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50 Bmg Blow up....

Gee Zeus Krystal pixie dust titty fiuck!
That dude.....fuck.
"Doths thide platheses are no joke they are tholid theel."
(Sorry he has a little geek retard daffy duck lisp going on. Being the small mean asshole that I am, I need to make fun of it for kicks.)

After much study, this comes closest to my sentiments, with one caveat; were you to need to blow up a space rock, a Guy like Serbu might be your guy. Them other two idiots are great at farting in the wind.
 
If I judge actual engineering degrees by some of the stuff I work on that has been designed by an engineer, they don’t seem to be worth much either, lol.
Having a degree myself I'm astounded at time at how stupid some things are designed with ZERO understanding of actually how to repair something should it break; which other than safety, should be a key design principle.
 
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I'm guessing it's because it's like one of the cheapest you can get and then you can brag to your buddies that you have a .50 cal just like the military Barrett but only better....
C'mon man....
Except for 6 or 7 minor details....its practically a Barrett.


In other news....
"If Harbor Freight sold guns"
 
Is it a good design.... no, no it isn't. The fact many of you want him to be shut down and lose everything is extremely disturbing. Under normal conditions, this rifle would have zero issues. Though the gun has zero safety features, it's still up to the owner to know what they are shooting. The round that causes the rifle to fail, probably would have destroyed most rifles. Shit happens, move on with life. I have multiple guns that could seriously "F" me up if rounds were overcharged.
 
Is it a good design.... no, no it isn't. The fact many of you want him to be shut down and lose everything is extremely disturbing. Under normal conditions, this rifle would have zero issues. Though the gun has zero safety features, it's still up to the owner to know what they are shooting. The round that causes the rifle to fail, probably would have destroyed most rifles. Shit happens, move on with life. I have multiple guns that could seriously "F" me up if rounds were overcharged.
First off, he got that barrel from serbu special to shoot slap rounds through it.

As far as I can tell most 50s are built to eat hot rounds and keep rolling much less blow up and try and kill the shooter. There was no barrel obstruction, didn’t put the wrong ammo in it. Zero reason for this gun to have a catastrophic failure that just about kills the user.

KB did know what he was shooting and ordered a special barrel to do so. He had no reason to believe what he was doing was dangerous in any way.

the gun had such a low safety factor that a marginally over pressure round blew his face apart. 4 threads are all that kept that gun together. It was a disaster waiting to happen. It’s a negligent design and by mark serbus own admission he had done zero analysis into how strong his gun was and why it’s failure point/limits were.
 
Demolition ranch had a small shooting contest on his property with other youtubers. He surprised them by giving away his Serbu to the winner at the end. Guess that's one way to eliminate your competition :ROFLMAO:
 
I think it’s been stated but it’s not the kaboom that is the disaster here,

It’s how the rifle handled it

Yes the round was probably overpowered. However someone who reloads could have an off day and load the wrong powder (red dot in a 50 cal) etc and experience similar failure
 
Is it a good design.... no, no it isn't. The fact many of you want him to be shut down and lose everything is extremely disturbing. Under normal conditions, this rifle would have zero issues. Though the gun has zero safety features, it's still up to the owner to know what they are shooting. The round that causes the rifle to fail, probably would have destroyed most rifles. Shit happens, move on with life. I have multiple guns that could seriously "F" me up if rounds were overcharged.

Hi,

Couple questions:

1. Under normal conditions, this rifle would have zero issues.......What were the proven abnormal conditions that caused the failure?

2. ...if rounds were overcharged....Are you implying the kaboom round was indeed overcharged? And by what calculation is that based on?

3. Though the gun has zero safety features, it's still up to the owner to know what they are shooting....Such as the owner getting a barrel from the mfg specifically for the ammo he was shooting?

This guy is one of the reasons my product liability insurance is pushing 6k dollars per month; along with why 2 of the 5 firearms manufacturers liability carriers are not renewing policies and 2 of the remaining 3 are requiring so many exclusion riders that it is ridiculous.

The FACT that he is a firearms manufacturer has never had an engineering firm even run a dynamic and static FEA of his design is an absolute FAILURE and he absolutely needs to find another job.

Imagine a ladder manufacturer NOT knowing how much weight their ladder design can take....they would be out of business pretty fast.

