The KAC SR-50 was an American civilian heavy rifle designed by Eugene Stoner and C. Reed Knight III in the 1990s and produced in prototype form only.
History[]
In the early 1990s, the United States Navy was moving away from shell-holder bolt-action .50 BMG rifles and were wanting to return to their original requirement of a semi-automatic .50 BMG rifle.
In light of the United States Marines' success with the Barrett M82, many companies decided to design their own semi-automatic .50 caliber rifles, Knight's Manufacturing Company (now known as Knight's Armament Company) included. Eugene Stoner, designer of the AR-15 and SR-25 and a then-employee of KMC, started designing a semi-automatic .50 caliber rifle in 1996 that was meant to complement the SR-25. The rifle was designed in a very short time of approximately a month; a working prototype was also produced for in-house testing at KAC's old facilities at Vero Beach, Florida. The rifle was advertised via posters and those who wanted one paid a USD1000 deposit.
At the same time, however, KMC was expanding to twice their capacity to manufacture the Mk 11 series. This was a case of bad timing as the Clinton Ban came into effect; as a result, KMC put all their funding into expanding to meet their military contracts, and did contract work for Colt. Eventually, KMC received contracts to produce suppressors for the MK23 and eventually the whole Heckler & Koch product line and the SR-50 project was put on hold for a short time.
The first prototype was noted as being too light, although once some changes were made to its magazine it worked perfectly. Some kinks were also discovered in the second model, which was deemed as production-ready. While KMC did produce a number of parts to field a small test series of rifles, problems with the bolt were later discovered which caused the fielding to be put on hold.[1]
Unfortunately, before any of these could be done, Stoner died of brain cancer, which essentially put a stop to development; the weapon was later handed over to "an incompetent designer" who was said to have changed the design so much to the point that it needed a complete reworking to get it anywhere close to the reliability of the previous prototypes.[2]
Some engineers at KMC tried to get the project back to how it should have been back when it started by designing another improved version of the rifle; parts were also produced to test and evaluate this improved design as well.[1]
Eventually, KMC decided not to pursue the matter further as it seemed that there was no real interest by the military in any self-loading .50 caliber rifle other than the Barrett M82 and focused on production of the SR-25.[3] KAC appears to have offered all those who ordered an SR-50 their money back "without losing their place in line".[1]
Only four rifles were built, with three known to survive today; rifle number 1 is located in the Hall of Modern Arms at the Institute of Military Technology;[4] numbers 3 and 4 are presumably still at KAC while number 2 was destroyed "due to incompetence".[1] The story of this rifle is regarded as "the sorest of the sore subjects" among KAC employees.[2]
Design Details[]
The SR-50 is a gas-operated design which uses a two-lug rotating bolt similar to most of Stoner's other designs. In order to shorten the length of the weapon, the magazine is inserted from the left hand side of the rifle; this provides the rather unexpected benefit of allowing the shooter to reload easier when shooting from prone as the magazine will not have to clear the ground when reloading.[5]
The rifle is said to combine "extremely high strength materials in an innovative lightweight design". The weapon has a tubular steel receiver with a removable barrel,[2] although it appears that this was ditched on later prototypes. The second prototypes onwards had exposed gas pistons.[1]
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The SR-50 is often regarded as one of the last, if not the last design Eugene Stoner worked on.[6]
- The project was worked on as late as 2004 by an employee named Doug Olsen.[2]
References[]
- ā 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 https://www.ar15.com/forums/ar-15/Eugene_Stoner_SR_50/123-624198/
- ā 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 http://www.silencertalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14646
- ā http://pewpewpew.work/usa/stoner/sr50/sr50.htm
- ā https://www.lightfighter.net/topic/knights-armament-museum-large-pic-files
- ā http://securityarms.com/20010315/galleryfiles/2800/2866.htm
- ā https://www.militaryfactory.com/smallarms/detail.asp?smallarms_id=961