by the North Koreans during the Korean War.

Answer 9

BATF defines anything over 0.5" as a destructive device. Exclusions include shotguns and antiques. So you can buy a .700 Nitro Express or a shotgun with a rifled 0.729" barrel too. After that you have to speak nicely to the BATF.

Answer 10

The largest LEAGALLY available to civilians is the .50 BMG (browning machine gun) round, contrary to the statement below, you do not need an FFL to own one