There is/are good reasons the military uses some form of recoil/flash
supression on the big iron like the 50BMG you mention.
I notice that especially in the semi-auto Barrett when hand held
say out of the side of a chopper they almost always use a compensator
that directs a good part of the blast back at a 45 degree angle.
This obviously would not be a good idea in a handgun but looks
like it goes a way towards actually yanking the gun forward against the recoil.
The 50BMG sniper rifles I have seen use just about everything out there
on the muzzle but the many holed cylinder seems to be popular.

The mounted MaDeuce is one of the only BMG's you see without
some form of compensator on it. There has to be a reason

Military Tech in Action | Fox News

Anyone spot what's wrong with this picture?

...Nemo...