. 416 Barrett The . 416 Barrett or 10 . 6×83mm centerfire rifle cartridge is a proprietary bottlenecked centrefire rifle cartridge designed in 2005 . It is an alternative to the . 50 BMG in long - range high - power rifles . It was designed in response to a request for a medium / heavy rifle / cartridge combination that was issued from Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division in late 2004 . Its metric size is 10 . 6×83mm . Design . The Barrett . 416 cartridge was designed by Chris Barrett , son of Ronnie Barrett , with the help of Pete Forras . The bullet was designed using some NACA low - supersonic - drag equations to design the shape . The cartridge was designed as an improvement to the . 50 BMG cartridge , a common machine - gun and rifle cartridge . It is similar to a wildcatted . 50 BMG case , shortened to and necked down to accept a . 416 caliber , projectile ; It is however of proprietary dimension . Because the two cartridges , the . 50 BMG and . 416 Barrett , have identical base dimensions , all that is needed to convert a rifle to use one or the other cartridge is a relatively quick barrel swap . For some time , the only commercially - available rifle in this chambering was the single - shot Barrett Model 99 . In August 2009 , Zel Custom Manufacturing released the Tactilite . 416 Barrett upper for AR - style rifles . Recently the Bohica Arms FAR - 50 MK - II bolt - action , single - shot AR - 15 upper receiver conversion became also available in . 416 Barrett . Noreen rifles makes a rifle in . 416 Barrett and other large calibers . Barrett now also chambers its semi - automatic M82A1 in . 416 Barrett . Desert Tactical Arms offers a Bull Pup Rifle in . 416 Barrett . Performance . Barrett 398 gr solid brass boattail spitzer bullet . The use of a lighter , narrower bullet results in a significantly higher muzzle velocity and superior ballistic performance to the . 50 BMG , and the . 416 Barrett is claimed to retain more energy than the . 50 BMG at distances over 1 , 000 yards . Barrett claims that this cartridge is capable of propelling a 398 gr solid brass boattail spitzer bullet out of the barrel of a Model 99 single - shot rifle at 960 m / s ( 3150 ft / s ) , giving it a ballistic coefficient of . 720 , and keeping the projectile supersonic out to . In a second season episode of " Future Weapons " the host ( Richard Machowicz , a former Navy SEAL ) engaged in a shooting competition with another sniper . Machowicz achieved a cold - bore first - shot " kill " at using a . 416 Barrett Model 99 rifle while his competition , using a . 50 BMG , required three shots to achieve a " kill " . The . 416 Barrett Model 99 rifle Mr . Machowicz used during this competition was equipped with a Barrett Optical Ranging System ( BORS ) module attached to the telescopic sight . . 416 Barrett MSG bullet . Improvement beyond this standard while still using standard . 416 Barrett brass seems possible , but the bullets have to be specially designed . An example of such a special . 416 Barrett very low drag extreme range bullet is the German CNC manufactured mono - metal 27 . 5 gram ( 424 gr ) . 416 Barrett MSG ( G1 BC ≈ 1 . 103 – this ballistic coefficient ( BC ) is calculated by its designer , Mr . Lutz Möller , and not proven by Doppler radar measurements ) . The solid brass . 416 Barrett MSG bullet has an overall length of and derives its exceptional low drag from a radical LD Haack or Sears - Haack profile in the bullet ' s nose area . Rifles chambered for this cartridge bullet combination , with a cartridge overall length of , have to be equipped with custom made long 279 mm ( 1 : 11 in ) twist rate barrels to stabilize the . 416 Barrett MSG projectiles and attain a projected 1032 m / s ( 3385 ft / s ) muzzle velocity . Unfortunately none of these projectiles have held up to claims or been proven , except one , GS Custom bullets . GS Custom Bullets has been producing bullets of very high B . C . since 2000 , and is currently manufacturing bullets that work in standard twist barrels that exceed factory bullets , as well as ultra high B . C . bullets for faster twist options , and will design to suit . They are also now manufacturing in the United States . Legality . A few jurisdictions in the United States , most notably California as well as a few nations such as Belgium , Italy and the Netherlands and Poland restrict or prohibit civilian ownership of rifles chambered to use the . 50 BMG cartridge , but not the . 416 Barrett .