Sincerely,
Theis
 
Is it a good design.... no, no it isn't. The fact many of you want him to be shut down and lose everything is extremely disturbing. Under normal conditions, this rifle would have zero issues. Though the gun has zero safety features, it's still up to the owner to know what they are shooting. The round that causes the rifle to fail, probably would have destroyed most rifles. Shit happens, move on with life. I have multiple guns that could seriously "F" me up if rounds were overcharged.
Mark serbu is that you?


This is a bad design, and it is up to the manufacturer to ensure it is safe....not the consumer, consumers aren't engineers, you can't expect them to know better, or that this is an inherently unsafe design....that is a burden we bear as design engineers.

It doesn't matter of the round made it fail, it's HOW the gun failed to that is an issue........overpressure rounds ARE a common occurance, and it is a factor you NEED to design for......

That's like saying, "my car is perfectly safe to drive....unless you get into an accident, then it launches the steering column through your chest".....no one would drive that car, and the car mfg would be at fault for that.


Mark clearly did 0 actual engineering on this firearm before he sold it to the public and touted it's impeccable safety.....that is pure NEGLIGENCE.

mark should lose his company.....because he is putting out unsafe designs that have nearly killed someone....and it would be one thing if he admitted his mistake and took efforts to remedy this......but his actions have shown that he feels 0 responsibility for designing a product that almost killed someone, so it's only a matter of time before his negligence actually does kill someone
 
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Is it a good design.... no, no it isn't. The fact many of you want him to be shut down and lose everything is extremely disturbing. Under normal conditions, this rifle would have zero issues. Though the gun has zero safety features, it's still up to the owner to know what they are shooting. The round that causes the rifle to fail, probably would have destroyed most rifles. Shit happens, move on with life. I have multiple guns that could seriously "F" me up if rounds were overcharged.

He knowingly employs (in his video) a welder who is a “pot head” and is usually so out of it when a 50 went off in the shop he barely noticed.

and you want to see this person stay in business and continue to put poorly designed product with out safety provisions on the market?

how is he checking the welds?

would you hire that welder?

we know he’s not checking with a proof round because he’d be in surgery as well.

public service announcement:

If you have firearms which are knowingly unsafe if a overpressure round ifired and continue to fire them…start wearing bomb disposal gear when you go to the range
 
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Some things you just can't go cheap on and .50 BMG rifles are one of them.

AI for example has robust safety features. There is photos of one where the base of a .50 BMG case ruptured when it went off. The shooter barely knew it happened.

EDM for example had their rifles built so well that if you fired a round when you had a projectile wedged in the barrel, you'd still be fine.

Given that a lot of the ammunition available in the surplus market for .50 BMG is of unknown provenance, you want something that will protect the shooter from injury in the event of a cartridge failure.

I'll put a plug in here for the Hoplite Phalanx rifle series coming soon (hopefully) as an extremely safe platform to do your .50 BMG shooting from when your life is worth spending a bit of money to protect.
 
Theis is 100% correct on this. The man was totally negligent and caused severe bodily injury. He should rightly be put out of business.
 
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Is it a good design.... no, no it isn't. The fact many of you want him to be shut down and lose everything is extremely disturbing. Under normal conditions, this rifle would have zero issues. Though the gun has zero safety features, it's still up to the owner to know what they are shooting. The round that causes the rifle to fail, probably would have destroyed most rifles. Shit happens, move on with life. I have multiple guns that could seriously "F" me up if rounds were overcharged.
We will never know for sure whether the round or fatigue caused this because of the bad design because the rifle was sent back to serbu to be tested and serbu doesn't know what the hell he is doing.
 
I remember when Orkan loaded up a 338LM with pistol powder and let it go in a Desert Tech as a destruction/safety test. Made me feel comfortable sticking my head next to an explosion with that platform.

I understand a 50cal is a different beast than 338LM, but this failure was a design failure.
 
Well, I’m still wondering if “Kentucky’s” health insurance will sue Serbu into oblivion. Those injuries had to rack up some serious medical bills.
 
In every video or post I see defending this drainpipe design all I hear in the background are……
DB43C131-5419-4753-BCF3-AB266B885602.png
 
Why hasn't Serbu been arrested by the ATF? I mean making and selling I.E.D.s is illegal isn't it?
 
Is it a good design.... no, no it isn't. The fact many of you want him to be shut down and lose everything is extremely disturbing. Under normal conditions, this rifle would have zero issues. Though the gun has zero safety features, it's still up to the owner to know what they are shooting. The round that causes the rifle to fail, probably would have destroyed most rifles. Shit happens, move on with life. I have multiple guns that could seriously "F" me up if rounds were overcharged.

