The BN36 chambered in .30-06 Springfield. Note the 20-round polymer magazine, bipod and the Leupold scope. The weight of this recoil is equal to or less than some of the .308 Win. caliber rifles in the same class.

By Christopher R. Bartocci

When examining the black rifle market, you basically have two receivers. You have a standard 5.56mm lower receiver, which has multiple calibers it can host, but you are limited based on length and width of that magazine well. The next is the .308 lower receiver that is limited to basically 6 calibers. What about some more full power rifle calibers? One company has tackled this dilemma: Noreen Firearms out of Belgrade, Montana. Opening their doors in 2007 by Peter Noreen, the company set out to build .50 BMG caliber single shot rifles. At the time there was a rather large market for them. Prior to opening a gun manufacturing company, Peter was a machinist who owned his own tool and die company. When getting into the gun business he already had the machines necessary to build all but the trigger group of the ULR or Ultra Long Range .50 caliber rifle. For the first two years the company consisted of just Peter building the rifles. In 2009, Peter’s son Phil joined the company and from 2009 to 2013 the company grew from 1 to 14 people. Noreen Firearms is a family owned business that has most of its ranks filed with veterans. Proudly, Noreen Firearms claims that more than 85% of their rifle is manufactured right in Montana. With the introduction of more specialized weapon designs, Noreen Firearms has added several machines to increase both quality and speed of production. The company is in a constant state of research and development. In 2010 Noreen Firearms introduced their second product to the market: The Bad News (BN), which is a semiautomatic AR-platform .338 Lapua caliber rifle. In November of 2012, Noreen introduced their most popular rifle to date, the BN36. This is a semiautomatic rifle based on the AR-10 that fires the very popular .30-06 Springfield cartridge. Since the M1 Garand, there have only been a handful of semi-auto .30-06 rifles. These would include the Remington model 742 and the Browning BAR MKII, and the recent Ohio Ordnance Works semi-automatic BAR 1918A3 models. No modern sporting rifles until now. SAR was invited by Phil Noreen to visit his factory and test out some of his rifles. Setting foot into his assembly area one can easily see they are always in high speed R&D mode. Stepping back into his manufacturing room there were several CNC machines producing Bad News upper and lower receivers as well as muzzle brakes and bolt carriers. Many of his components do not even require de-burring; that is part of the CNC program.

Every rifle is inspected multiple times and test fired prior to it leaving the factory. From the employees this author met, they were all weapons enthusiast and professionals. Phil Noreen is a well seasoned long range shooter and knows what it takes to get that 1,000 yard shot. As of this time, Noreen Firearms has the capacity to make 500 rifles per month. Being a Montana company, where the state’s pastimes all center around those beautiful mountains, much of that is hunting the many large game species including elk, bison, black bear, antelope, deer and moose. This type of game required a little more power than the basic .308 Win. caliber AR could deliver. The open land in Montana offers the skilled marksman the opportunity to shoot well over 1,000 yards at his game. There is also a military and law enforcement application for more high power calibers in the familiar AR platform. This rifle was introduced at the 2013 SHOT Show and it was called the BN36 or Bad News .30-06 rifle.

The first look at the rifle one thinks of an AR-10 but with a longer magazine. But there are some major differences. The upper and lower receivers are proprietary and will not work on any other firearm. This is due to the longer magazine well for the longer .30-06 cartridge. With the 22-inch barrel the rifle has an overall length of 43.5 inches and weighs a light 8 pounds. The rifle comes with a polymer 20-round magazine.

