AMAC-1500 Sniper Rifle

The AMAC-1500, also made under several other names depending on the manufacturer, has a convoluted development history. The gun was originally designed in 1981 by Jerry Haskins of Research Armament Industries (RAI or sometimes called RAP), a small government arms contractor out of Jacksonville, Arkansas. RAI is better known for the development of the . 338 Lapua Magnum cartridge. The US government was looking for a dedicated high-powered sniper rifle platform in the early 1980s, and commissioned RAI to develop several prototypes. Two models were produced by Haskins, designated the RAI-300 and RAI-500. The RAI-300 was a magazine-fed bolt action rifle in . 308 Winchester and . 338 Lapua Magnum, and the RAI-500 was a single-shot bolt action rifle in . 50 BMG. The RAI 500 is identical to what would eventually become the AMAC-1500. The government purchased a limited run of approximately 125 . 50 cal rifles from RAI in 1983, which saw service with US military snipers in various conflicts throughout the 1980s and 1990s in Grenada, Panama, Beirut, and Iraq. The adoption of the RAI-500 paved the way for future military interest in . 50 caliber rifles such as the Barrett M82 for long-range sniper applications. In the mid 1980s, the tooling used to make the RAI-500 was sold to Iver Johnson Arms and Daisy (yes, the same Daisy that makes Red Ryder BB guns.) Daisy further refined the design into the M600, which was offered in 12. 7x108mm and 14. 5x114mm in addition to . 50 BMG. Eventually, Daisy sold off the equipment to various other firms who went on to change develop the design further into the magazine-fed M650. Meanwhile, Iver Johnson Arms, which was owned by American Military Arms Corporation (AMAC), sold the gun as the AMAC-1500. Manufacture of the AMAC-1500 was taken up by Ultimate Accuracy Arms after Iver Johnson stopped production in 1993, and the rifle is still produced today by Ultimate Accuracy.

Mechanically, the AMAC-1500 is very simple. It is a single-shot bolt action rifle. The bolt has 3 rear locking lugs and a machined shell holder notch on the bolt face which holds the cartridge in place. It is loaded by removing the bolt from the rifle and manually sliding a cartridge into the shell holder notch on the bolt. Haskins forewent making the gun magazine-fed in order to save weight on the receiver, which was already intentionally beefy to minimize flex and increase accuracy. The gun has an adjustable-weight trigger, a stock with adjustable cheek height and pull, and a custom scope mount which can adjust for elevation independently of the scope itself. The barrel is fluted and free-floated, so it has no contact with anything but the receiver in order to reduce imbalances in the harmonics. The barrel is extremely heavy to minimize oscillations, and has a 36-inch overall length. The last 7 inches of the barrel are part of a massive two-stage muzzle brake called an accumulator. The gun was not meant to be fired offhand and d