About 125 rifles were initially bought by the United States Marine Corps, and orders from the Army and Air Force soon followed.

[6] Barrett M82 rifles were bought by various military and police forces from at least 30 countries, such as Belgium, Chile, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Italy, Jamaica, Mexico, the Netherlands,[7] and others.

The Provisional IRA smuggled a number of M82s into Ireland from the United States in the 1980s, apparently made and sold by a gunsmith and former Barrett Firearms employee in Texas.

[8] The IRA equipped two sniper teams with the Light Fifties,[9] later reinforced with a couple of M90s bought in the United States from an arms dealer in 1995.

According to Romain Le Cour Grandmaison, an expert interviewed by Reuters, the M82 has disrupted the balance of power between criminals and poorly-equipped police forces.

In summer 2002, the M82 finally emerged from its Army trial phase and was officially adopted as the Long Range Sniper Rifle, Caliber .50, M107.

Like its predecessors, the rifle is said to have manageable recoil for a weapon of its size owing to the barrel assembly that itself absorbs force, moving inward toward the receiver against large springs with every shot.

When the gun is fired, the barrel initially recoils for a short distance (about 1 inch (25 mm)), while being securely locked by the rotating bolt.

Then the barrel is stopped by the combined effect of the accelerator, buffer spring, and the muzzle brake and the bolt continues back, to extract and eject a spent case.

On its return stroke, the bolt strips the fresh cartridge from the box magazine and feeds it into the chamber and finally locks itself to the barrel.

The heavy barrel is fluted to improve heat dissipation and save weight, and fitted with a large and effective reactive muzzle brake.

M82A1 and M82A3 rifles could be mounted on the M3 or M122 infantry tripods (originally intended for machine guns) or on vehicles using the special Barrett soft-mount.