The upper receiver is manufactured from a 6061 T6 aluminum billet. The receiver has a Mil-Std 1913 rail on top of the receiver. There is no ejection port cover or fired cartridge case deflector. The way the gas is regulated ejects the brass at 3 o’clock so it clears the face of a left-handed shooter without issue. But you notice this small channel behind the ejection port. That is there because the rifle does not use the conventional top charging lever. The bolt carrier has a handle attached to it and is actuated from the right side. According to Phil, the rifles are meant for use with long range optics. More often than not, the longer optics interferes with the access to actuate the charging handle. By moving the handle to the bolt, the shooter always has easy access to the cocking handle and can even actuate it while the rifle is still at his shoulder. When handling the rifle, this is a clear enhancement for those with these types of optics. Be aware that the bolt handle travels with the bolt carrier.

The 22-inch barrel starts its life as a 4140 Chromoly steel barrel blank that is button rifled with 6 lands and grooves and a right twist. The barrel has a 1 turn in 10 inch rifle twist. The barrels can be left with a round profile or can be fluted to increase strength but decrease weight. The barrels can also be black phosphate finished or left in their natural color. The weight and configuration of this barrel gives a maximum effective rate of fire of 45 rounds per minute. These are match grade barrels. To extend the life of the rifles, the rifle should not be rapid fired and should be maintained. According to Phil, the barrel has a normal life of 2,000 rounds if maintained properly. This is for the precision accuracy.

At the end of the muzzle comes the Noreen manufactured muzzle brake specifically designed to redirect the muzzle blast 30° rearward. What this does is shift the recoil force rearward, which pushes the rifle muzzle forward instead of rearward decreasing the felt/perceived recoil. This does wonders for recoil but there is a flip side to the recoil reduction coin. When you use this type of muzzle brake you increase the muzzle blast noise. It is not noticed so much by the shooter but it is very noticeable to those standing around the gun. Noreen Firearms offers this muzzle brake as an accessory

Attached to the barrel is a proprietary barrel nut on the rear and a Noreen manufactured gas block. The gas block is bolted onto the barrel and uses a standard rifle length gas tube. The BN36 is a direct gas operated rifle. On the gas block is an adjustment screw for regulating gas flow to balance the gas system with the particular ammunition it is firing. There is a wide range of projectile weights available in .30-06 ammunition ranging from 100 grains to 225 grains. Rotate the regulator screw down until gas is cut off. Back off one full turn. Place one round in the magazine and fire. Keep rotating the screw slightly counter clock wise while shooting one round until the bolt will lock open on the magazine. Just enough to make the bolt fully travel to the rear and not short stroke.

The bolt carrier group is longer than that of the .308 rifle due to the fact the .30-06 cartridge case is .47 inches longer than the .308 Win. The bolt and bolt carrier are manufactured from a much stronger material than most of the AR-10 type rifles out there. Most use the Carpenter 158 Mil-Spec material; Noreen uses 9310 steel that is a much stronger and more durable material. The bolt and carrier are made in-house by Noreen. They are cut to length from a rod of 9310 steel and placed in a CNC machine. When the bolt carrier is removed from the CNC machine it is complete. All burs are removed. All that needs to be done is the carrier key added, screws torqued down and the carrier key screws staked in place.

The lower receiver is also manufactured from a 6061 T6 aluminum billet. The rear takedown pin and the front pivot pin are held in by detents and cannot be removed from the rifle unless the pins are disassembled. The bolt catch has been strengthened to halt the heavier bolt carrier group. The safety is a standard semi-auto only safety. The trigger group that comes standard in this rifle is the Mil-Spec type. Building rifles like this, it is very difficult to install a match trigger that every customer is going to like. Some like two stage triggers and other like one. Some like adjustable and some like fixed. Due to the high cost of match triggers from $100 up to $400 in some cases, it would add cost to the rifle that the customer may not like anyway. It makes far more sense to put a stock trigger in the rifle and save the customer that money so they can go out and purchase the trigger that they want. The trigger guard is integral with the receiver and is oversized for use with heavy gloves. The magazine is located in the normal spot as well. The receiver is equipped with a standard A2-style pistol grip. This is another very personal preference accessory. Some like more rubbery grips and others may not like the finger groove. This permits the customer to put on what suits them. The receiver extension is a standard rifle length receiver extension with a proprietary buffer; the buffer is shorter than the standard rifle buffer to cope with the longer bolt carrier of the .30-06 rifle. The stock provided is the standard A2 stock. This is definitely one of the lightest rifle stocks in the industry. The number of stock options on the market is numerous. The customer may prefer a shorter A1 length or a Magpul PRS stock or anything in-between. Save the money and buy what stock fits the customer best. Just be sure that the same receiver extension is used. Due to the length of the buffer you cannot use a telescopic receiver extension.

