Some of y’all have noticed that I’ve been going through the collection and purging a few items from it recently. Why am I doing this? Well, I consider myself more of a shooter than a collector. Most of the firearms in the safe have a purpose.
There are plenty of firearms I want to shoot and other activities I want to try, and those require funds. As a result, I’ve been looking at the firearms in the safe that are collecting dust. For each one, I’m deciding whether to hang on to it or sell it to fund other acquisitions or activities. In the process, I came across the tungsten-finished Desert Eagle and remembered that it was one of the earliest pistols I reviewed when I started the blog. I figured the Desert Eagle deserves another review, given I consider it to be an exquisite hand cannon. A hand cannon that will most likely survive the purge.
Why I Bought a Desert Eagle
Perhaps the best place to begin this review is with how the Desert Eagle ended up in the safe. This took place back in 2016, a little after Deadpool was available for home viewing. I remember telling my wife I would love to have a Desert Eagle after pointing out that those were the pistols Deadpool was dual wielding in the opening scene. Mind you, I knew next to nothing about firearms in general at that point. My wife asked if I knew where to get one, and I informed her that I thought I had seen one at our local Cabela’s. Next thing I know, we drove to Cabela’s and picked up the only Desert Eagle they had in stock.
Why I Keep a Gun That Jams
As I mentioned, the Desert Eagle doesn’t get much range time. In fact, it never really has. This is in part due to the price of ammunition. Another part has to do with the fact that I never managed to get through a full magazine without a failure to feed. To Magnum Research’s credit, their customer service was phenomenal. They paid to ship it back so they could verify that the malfunctions weren’t due to a defect. Their findings concluded that it was either the ammunition I was using or my technique (or lack thereof).
All of this begs a question. Why keep it if it’s expensive to shoot and I can’t shoot it reliably? The simple answer is that it’s a cool gun, and it brings about a lot of smiles. Almost every time this gun comes out of the safe, it’s because a friend learned that I have one. They then express a long-held desire to shoot one, ever since they saw one in one movie or another. That nostalgia, combined with a fun time shooting it, is extremely gratifying. It consistently yields ear-to-ear grins.
What a Desert Eagle Costs
The Desert Eagle isn’t exactly a frugal purchase. I don’t recall paying anything like the street price as I wrote this in late 2022, which ran $1,700 to $2,200. That’s only the beginning. The MSRP can approach $3,500 for a multi-caliber combo kit or one of the fancy titanium gold finished variants. One could also opt for a custom-built Desert Eagle with enough bells and whistles to reach the $6,000 mark. Want extra magazines? Those start at $50 and go up to $130 a pop.
No review would be complete without covering what one gets with the purchase. That depends on the package, but from what I recall, a Desert Eagle buyer can at least expect:
- the pistol itself,
- a hard, foam-padded case,
- the manual,
- an approved ammunition list,
- a 5-in-1 universal cleaning tool,
- and one magazine.
Walking the Desert Eagle
The massive pistol is an engineering marvel to behold. It is 10.75 in long (or 14.75 in with the 10 in barrel), 6.25 in tall and 1.25 in wide, and it weighs 71.4 oz. In other words, that’s nearly four and a half pounds.
Barrel and Sights
Starting at the business end, we have the barrel. It carries a dovetailed front sight, a Picatinny-style rail on top and the cartridge stamp on the left side. The stamp on the one I picked up reads “44 MAG.” Magnum Research also chambers the Desert Eagle in .50 Action Express, .357 Magnum and .429 Desert Eagle. The magazine holds seven rounds in .50 AE, eight in .44 Magnum and nine in .357 Magnum. Looking back on it now, I should have waited and picked up a .50 AE variant. That is the cartridge most often associated with the iconic Desert Eagle. Hindsight is like that, and I didn’t know better.
Slide, Safety and Barrel Lock
The slide wraps the bottom half of the barrel’s sides and carries serrations toward its back half. At the rear sit the ambidextrous safety levers. I imagine only folks with gigantic hands can reach them with the firing-hand thumb. On the top rear of the slide, we have a fixed, dovetailed, blacked-out rear sight. Some variants, however, feature an adjustable rear sight. Behind the slide is the hammer.
Below all of that we have the frame. It begins with the barrel lock pin on the left side and the barrel lock on the right side. Pressing in the pin while rotating the lock counterclockwise unlocks the barrel from the frame. Disassembly for routine cleaning is pretty straightforward from there.
Trigger and Controls
Under the barrel lock and pin we arrive at the front of the trigger guard. It’s smooth, but straight and contoured so the support hand’s index finger can rest on it. I’ve heard some folks find that grip yields more reliable operation of the pistol. However, I suspect mileage will vary. Using that grip did not improve reliability for me.
Surrounded by the trigger guard is the trigger. The single action trigger is a curved, hinged trigger with vertical serrations on the front of the shoe. Overall, the trigger pull is nice. It begins with about 1/8 in of pre-engagement travel before reaching the wall, which breaks crisply at just about 4.75 lb. The reset is very positive but a little long, measuring right around 3/8 in by my estimate.
Right behind the bottom rear of the trigger guard, on the left side, is the button magazine release. It is not reversible. Not that it really matters, because the grip is so large that most of us have to use the support hand or make a big grip adjustment to reach it anyway. North of that is the slide catch, or release, depending on one’s preferred nomenclature. Like the magazine release, it requires a long firing-hand reach, the support hand or a dramatic grip adjustment to operate.
Grip
The rubber grip that wraps around the sides and back of the frame provides very little grippiness. That’s a shame, since a grippy texture would probably help more folks operate the pistol reliably. Nevertheless, the rubber does absorb a bit of recoil, which I suspect adds to the enjoyment of shooting this pistol. Just above the back of the grip we have an exaggerated beavertail.
Shooting the Desert Eagle
The occasional jam is frustrating, and it rules this pistol out for anything beyond collecting or recreational shooting. Even so, it really is a pleasure to shoot. I attribute this to its size, grip material and operating design, which do wonders to minimize the recoil the shooter’s hands perceive. Even the venerable .44 Magnum, which is a handful in a revolver, is tamed so much that most anyone can enjoy shooting it out of a Desert Eagle.
The piston-driven operation is quite interesting as well. It’s an operating design that is common among semi-automatic rifles, but not pistols. In fact, I can’t recall another pistol that uses this form of operation. The locked barrel has a gas port that bleeds gas from the fired cartridge to a piston running below the barrel, and that piston drives the slide back. That process unlocks a rotating bolt, which is reminiscent of something one would expect to see on an AR platform rifle. It really is neat to look at, and it’s fairly unique among handguns on the market. I covered the shooting side in more detail in my 2019 range review.
Closing Thoughts
If I had to pick a single word to summarize the Desert Eagle in this review, I would pick sublime. It is an imposing weapon that is spectacular to hold and shoot. It’s not something I would suggest to anyone looking for defensive, competitive or hunting applications. However, I wouldn’t hesitate to suggest it to someone looking for something nifty to add to a collection. It’s an iconic conversation starter.
