Apparently the New York Daily News doesn’t like the fact that the NRA is presenting Sarah Palin with an Alaska themed AR-15:
The all-white “Alaskan Hunter” – fashionable until Labor Day – is the civilian version of a modified M-4 rifle carried by U.S. troops overseas.
No hint of condescension there at all.
It’s engraved with Palin’s name and adorned with a map of the state on the collapsible stock – made legal after the expiration of the assault weapons ban in 2004. The Big Dipper from the state flag is etched on the magazine well behind a vented barrel guard.
The rifle is chambered in .50-caliber “Beowulf.” It’s the same caliber used by heavy machine guns, which can take down big game, and in war zones “can disable both motor vehicles and assailants with body armor,” according to ammo manufacturer Alexander Arms’ Web site.
The .50 Beowulf is not used by any heavy machine gun. That’s the .50 BMG you twits. The .50 Beowulf can indeed take down big game. It would be a pretty good hunting round, in fact, for large game, like you would find in Alaska. And yes, like any centerfire rifle cartridge, it will penetrate soft body armor.
One wonders whether the New York Daily news would get their panties in a twist over this cartridge too, which, aside from being over 100 years old, has similar ballistic qualities to the .50 Beowulf, and would also zip through soft body armor, ballistic glass, and would easily disable vehicles. Let’s also not forget this armor piercing high-tech cartridge of death that preceded it. They must have really had it in for cops in the mid 19th century, let me tell you.
The fact that NRA offered to present this to Governor Palin, and she accepted, speaks highly of her Second Amendment bonifides. Surely she knew what the media reaction in places like New York were going to be.
well, technically, it is the same caliber.
They get the details wrong so often, and always in the gun-banners favor, that I’m beginning to think it may be deliberate.
I’d bet they don’t get the distinction.
Notice the author’s name? Very appropriate.
This thread is worthless without pictures.
One of the DN’s columnists Michael Daly is directly associated with New Yorkers Against Gun Violence. They had a picture of him on their website taken at one of their fundrasiers.
Drat it all. See what happens when I rely on others to read the NYT so I don’t have to?
What a lovely gun, and lovely gesture as well. My only thought is that perhaps a magnifying, rather than red-dot, scope would be best. Hopefully the 2012 campaign will feature a picture of the Governor with this rifle in one hand and a dead moose/caribou/bear at her feet.
In the newspapers defense take a look at the Alexander Arms website, and see if you can extract any information about the beowulf round, that you didn’t all ready have
And sometimes, mil-civ is actually civ-mil: didn’t Sharps alter its old .50 to a sniper rifle for Union use? Isn’t that where “sharpshooter” comes from (“Sharps shooter)?
Why no PSH over the common 12-gauge slug? That “John Kerry Approved” vehicle of death packs a helluva punch, and, depending on type, can give the same energy at 100 yards (probably not the same accuracy, though) as many .50 Beowulf loads.
This weapon was made by a friend of my Dad’s over N.C. I actually saw the rifle in person at an IDPA match. it was really well made and beautiful present for great Governor. As for the NY Daily News- I am sure Palin is losing lots of sleep over their disapproval………..LOL!