Quote: "I have now seen the 0.50 round (still live BTW) it has SL 43 stamped on the base. I wonder were it was made?".
Easy one. At the St Louis Ordnance Company, in 1943.
The .50 Cal has a long history. Designed at the end of WW1 by Browning, it uses the semi-recoil principle designed by Maxim. Too late to enter the war, it didn't enter service until 1923. It was used extensively during WW2, and is still in use in many countries. It simply can't be bettered in the support fire role. Almost universally known as the M2, it's known as the HMG (Heavy Machine Gun) in the British Army. There was recent footage of prince Harry firing one in Afghanistan on the telly.
It's so accurate, it was also developed into a sniper rifle during the Vietnam war. Also, in WW2 the standard .50cal ammo belt was 27' long. This is where the expression "The whole nine yards" comes from. If you give someone the "whole nine yards", you press the trigger until the gun stops firing.
Last edited by Dan Winterland; 1st May 2008 at 06:10.