The Barrett M82 is an anti-materiel rifle of American origin. It has evolved to become the cornerstone of modern military sniping. Invented by Ronnie Barrett during the early 1980s, this rifle is regarded as the very first anti-materiel rifle of the modern period for general adoption. Having been designed to engage long-range targets, the M82 has been very effective against material and personnel targets.
When it was introduced, the design of the M82 was revolutionary; against all the conventional principles of bolt-action sniper rifles, the M82 is a short recoil-operated semi-automatic weapon. Its design maintains a straight-line principle where the barrel, the receiver, and the shoulder stock are perfectly aligned. It has a heavy, fluted barrel, free-floating and recoiling under firing with a very effective multi-slotted muzzle brake. The M82 has been updated with accessory rails and other enhancements over the years.
The M82 fires the 12.7x99mm NATO powerful cartridge, from a 10-round magazine. The accuracy is within the 3 MOA range and can be less than 1 MOA using match-grade ammunition. The maximum effective range is about 1.8 kilometers, but the effective range for the M107CQ variant is approximately 600 meters.
The Barrett M82 was born in 1982 when professional photographer Ronnie Barrett fell in love with a .50 caliber machine gun mounted on a military patrol boat. Barrett had zero experience with firearms design, and he hand-drew his design for a .50-caliber rifle until he found a sympathetic machinist, Bob Mitchell, to help bring his vision into being. In less than four months, they had a working prototype.
Barrett’s first rifle was the Barrett .50 BMG, a shoulder-fired, semi-automatic weapon designed around .50 BMG. In a fashion unparalleled among firearms, the recoil of the rifle’s barrel to the rear used part of the energy to cycle the action, cock the firing pin, and load a new round from a ten-round steel magazine. This design considerably reduced the felt recoil, hence making several rounds easier to fire.
The Barrett M82 drew attention immediately, thanks to an order by the Central Intelligence Agency to equip Mujahideen guerrillas against Soviet forces during the war in Afghanistan. It was this capability of the rifle to render enemy war materials null and useless by blowing these materials apart with the heavy .50 BMG round that made a new area for weapon application—the anti-materiel rifle.
The Barrett M82A1 Riffe is an improved model developed in 1986 and became a game changer in military sniping. This rifle is 57 inches long, with a 29-inch barrel, and weighs 28.44 pounds. The M33 .50 BMG bullet weighs 661 grains and produces 11,169 foot-pounds of energy at the muzzle, while the 5.56mm round used in M16 rifles produces only 1,330 foot-pounds. Until well past 2,000 yards, the Barrett round still carries enormous energy.
In 1989, the Swedish Army became the first military customer to purchase the Barrett Model M82A1, and in 1990, the U.S. Marine Corps bought its first M82A1. The rifle has been employed in Operation Desert Storm and has been in continuous use with most other participating nations in succeeding conflicts, including both wars in Iraq, the War in Afghanistan, and against the Islamic State. In 2002, the U.S. Army officially adopted this rifle as the M107.
Today, it is in service with over sixty countries, mainly NATO and U.S. allies from Asia and the Middle East. Its success indeed has far-reaching consequences for other great military powers, like Russia with its OSV-96 and China with the Zijiang M99, to develop respective 12.7 mm/.50 Caliber-class sniper rifles. A real Barrett M82A1 does start a revolution in military sniping from a rifle nobody wanted to build.