The rifle is fed from a polymer magazine developed by Noreen Firearms as well. The one we fired was a 20-round magazine but Noreen offers 5- and 10-round magazines as well. The magazine will drop free from the rifle when the magazine release button is pushed.

The BR36 was lighter at 8 pounds than most of the AR-10 type rifles this author has tested. The rifle had the feeling of an AR-10. The rifle was equipped with a Leupold VX-3 2.5-8x36mm scope and the ammunition fired was Federal American Eagle .30-06 loaded with a 150gr full metal jacket projectile. It should be noted that the BR36 is designed to fire new production SAMMI standard .30-06 ammunition. Noreen Firearms will not warranty rifles damaged by use of .30-06 ammunition made during World War II. Much of this ammunition has degraded over time, has corrosive propellant and many of the foreign made military ammunition is not made to the proper specifications. Also, some military ammunition is loaded with steel jacketed projectiles that may damage and prematurely wear the lands and grooves in the match barrels. Noreen Firearms has found ammunition loaded specifically for M1 Garands are lower on pressure than commercial ammunition causing short recoil. Higher pressure ammunition can damage the operating rod on the M1 Garand rifles. Other ammunition that is made poorly has destroyed rifles. Stay with modern current production ammunition and your rifle will fire reliably and accurately. When looking at load data, standard factory .30-06 ammunition has little benefit over most factory .308 ammunition. The differences are quite negligible. However, looking at modern propellants available to the reloader plus the fact that the rifle may handle loads higher in pressure than the M1 Garand, there is a possibility to extend the range significantly with the .30-06 giving the BN36 an advantage over the contemporary 7.62x51mm/.308 Win caliber rifles.

When the rifle was tested, this author could not believe how little recoil there was. This was comparable to any AR-10 that I have fired. With the muzzle brake the muzzle hardly moved. First target engaged was at 100 yards and the gong was knocked off the mount. Next was the 300 yard gong. Phil adjusted to dope and one shot after the next hit the gong. Next was the 430 yard gong. Phil made another dope adjustment and the round was sent. It was noticed that the projectile took a little longer to get there than the .338 Lapua we shot earlier, but they hit the gong consistently. More than 60 rounds were fired out of this rifle with no malfunctions of any sort. This rifle is suitable for hunting most big game in North America without question. With the wide selection of ammunition you can easily go from a woodchuck to a wolf on to a deer and then a moose. As a tactical rifle – without question. You will gain at least a couple hundred more yards of effectiveness compared to the .308 Win. and can use some heavier projectiles as well. To show the versatility of the BR36 platform it is not only offered in .30-06 but Noreen firearms also offers it in .270 Winchester and the flatter shooting .25-06 Remington. The rifles are very competitively priced with a MSRP of $1,999. Phil also said that we can expect some more caliber offering in the future including the .300 Winchester Magnum and 7mm Remington Magnum.

Noreen Firearm is definitely a pioneer in the heavy caliber black rifles. With the caliber ranges the rifle is suitable for any North American Game. Those who like the AR platform can have it along with the large bore calibers required to hunt big and dangerous game. This author would challenge anybody who claims a bolt action rifle is far more superior in accuracy than a semiautomatic rifle. The proof is in the target and anyone who would say this has not fired a Noreen Firearms BN36 .30-06 caliber rifle.

