The 14.

9 SOP: 5,400 Meters and Still

Supersonic (VIDEO)
6/27/12 | by Max Slowik
A handful of companies including GS Custom,Monolithic Munitions, SSK
Industries andXLR Industries have come together to help develop one of the
longest-range shoulder-fired small arms cartridges ever made. Its called the
14.9mm SOP ELR, Extra-Long Range.
The 14.9 SOP is made by taking a purposely-made lathe-turned 1,690-grain
.58 caliber bullet with a ballistics coefficient of 1.85 measuring at about 4
inches in length and loading it into a shortened and necked-down 20mm
autocannon case. The custom dies have a two-inch diameter. At the muzzle,
the 14.9 SOP generates over 42,000 foot-pounds of force.
This project has been in development since late 2010 and has gone through
several revisions, even in the name. Originally it was called the 14.5 OPS and
has minor physical changes as well to maximize the projectiles performance.
Early speculations predicted rifles chambered in the caliber using recoil
dampening stocks weighingjust 30 pounds, but the current prototype weighs in
at a clean 105 pounds.
Project 14.9 SOPs prototype is a single-shot bolt-action rifle with a 48-inch
barrel and custom muzzle break that has been designed to withstand some
20,000 pounds of gas pressure once the bullet has left the barrel. Its expressly overbuilt to stay on the safe
side of firing this cartridge.
The project is still in the early stages of development, and the five-kilometer supersonic range, over three
miles, is a calculated estimate based on the cartridge specifications, and not a real-world result. Still, the
teams goal is that range with an accuracy of .5 MOA. Based on vehicle-mounted weapons and light
artillery, that goal doesnt seem entirely out of reach.

The 14.9 SOP is being billed as artillery when you cant call in for artillery, as air support when there is
none. However, the developers have gotten the ATFs blessing to build these with a Sporting Purposes
exemption, so while the 14.9 SOP has a military pedigree, it is possible that the target market will be
people with too much money and not enough noise in their life.

There are still hurdles for the backers of the 14.9 SOP cartridge, beyond those that exist for any completely
new and extremely exotic cartridge, not the least of which is further testing. They will have to come up
with a way to bring down the weight and then figure out how to sight in a rifle with an effective range that,
with a bullet that weighs almost 4 ounces, is certainly over 5,400 meters, depending on what youre
shooting at.

You can read the backstory and progress and even drama that makes up the history of the 14.9 SOP here,
and see the prototype rifle development here.