Talk:Phoenix Protecterate/@comment-25584152-20150722133944/@comment-11135771-20150723033954

Giving a burst-fire .50 cal battle rifle to a 12-year-old feels like a recipe for disaster. Even under supervision, I don't think it would end well. If nothing else, they'd end up with bruised shoulders from the recoil.

Aside from that though, I guess I just don't really see what role this weapon is supposed to fill? It feels like it wants to be a sniper rifle, but it has a ridiculously huge magazine, has to weigh far more than most sniper rifles, and is meant to be shot from a standing position, which means greatly reduced accuracy anyway. Heck, most sniper rifles use .30 caliber rounds because .50 is usually just less practical since it weighs more, you can't carry as many rounds, and it's complete overkill against infantry.

I guess the argument could be made for it as a counter to powered armour, but I still feel like armour piercing .30s would be a whole lot more efficient for that. Note that a full magazine of 30 .50 caliber rounds would weigh approximately 7.5 pounds - that's insanely heavy for just the magazine. If we say the gun weighs only ten pounds, that's still nearly twenty pounds with a magazine loaded. Trying to shoot that from a standing position would be difficult.