No. You are wrong. I would like for him to never have made ANY 50BMG zip guns.

So the failure in your opinion, is that we aren't ignorant sycophants, cheering for Serbu, because " Hey, he is a gun guy giving the masses what they want."
Get the fuck out of here with that shit.
 
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What exactly is Mark Serbu trying to do with these dumbass videos? He is trying to sound knowledgeable, but he comes across looking like some hillbilly that stuffed a 50bmg round into a pipe and screw capped the end of it, with parts from Home Depot.

He is probably thinking that these videos of his is helping his cause, but they aren't and he could be digging a deeper and deeper hole for himself....
His "co-designer", some youtuber guy - RN something, at least had the common sense to shut the fk up and disappear...
 
His target demographic isn’t marksmen - it’s for YouTuber’s to demonstrate "crazy and whacky shit for the clicks". In turn, it’s precisely what @W54/XM-388 said.

You’re going to get what you pay for with the scaled up 30-06’s.
 
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Well, I’m still wondering if “Kentucky’s” health insurance will sue Serbu into oblivion. Those injuries had to rack up some serious medical bills.
That's very true.

My spinal surgery last year for removing amd replacing 6 vertebrae was north of 500k.

Doc
 


There is an update from Serbu himself.


"One thing that really jumps out at me is how messed up that lower is..."

The fact that he's surprised at how this thing failed shows that he had no plan to protect the user from a readily foreseeable failure. This is simply negligent.
 
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Is it a good design.... no, no it isn't. The fact many of you want him to be shut down and lose everything is extremely disturbing. Under normal conditions, this rifle would have zero issues. Though the gun has zero safety features, it's still up to the owner to know what they are shooting. The round that causes the rifle to fail, probably would have destroyed most rifles. Shit happens, move on with life. I have multiple guns that could seriously "F" me up if rounds were overcharged.

Hammurabi does not approve of this post.

The simple fact of the matter is that the concept of professional malpractice and liability goes back almost 4000 years. Our basic social contract is such that products should not present an unreasonable risk of harm to the user through normal use and foreseeable misuse and abuse. Case head separations are certainly "foreseeable" - if Mark Serbu has a tool in his shop to deal with such a situation (as is clearly demonstrated in his own video), then it's obviously foreseeable.

We should be proud of the fact that so many firearms are in circulation and use without such injuries being common. It's a remarkable achievement by the industry. I feel safe letting my own children shoot firearms with ordinary eye and ear pro because I have the highest confidence that they won't get hurt. To safeguard this confidence requires that the industry police itself against bad actors, which is exactly what's happening in this thread. I'd much rather see this than the alternative, which is regulatory action that would likely add cost and decrease performance.
 
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Not seeming like it. If I was KB I would be sending that gun to my lawyer not mark serbu
....Just because KB is a Serbu cuck doesn't mean the next guy will be....
 
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Not seeming like it. If I was KB I would be sending that gun to my lawyer not mark serbu

Hi,

True but that does NOT stop KB insurance company (who has lawyers on staff, not retainer) of filing suits.
I have not seen a video yet that did not jump out at me making me think "WTF is he doing/saying".

Sincerely,
Theis
 
Why not make a public push everywhere to get Mark to fire SLAP rounds through his own rifles. It would have one of two results:

1. Rifle survives and then he can proudly boast about it while continuing to ignore how badly the rifle did handle a failure.
2. Rifle doesn't survive, Mark sticks a thumb in it, and then the Serbu controversy is more or less taken care of by Darwin.
 
Why not make a public push everywhere to get Mark to fire SLAP rounds through his own rifles. It would have one of two results:

1. Rifle survives and then he can proudly boast about it while continuing to ignore how badly the rifle did handle a failure.
2. Rifle doesn't survive, Mark sticks a thumb in it, and then the Serbu controversy is more or less taken care of by Darwin.
I believe encouraging suicide is illegal in most states......:unsure:
 
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Hi,

OK so in all seriousness; let me try and help the Serbu situation.
I recommend he hire Jud the Dud as his in house forensic consultant.
Sadly that would increase the knowledge level that I have seen coming out in the videos so far.

Sincerely,
Theis
That's only if Jud will lower himself to work for a pipe fitter.
 