The second .50 cal. rifle offered by Noreen Firearms called the ULR Extreme. The only difference is the chassis is built by XLR Industries. This offers most notably a side folding stock making for a slightly more compact design. This is an excellent design but the XLR chassis does not offer the recoil reduction mechanism the Noreen designed chassis has.

By Christopher R. Bartocci

With the introduction of the M82 semiautomatic anti-material rifle by Ronny Barrett, a new firearms hobby sprouted. Commercial customers wanted to get in on ultra long range shooting. The .50 BMG round has a maximum effective range of nearly 2,000 yards, a true and legitimate challenge for a marksman. There were a couple of major roadblocks getting into this sport. One was the cost of a Barrett M82A1rifle, which is around $10,000 after purchasing the scope. The next was the cost and availability of ammunition. Many small arms manufacturers saw the potential in the .50 BMG rifle market and addressed this cost issue with developing single shot versions of the rifle, which considerably lowered the cost. Companies such as Anzio Ironworks, McMillan, Thor, Barrett, Armalite, LAR Grizzly, Safety Harbor Firearms, East Ridge Gun Company and Kings Arsenal, just to name, are a few companies who sold .50 cal. BMG rifles to the market.

In 2007, another entry came into the .50 BMG market: Noreen Firearms. Opened by Peter Noreen, it had the mandate of building affordable single shot .50 BMG Ultra Long Range (ULR) rifles. For two years, Peter built the rifles alone. Coming from a machine shop background, Peter already had the machinery and the talent to build nearly every component needed for the rifle. In 2009, his son Phil joined the company to help his overwhelmed father. Between 2009 and 2013 the company grew from 2 to 14 people.

All components of the ULR are made in-house with the exception of the pistol grip and trigger group. The ULR has a proprietary 6061 T6 aluminum chassis designed by Peter and Phil Noreen. Part of the chassis is a stock assembly, which has shock absorbing springs on it that will decrease felt recoil. The stock has an oversized Kickeze recoil pad. With a cartridge as big as the .50 BMG this is a great benefit. The pistol grip is a standard M16A2-style grip. The trigger guard is part of the chassis. The trigger installed at the factory is the Timney adjustable trigger giving the shooter a choice between 2 to 4 pounds of trigger pull.

The barrel is manufactured at Noreen Firearms. The 18 pound barrel is manufactured from 4140 Chromoly steel. The barrel is then cut with 6 lands and grooves and a 1 turn in 15 inches right hand twist. This barrel is mounted directly into the chassis allowing the barrel to be fully free floated. The barrel life is expected to be between 2-3,000 rounds. This of course depends on the type of ammunition used as well as how the barrel is maintained. Using steel jacketed rounds will prematurely wear the barrel as well as the use of ammunition with corrosive primers/propellants.

Attached to the end of the barrel is a proprietary muzzle brake manufactured by Noreen Firearms and is also sold on the commercial market as an upgrade part. The muzzle brake is designed to redirect the gasses 30° rearward. What this does is shift the recoil forward instead of rearward causing less felt recoil. This brake does do an excellent job. However, be sure there is not another person standing to your right or left. The muzzle blast in extremely loud and the concussion is enough to knock a rifle off the bench next to you. The shooter does not really notice this; it is those standing around him who do.

On top of the receiver is a removable Mil-Std 1913 scope base that is cut with no taper. Available are two other scope bases – one has a 25 MOA slope and the other has a 35 MOA slope.

The way the rifle is loaded is the bolt handle is lifted to the unlocked position and removed from the chassis. The bolt face/extractor has 270° of engagement to the cartridge base. This ensures extraction will happen; no matter what. The .50 BMG cartridge is then loaded onto the breech face. The rim slides into a shell holder centering the cartridge base with the firing pin hole. The round and bolt are inserted into the receiver, pushed all the way forward and the bolt is rotated into the locked position. There is no manual safety. Once the rifle is fired, the bolt is lifted to the unlocked position and pulled rearward until the bolt/cartridge case clear the rifle. Then the cartridge case is lifted out of the slot on the bolt and removed. Now you can load another or not. The bolt is manufactured from the same 4140 Chromoly steel as the barrel.

