Meet the Middle East's Most Popular .50 Caliber Sniper Rifle MS .50 rifles are popular due to the generally static nature of warfare when it is between irregular factions in the region. Here's What You Need to Know: The HS 50 has qualities that make it ideal for use by militias. The story of the HS 50 may provide clues to its runaway success. Despite being produced and marketed by Steyr, the HS 50 was not originally designed by Steyr’s design team. Rather, Steyr commissioned a German designer, Heinrich Fortmeier to build a .50 caliber single-shot rifle for them. The resulting HS 50 was first demonstrated at the 2002 SHOT Show. Steyr’s commissioning of a rifle from an independent designer might stem from their fatigue of the concept of a heavy anti-materiel rifle. Only a few years earlier, Steyr designed the advanced 15.2 IWS 2000 anti-materiel rifle, which failed to sell.