While the design looks like 'jihadi works special' ,threaded breech cap is a wacky solution, but it can work no problem if sized correctly. I would be surprised if they did not test the design with proof loads at some stage , but proof loads only go cca 15% above max pressure so would likely not critically damage anything while SLAP in the wrong chamber might introduce pressures way beyond proof round.

Am not intimately familiar with the design but it kinda looks like the threads are made on the actual barrel steel, which also explains why the threads on the barrel sheared of and threads on the breech cap had no damage to them , as the breech cap is supposedly hardened while barrel steel is in an annealed state .

Having watched some you tube vids of folks working at Serbu , Its not a confidence-inspiring operation by any stretch of the imagination. It looks like 'jihadi works special' trough and trough.

And yes 50bmg is definetly not a cartridge you would want to be firing with anything looking like 'jihadi works special' ,even less so SLAP rounds
 
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I believe shooting a SLAP ANY 50 BMG round in the Serbu 50 is the equivalent of playing Russian Roulette with every other chamber loaded.....That's about the amount of trust I have in that rifle.....:)
Corrected for a more precise description... :)
 
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While the design looks like 'jihadi works special' ,threaded breech cap is a wacky solution, but it can work no problem if sized correctly. I would be surprised if they did not test the design with proof loads at some stage , but proof loads only go cca 15% above max pressure so would likely not critically damage anything while SLAP in the wrong chamber might introduce pressures way beyond proof round.

Am not intimately familiar with the design but it kinda looks like the threads are made on the actual barrel steel, which also explains why the threads on the barrel sheared of and threads on the breech cap had no damage to them , as the breech cap is supposedly hardened while barrel steel is in an annealed state .

Having watched some you tube vids of folks working at Serbu , Its not a confidence-inspiring operation by any stretch of the imagination. It looks like 'jihadi works special' trough and trough.

And yes 50bmg is definetly not a cartridge you would want to be firing with anything looking like 'jihadi works special' ,even less so SLAP rounds
I think one of the biggest issues is the actual wacky threaded cap.

threads wear over time

Threads need proper torque to function at designed strength

and the cap and body will expand at different speeds snd amounts of deflection. Once the cap and body are not moving in sequence..all bets are off
 
With out knowing what powder was used and how much, it will remain a mystery. The fact that he has over 1k of these rifles in gen pop & had zero accidents thus far show the rifle is safe under normal conditions. I've seen my fair share of accidents with perfectly safe guns and bad rounds. From a double charge in 45acp to the wrong round linked in a 1919. Last month I saw a shooter almost blow his handgun up with bad factory PMC 9mm. Had a squib round while shooting quickly. I made a lot of airbags in my day for almost every major manufacturer. I specifically started with Takata, and saw the company obliterated over a faulty design. We are at a point in time where humanity will tear someone or something apart because they feel like they are doing it for the good of others. Space shuttles explode, dragsters throttles stick, and airbags have saved countless lives and taken a few too soon. The Rn50 is only as safe as the ammo that is run through it .....
 
The Rn50 is only as safe as the ammo that is run through it .....

Would you say the same of an Accuracy International AT/AW/AX, or even a Remington 700? I hope not, because it's not a true statement.

Your attempt at statistics falls flat, because we know neither the usage rate of those other rifles in circulation nor the rate of case head separations in various 50 BMG rounds. For all we know, every case head separation will case a Kaboom in a Serbu rifle. It's a plausible hypothesis, given the complete lack of gas escape paths.

Product failures should be anticipated, and countermeasures provided. The Challenger simply should not have launched. Takata should not have used ammonium nitrate as an airbag propellant. Dragsters will have some combination of foot straps or "pull back" bars on the throttle pedal, linkages or push-pull cables, and multiple throttle return springs because we know throttles can stick open for a variety of reasons.
 
With out knowing what powder was used and how much, it will remain a mystery. The fact that he has over 1k of these rifles in gen pop & had zero accidents thus far show the rifle is safe under normal conditions. I've seen my fair share of accidents with perfectly safe guns and bad rounds. From a double charge in 45acp to the wrong round linked in a 1919. Last month I saw a shooter almost blow his handgun up with bad factory PMC 9mm. Had a squib round while shooting quickly. I made a lot of airbags in my day for almost every major manufacturer. I specifically started with Takata, and saw the company obliterated over a faulty design. We are at a point in time where humanity will tear someone or something apart because they feel like they are doing it for the good of others. Space shuttles explode, dragsters throttles stick, and airbags have saved countless lives and taken a few too soon. The Rn50 is only as safe as the ammo that is run through it .....
So how many rounds have you fired through yours?
 
