In the world of firearms, there are many companies around the world with histories spanning several generations. And some of these, even centuries, like a certain northern Italian gunmaker if you will…
Barrett Firearms
On the flip side, there’s Tennessee based Barrett Firearms headed up by Ronnie Barrett who designed his first .50 BMG chambered semi-automatic rifle from scratch and made the right moves at a grassroots level to get the rifle in front of both civilian and government buyers in order to get it sold and produced. At the time, Mr. Barrett worked in a photography studio and a chance meeting with a client while photographing Vietnam era riverine watercraft sparked a conversation and some ideas. He began developing his prototypes, by hand, in a tiny machine shop smaller than most garages with the help of Harry Watson.
The original prototype, which is still proudly in Barrett Firearm’s possession, took roughly four months to conceive, design, manufacture and test out. Eventually this prototype was refined into the classic Barrett M82 rifle. The Barrett Firearms story is fascinating for many reasons. For starters, until the invention of his .50 BMG rifles, the closest firearm in existence and concept was probably the Browning M2 Ma Deuce .50 BMG machine gun that famed Vietnam war sniper Carlos Hathcock modified to accept a telescopic sight for extreme long range shooting. Barrett’s story is also fascinating due to how quickly he took his original rifle from concept to reality in a relatively short period of time.
From Our Friends At Athlon Outdoors
Sweat, Lead and Steel is an Athlon Outdoors original series profiling the history and passion of companies in the shooting sports industry, and taking an intimate and cinematically powerful look into the history and current state of manufacturers.
To learn more about Barrett Firearms, please visit their website at barret.net.
