I have a friend and correspondent of many years who is an Australian. He is into computer wargaming as well as military history. We all know what their gun laws are like.... Anyway I have fam-fired him on some of my guns on a previous vacation but this time he wanted to fire a Barrett M-82. I arranged through Tac Pro shooting Center for him to do this. Our range officer/instructor was Logan Loftin, a former active duty Marine NCO I know well from 3-gun. Because it was just a quick fam-fire we fired only at 300 yards, which is very short range for the .50! I got to fire the gun 6 times; I must say, it is an impressive experience. The main negative effect is the concussion from the muzzle brake, which exhausts at about a 45 degree angle on both sides. I need to go back and watch HURT LOCKER to see if the spotter is close enough to the shooter. After firing 6 rounds with my old 10X shooting coat, from prone, bipod in the dirt (mud), I felt as if I'd fired maybe twelve 12 gauges wearing a sports shirt.
I fully admit this was only the briefest of familiarizations but it was well worth doing if only to give us a glimmer of an appreciation of what this piece can do. Yee Hah! Great!
After the Barrett was put away I had him work out on my Romak "sorta-Dragunov", M-1D, and SSA M-40 replica. So, a great day on the range, many "Diiiings"!
For those of you wishing to indulge, I highly recommend Tac Pro in Mingus, Texas.