G & A "Monster Magnums"- DESERT EAGLE .50AE

In all fairness I should start by declaring here that I don't fantasise about big guns. I've long had a disrespect for that clunky ugly great-big lump - the 'Desert Eagle' - especially when they resort to gold-plating it to make it seem attractive. And I should also fess-up that I do regard 'G & A ' as my favourite US reading on guns. (- 'New Zealand Guns & Hunting' is our best local Magazine by far.)

Twenty years ago in 'Guns & Ammo' dated March 1994 Jan Libourel wrote a piece testing three big semi-auto handguns in .50" AE. - as always the photography was sensational, the writing accomplished and the information was presented fully.

                                                         .50"AE with a .32"acp.

 - Sadly for the guns makers and despite every attempt by Libourel to be polite - the facts emerge that all three pistols - Desert Eagle, Grizzly 50, and Automag V, proved seriously unreliable and in dire need of 'de-bugging'.

Nominal bullet diameter of the .50AE had to be held to .500" to comply with US BATF Title 1  regulation - to exceed that measurement would have declared the gun a 'Destructive Device'. (-as opposed to self-destructive?)
-Fired from a six inch barrel the 300grain load .50AE makes 1,500 ft. per second and delivers 1500 ft.lbs. of energy. A big punch from any handgun - but there are bigger.

              .500S&W, .50 Beowolf,, .50AE(looking reasonable next to the others)

- Don't take me the wrong way here - I may be enjoying the mickey-taking - but no way would I like to ever look down the muzzle of one of these massive clumps of metal - it's just that they are too big to carry, too big for target shooting, too expensive to shoot in practice, too big in the grip, Too heavy and too expensive to buy as a decoration. - And they recoil far too much for wimpy old me to ever enjoy. - And they don't like unjacketed lead bullets.

I was wondering if they ever got the pistols to function better. From a look around the net it seems that the answer is NO. - And I still recall the angry frustration of the only D. Eagle owner that I've shot near - when his gas piston operated gun forcefully dis-assembled itself again when fired on the range (It was like a drag-racer - a rebuild after each 5 second run!). - Adding insult to injury the damn things seem to still throw the hot brass at your face.

                                             VIDEO BY A WORLD CHAMPION

                    
                 Now - just trying to be fair - Jerry Miculek shows that the gun can be used - quote "that's a handful".

- take a look at him shooting five rounds of .500 S&W Magnum in a revolver too - in his own words "Brutal".

                                       A Desert Eagle ZIP-GUN Clone.

I guess that as an experiment - someone had to try it. - Three or four rust-free plated ones tied together might hold a light dinghy on a good bottom.

Marty K
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