First, the good news. After years of selling less-than-stellar American-made Desert Eagles, Magnum Research is once again selling Israeli-manufactured “IWI Classic Desert Eagles.” The limited run of Israel Military Industries (IMI).44 Magnum and .50 cal semi-automatic pistols follows Kahr’s June 2010 purchase of the Eagle’s U.S. distributor cum licensee. The new/old Eagle signals [we hope] the end of 16 years of American mal-production. “The limited production IWI manufactured Desert Eagle Pistols will utilize the original two-piece barrel design, and original ‘claw type’ safeties,” Kahr/Magnum press release reveals. And that, slash fans, is the bad news . . .

“Visit www.magnumresearch.com or www.kahr.com to learn more about these and other Kahr products”? Uh, no. Kahr needs to stop co-branding the Desert Eagle. In fact, the name Magnum Research ought to take its brand talons off the Eagle as well. For yea verily, the Desert Eagle IS a brand. You know, like the Corvette. [Click here for Jack Baruth’s TTAG review. Of the Eagle.]

Yes, I know: it’s a Chevrolet Corvette and a Magnum Research Desert Eagle. Who cares? Not the average gun buyer. It makes no more sense to sell a ‘Vette with the same bow tie as an Aveo as it does to market a Desert Eagle evoking the name of the manufacturer of the CM9. Don’t even get me started on Magnum Research’s “line extensions.”

Too late. What, exactly, is the point of a .380 ACP Micro Desert Eagle? Especially compared to . . .

Gas-operated, rotating bolt semiautomatic pistols constructed from a high quality carbon steel barrel, frame and slide. Both have a 6” barrel length and 10.75” overall length with 6.25” height and 1.25” slide width. These pistols have a trigger reach of 2.75” and approximately a 4lb. trigger pull with fixed combat type sights and an 8.5” sight radius. The .50 AE model, the DE50W, has a .495” bore diameter, polygonal rifling with 1:19 right hand twist and 7 round magazine capacity. The .44 Magnum model, the DE44W, has a .492” bore diameter, polygonal rifling with 1:18 right hand twist and 8 round magazine capacity. Barrels between the .44 Magnum and .50AE are interchangeable.

I like the original Desert Eagle. A lot. So are we in Classic Coke vs. Coke territory here? Yes. Yes, we are. But never mind because “Mark XIX Desert Eagle Pistols and parts produced in the USA and Israel are completely interchangeable on either gun.” That I’d like to see. Or . . . not.

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15 COMMENTS

  1. I’ve tried three desert eagles and they all sucked. The 50 cal eagel is one of the most useless guns I’ve ever shot. The guy that owned this gun may have bought a lemon and maybe the others work well, but I hated it and I pretty much love all 50’s. The guy offered to trade his 50 and a colt 45 plus cash for my BONE COLLECTOR. I told him that would be like selling one of my kids, and that he would get a better deal online because I’d charge a lot more than she’s worth.

  2. I am fairly new to guns (unfortunately my folks didn’t care to much for them growing up) but have been trying to devour as much knowledge as I can to catch up (this site is kickass). One thing I have learned is that if the bitch don’t fire, I don’t want it, so I’ll go ahead and mark the DE off the list of what I want to shoot.

    • “if the bitch don’t fire, I don’t want it”

      You may be fairly new to guns, Grasshopper, but you sure nailed that one.

      BTW, the Israeli Deagles were awesome. So awesome, in fact, that buying new ones in Massachusetts was and remains verboten.

    • Love my Jericho. First one out of the case every time I go to the range. Maybe a case of ignorance on my part, I’ll admit. But comfortable and accurate and reliability I understand.

  5. I’ve shot them, and I hated them. The original DE was and is a useless chunk of firearms curiosa. A single action auto that weighs more than some .22 rifles, with a generally poor trigger and an unusably stiff safety? Aside from good hitting power, the DE had nothing but its own hype going for it.

  6. It’s a bad design, no matter what they call it or how big of a bullet it shoots.

    I’d be glad to see this one discontinued. Then all the men who rushed out and bought one can stop making excuses why they never shoot the one they own – then they could just say it’s a collectors piece.

  7. The Israeli ones are far superior. The American made ones were just coasting on the curtails of Matrix madness. It is a name brand that even the most woefully uneducated know. And the production teams knew that the gun would not be widely used outside of the range. I’ve heard of it has a hunting pistol, but the American made weapons just aren’t reliable.
    The Israelis, however needed it. It took me a while before I actually met somebody who could inform me of the practical usage of one. I think most readers know that there is a conflict between Jews and violent Palestinian nationalist. A common tactic used by the Palestinians is detonating car bombs while pulled up along buses. So roadblocks and checkpoints checkered border regions after that. But not everyone would stop. So when somebody wouldn’t stop, the assumption is that they are up to no good. Fire at will.
    But on the other hand, we all know that intelligence gathering is a huge aspect of war, especially wars where the enemy doesn’t fight under a real flag or wear real uniforms. So the idea was to stop the car, and get the person out. But don’t blow up the car. Enter the Deagle. One or two shots into the engine block of an oncoming care will either cause acceleration to cease or to actually stop the care in its tracks. Run up, grab, tag, and pump for information. Also with the PR war, if it looks like a righteous, kills, smells like a righteous kill, and is a righteous kill, it will probably be reported as the indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians. Easily deployable, cheaper than keeping a sharpshooter at every stop, and profitable in the American trailer park market.

    • Basically sounds like the reason they developed those big ass AR cartridges like .458 SOCOM and .50 Beowulf.

    • I shoot a lot and own a lot of guns. I wanted to add a desert eagle to my collection and picked a new Israeli version 44 mag. Put about 300 with no issues. I have to say it is dead on shot. I would say look up on YouTube Hitchcock45. He is shooting his 230 yards hitting target. Most people that complain about it, can not afford it.

  11. Nice and strong gun. Very accurate. I find the most people to be against DE finding it to be useless. But who has it? Truly experienced shooter can be happy to keep this gun in his collection and occasionally to shoot it ( mainly in 50A.E.). 44 MAG is nice automatic gun with acceptable recoil. Yes- I agree- if you want to have strong handgun, go to revolvers (But why not to keep DE as well? If you have money for that).

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