St. George Arms Leader 50 A1

St. George Arms Leader 50 A1
Production information
Country of origin	United States
Manufacturer(s)	St. George Arms
Designer(s)	Charles St. George
Year(s) designed	2011
Technical specifications
Weapon type	Anti-materiel rifle
Caliber	.50 BMG
Action	Gas operated
Length	1003mm
Barrel length	609mm
Weight	8.39kg
Feed system	10 rounds
Cyclic rate	Semi auto
Other information
Other name(s)	Various Sabre Defence LSR-50 Leader MICOR Defense MD 50 MICOR Leader 50 Pallas Arms Gatekeeper .50 Leader 50 A1

The St. George Arms Leader 50 A1 is a 12.7×99mm caliber bullpup anti-materiel rifle. The rifle is able to trace its roots back to the Leader 50 anti-materiel rifle designed back in 2011, although a number of issues led to the rifle being unable to come to the market in said form.

History

Originally designed as the Leader 50 by prolific Australian arms designer Charles St. George, the Leader A1 actually had a bit of a troubled history when it came to its development. The weapon was originally designed as the Sabre Defence LSR-50 Leader in 2011; a company known as MICOR Defense appears to have acquired everything related to the rifle as of 2012 and renamed it the MICOR Defense Leader 50 (or MD 50 depending on the source).

MICOR Defense later obtained intellectual property on the rifle and terminated St. George's services after a year; the company would later sell the intellectual and marketing rights to Pallas Arms LLC, a company based in Decatur, Alabama and went out of business. Pallas Arms then renamed the weapon the Gatekeeper .50 and appears to have also gone out of business before any physical prototype could have been constructed.

St. George later decided to employ the services of K&M Arms of Chandler, Arizona to introduce the latest iteration of this prototype, the Leader 50 A1, in 2014. The rifle is still being designed and prototyped as of 2019 and is advertised with the tagline "The World Belongs to the Leader".

Development

The Leader 50 A1 was developed by the Australian firearms designer Charles St. George intended as a lighter alternative to the Barrett M82.

Overview

The Leader 50 A1 uses a gas operation long stroke and triangular locking lugs. The receiver is made from extruded aerospace grade alloy. The gas piston comes with a 3 position regulator. The unusual lightweight bolt carrier allows the weapon to be more compact and accurate. The Leader 50 A1 also comes with a number of Picatinny rails. The weapon uses St. George's signature triangular bolt design and Serbu BFG-50A magazines (which are in turn Barrett M82 magazines).