The Desert Eagle (“Desert Eagle,” also called “Deagle”) is a large-caliber self-loading pistol developed by the Israeli arms company Israel Military Industries in 1983. Designers of this company gave the world such successful and well-known models of small arms, like the Galil machine gun and the Uzi submachine gun. Initially, the famous American company Magnum Research thoroughly "put a hand" on the development of this pistol. Currently, there are several modifications of the Desert Eagle.
Thanks to Hollywood movies and computer games, Desert Eagle is very famous, but professional shooters have a very ambiguous attitude towards these weapons. Currently, the Desert Eagle is one of the largest pistols in the world: it is not only difficult to shoot from it - even quickly getting this weapon is not always easy.
Depending on the modification, the cost of the gun ranges from 1,400 to 2,100 US dollars. Desert Eagle ammunition is not too cheap: the price of one .50 AE cartridge is between 1.5 and 2.5 bucks.
The manufacturer positions the Desert Eagle as a means of self-defense and hunting weapons, but not everyone can cope with this gun: the Desert Eagle is a real manual howitzer. Pistol Desert Eagle uses ammunition caliber 12.7 mm (as in the DShK machine gun). The instructions indicate that with this gun you can go against a bear or a hippopotamus - perhaps this is indeed the case. However, if you carelessly handle this weapon, you may well get a serious wrist injury from recoil when fired.
In a cult film about special agent Nikita, a fragile girl who plays the role of the main character, famously mows down the bad guys from the huge Desert Eagle. In reality, this situation is unlikely: it is hard to come up with a weapon that is more inappropriate for a woman than a "Desert Eagle".
Desert Eagle Pistol Story
Pistol Desert Eagle came up with an employee of the American arms company Magnum Research Bernard S. White. At least, the patent of this weapon was issued to him. However, the background of this weapon begins even earlier.
In the early 1970s, several Americans conceived the idea of creating a pistol for the most powerful .357 Magnum cartridge and founded the company Magnum Research for this. In 1983, the company developed the first copy of a similar pistol, it was called the Eagle 357.
Its revision was made by the Israeli arms company Israel Military Industries (IMI), which in 1985 received a second patent, securing all the changes made to the weapon design. It was at this time that the gun was called Desert Eagle.
The first batch of pistols was 1 thousand units, they had .357 Magnum caliber and traditional barrel cutting. Today, these pistols are real rarities for collectors and weapon lovers. Desert Eagle mass production was deployed at IMI plants in Israel and the USA.
In 1986, a new version of the Desert Eagle appeared under the even more powerful revolver cartridge caliber .44 Magnum.
In 1989, there was a modification of the gun Desert Eagle mark VII, which had some differences in the design of the trigger mechanism. And in 1996 saw the light of the last modification of this weapon - the gun Desert Eagle mark XIX. It was designed for an even more powerful .50 Action Express caliber cartridge.
Desert Eagle Device
The design of the Desert Eagle is very original and more typical for automatic rifles than for self-loading pistols: its automation uses the energy of removal of powder gases (like the AK-47). Above the barrel of the gun is placed a vapor pipe through which the powder gases are discharged from the barrel and act on the bolt carrier.
Locking the barrel is due to the larvae of the gate, which is very similar to the similar design of the American M16 automatic rifle. It is due to the presence of the vapor tube barrel gun looks so massive. To provide the necessary space for movement of the bolt carrier, the body of the gun had to be made long, which further increased its weight.
The bolt has four lugs that engage with the breech breech.
Trigger trigger type, fuse blocking the gun shutter. Store single-row pistol, with a capacity of seven to nine rounds, depending on the caliber of the weapon.
Sights Desert Eagle - open unregulated, on some models, you can install optical sights.
Initially, the pistols had frames made of aluminum alloys, but later the manufacturer completely switched to the use of weapon steel. There are different options for coating "Desert Eagle": various types of bluing, nickel plating, gilding.
Modifications of Desert Eagle
Since the beginning of series production, several variants of this gun have been developed:
- Mark I and Mark VII. The Mark I model is already out of production, its main differences were some of the design features of the weapon (the location of the fire switch and the handle cheek). The Mark VII version received an adjustable trigger and Weaver bar on the barrel, which made it possible to install additional accessories: optical sights or laser designators. Pistols of these modifications can use .357 Magnum and .44 Magnum cartridges.
- Mark XIX. This model is based on the Mark VII pistol. There are several modifications of the Mark XIX, which use .357 Magnum, .44 Magnum, and .50 Action Express ammunition, which differ in barrel length. Retrofitting a pistol under another cartridge can be made quite simple: change the barrel, bolt and magazine.
Features of the Deagle Pistol
This gun has never been used (and not even offered) as a service or combat. With great confidence we can say that this trend will continue in the future. And for this there are a number of compelling reasons:
- Gun weight from 1.7 to 2 kg, that is, instead of one Desert Eagle, a soldier or operative can take two Glock 19 or SIG-Sauer P228, which is much more convenient to carry and use.
- Excessive recoil of the weapon and too bright flash of a shot, making it difficult to shoot quickly and accurately.
- Insufficient store capacity.
- The gun "Desert Eagle" is not very reliable: the gun needs careful maintenance and has never been tested in harsh conditions.
Desert Eagle is not just big - it's huge. A weight of about two kilograms brings this gun to automatic rifles. This weapon cannot be carried covertly, it cannot be quickly reached, very powerful bullets pierce a man’s body, creating the danger of casual passers-by. The cartridges used by the gun give a large amount of soot and soot. Therefore, the Desert Eagle needs regular and thorough cleaning, otherwise it may refuse at the most inopportune moment.
When firing from the Desert Eagle, the sound of a shot may simply stun you if you have not used special headphones. Therefore, the shooting of this gun in many closed shooting galleries is prohibited. It is inconvenient to hold the gun in hand because of the huge size of the handle and not too comfortable plastic linings on it.
If you keep the pistol wrong when firing, then the used sleeve can get straight in the face, and if the grip is too weak, the weapon can injure the gunman.
Another problem is the design of the gun shop. Its thin sponges are very easily deformed even with minor blows, which leads to a misalignment of the cartridges and stopping the shooting. Equally important is the quality of the cartridges: The Desert Eagle does not "like" steel sleeves, and there are often delays when using them.
Pistol Desert Eagle has the image of cool weapons, which are actively used by special forces soldiers or police. This is nothing more than a myth. The Desert Eagle is a rather original sporting weapon and a pistol for Sunday shooting outside the city. If a professional is not satisfied with the power of his pistol, then he should use a submachine gun or an automatic rifle, this will provide much higher efficiency than the Desert Eagle.