The ULR comes with a heavy duty bipod that is designed and manufactured by Noreen Firearms. The bipod can cant to level the rifle on uneven ground. The bipod is attached to the lower forearm rod and the lower forearm rod can be used as a carrying handle upside down.

There is another rifle in the Noreen Firearms lineup. This is called the ULR Extreme. This is the same barrel and bolt but the rifle is built on the XLR Industries chassis. This is different from the ULR in several ways. The stock folds to the side and is fully adjustable for both cheek weld and length. There is no recoil reduction mechanism on the ULR Extreme. The chassis is manufactured from 6061 T6 billet action block and Type 2 Class anodized black. The pistol grip is an Ergo Grip overmold tactical AR grip. Built on is a ventilated handguard that is set up for removable rail sections of Mil-Std 1913 rail. The MSRP for the ULR Extreme is $3,500.

Both the ULR and ULR Extreme weigh in at 32 pounds and have a 34-inch barrel. Both rifles come with Timney adjustable triggers and the proprietary Noreen Firearms muzzle brake. The stock on the ULE is both collapsible as well as having a spring loaded recoil reduction mechanism. The ULR Extreme has a side folding adjustable stock. Both use the same bolt. According to Phil Noreen, the standard ULR is the company’s top seller.

The test rifle was equipped with a Nightforce NXS 12-42 scope. The .50 BMG ammunition was all manufactured by HSM (Hunting Shack Ammunition) .50 BMG 750 grain A-Max projectiles. The rifle was also equipped with a Silencer Tech sound suppressor, which made a great difference in sound reduction of this beastly caliber. The rifle was shot at pie plate size gongs at 430 yards. Once Phil Noreen had the Dope set, you could not miss these small targets. Unfortunately due to severe flooding in this valley of Montana, we could not access the thousand yard range. According to Phil Noreen, in his experience the best results for accuracy come from the Hornady A-Max projectile. This is the most widely used projectile in long range competition with the .50 BMG round. This is a 750 grain match projectile propelled from a 24 inch barrel at 2,820 feet per second. The factory Hornady ammunition was specially selected for optimal consistent performance. Practice and plinking ammunition is available from companies such as Federal American Eagle, Barrett, PMC, CBC and HSM –to name a few. These are standard 660 grain full metal jacketed projectiles.

Due to legislation is some places, the .50 BMG has been made illegal for citizens to purchase – not that anyone has ever committed a crime with a 32 pound .50 cal. rifle. Noreen Firearms did not forget those customers so they started offering the ULR in other calibers such as .416 Barrett, .408 Chey Tac as well as .338 Lapua. Of the total number of ULR produced, 70% of them are .50 BMG and 10% .416 Barrett, 10% .408 Chey Tac and 10% .338 Lapua.

The cost of rifles that shoot the .50 BMG can range from $200 right on up to $10,000 easily. The Noreen ULR is very reasonably priced with a MSRP $3,000, which is about 15% less than their nearest competitor. For the tactical user who would prefer a more compact version, the ULR Extreme will fit the bill with an MSRP of $3,500. Both the ULR and the ULR Extreme come with a waterproof all-weather case that has wheels to make transportation much easier for the end user.

Long range shooting is a very challenging task. These rifles are capable of reaching out to nearly 3,000 yards if the shooter knows what he is doing. Learning to determine distance without a laser range finder, adjusting for wind as well as cross winds not to mention your fundamentals of rifle marksmanship make this a real art. There is another challenge, finding a range that lets you shoot at 1,000 plus yards. Depending where you are in the country this can be challenging as well. You just don’t shoot these rifles at 100 yards. That is like test driving a Maserati on a college race track. You just don’t do it justice.