With out knowing what powder was used and how much, it will remain a mystery. The fact that he has over 1k of these rifles in gen pop & had zero accidents thus far show the rifle is safe under normal conditions. I've seen my fair share of accidents with perfectly safe guns and bad rounds. From a double charge in 45acp to the wrong round linked in a 1919. Last month I saw a shooter almost blow his handgun up with bad factory PMC 9mm. Had a squib round while shooting quickly. I made a lot of airbags in my day for almost every major manufacturer. I specifically started with Takata, and saw the company obliterated over a faulty design. We are at a point in time where humanity will tear someone or something apart because they feel like they are doing it for the good of others. Space shuttles explode, dragsters throttles stick, and airbags have saved countless lives and taken a few too soon. The Rn50 is only as safe as the ammo that is run through it .....
You are a fucking idiot....I'm sorry but there is no other way to put it.

If you have read this entire thread, seen all the videos posted.....and still defend the RN50 as "safe"......there is nothing left to be said.


Stop trying to justify an unsafe maker creating unsafe designs because you bought a cheap ass gun and want to make yourself feel better about it.

The RN50 is not safe....mark serbu is not an ethical manufacturer.....that is my professional opinion, and the opinion of other people in the industry who actually know what they are doing.

Mark has taken 0 responsibility for the blatant failures in his design, and that is why he needs to be torn down.

As I've said many times, why the gun failed is not nearly as important as HOW the gun failed.

Also, mark did 0 engeering on this firearm before he sold it to the public, that is an undisputable an fact by now......by no metric can you call this "safe"


"Safe under normal conditions" is a bullshit statement.

Would you drive a car if it launches a steering column through your chest if you ever get into an accident?

There is no way for a person to tell a "bad round" of ammo from a "good round"........so you or NEED to design your firearm in a manner to handle a "bad round" safely.

The RN50 does not.
 
I have an EDM Arms Windrunner myself. Being in Tool & Die for 25 years, I've seen a lot of failures in steel throughout the years. Takata was using crazy pressures on the components to make sure they were safe. 25 years ago, it was new technology.... Most of you folks have zero understanding of Metalurgy. You can have lamination in steel, blisters, or cracks that may show up immediately, or over time. Like I said before, it's not the best design, but shooting standard 50bmg ammo is probably perfectly safe. Bunch of Karens want Marks head on a platter and his business shut down. I could use all the analogies in the world and it still won't matter. A 50BMG round is nothing more than a scaled up 30-06 round.... it isn't some magical fuckin voodoo round. The round that took the gun apart probably would have wrecked any 50bmg rifle it was shot from. Different rifles would have come apart wherever the weak link was. Accidents happen.... Drag strip I raced at had a death at the track. Guy dumped his clutch @ 5k and it came apart and went into someones chest. Guy died instantly! I raced at that very track 20 years after this happened. If everyone was a Karen back in the day, the track would have been shut down. Manual transmissions would have been banned and Chevrolet would have gone under. I wouldn't have a problem shooting modern factory rounds thru a RN50, but what do I know.
 
I have an EDM Arms Windrunner myself. Being in Tool & Die for 25 years, I've seen a lot of failures in steel throughout the years. Takata was using crazy pressures on the components to make sure they were safe. 25 years ago, it was new technology.... Most of you folks have zero understanding of Metalurgy. You can have lamination in steel, blisters, or cracks that may show up immediately, or over time. Like I said before, it's not the best design, but shooting standard 50bmg ammo is probably perfectly safe. Bunch of Karens want Marks head on a platter and his business shut down. I could use all the analogies in the world and it still won't matter. A 50BMG round is nothing more than a scaled up 30-06 round.... it isn't some magical fuckin voodoo round. The round that took the gun apart probably would have wrecked any 50bmg rifle it was shot from. Different rifles would have come apart wherever the weak link was. Accidents happen.... Drag strip I raced at had a death at the track. Guy dumped his clutch @ 5k and it came apart and went into someones chest. Guy died instantly! I raced at that very track 20 years after this happened. If everyone was a Karen back in the day, the track would have been shut down. Manual transmissions would have been banned and Chevrolet would have gone under. I wouldn't have a problem shooting modern factory rounds thru a RN50, but what do I know.
....well....so long as it is "probably" perfectly safe.......


Fucking muppet