View Single Post
Old 05-30-2010, 09:22 AM   #16 (permalink)
telekinetic
zomgomgomgomgomgomg
 
telekinetic's Avatar
 
Location: Fauxenix, Azerona
Quote from "Guns of the Matrix" by Mad Ogre, emphasis mine.

Quote:
Accompanied by the street cops is an Agent. They are the movie's super villains. They of course are armed with a much more sinister pistol than the Glock. The Desert Eagle is perhaps one of the most over played handguns in Hollywood. I'm not sure why that is exactly, but I guess it's because the D.E. looks good on film in the mind of a gun ignorant Director. It is a very large and heavy pistol designed to fire some of the most powerful cartridges available. From a scene later in the film we see a cartridge being fed into the chamber and it looks like the relatively new .50AE cartridge. Given unlimited resources of these Agents, I guess the .50AE would be the caliber of choice for your Desert Eagle. However I doubt the D.E. would be the gun of choice. These guns have a number of good points... Weight perhaps is number one. They are so heavy that they absorb so much recoil energy as to tame even the hottest loads. This makes firing powerful .44 magnum loads actually enjoyable instead of just painful. The design also uses a fixed barrel giving the pistol enhanced accuracy. This makes it popular among folks who like the challenge of handgun hunting. The downsides of the D.E. is that the pistol is ammo sensitive and has questionable reliability. Accuracy and power are both good, but reliability is a much more critical for a fighting gun. This is why the Desert Eagle pistols are actually rare on the firing ranges, and are never used by any fighting force... police, military or special ops. Yet you'll see it in movies about all the above. Go figure. Some folks have them and think highly of them, but I'm not one who does. At best the D.E. is a curiosity... an interesting pistol to play with, but impractical in any real world setting.
THE GUNS OF THE MATRIX

Credentials of author:
Quote:
About Ogre.

I am a gun owner. I am also a NRA Certified Pistol and Personal Protection instructor. I am an American....I served my Country in the US Army as an 11B Light Infantryman.]
Also, here's an "Ask a Rabbi" article about whether a Desert Eagle is a good purchase:
(again, emphasis mine)
Quote:
QUESTION: Dear Rabbi Mermelstein:

[....]I'm thinking about stepping up to the Desert Eagle .50AE, but several colleagues have advised me to resist the temptation, mainly because its muzzle flash, noise, weight etc. make it "impractical." I would use the Desert Eagle on the range and store it in a Gun Vault in my bedroom.

Presently, I use the same Colt Defender as my CCW and home-defense weapon. What's your opinion of the Desert Eagle?

Glenn Goodhart
30 Oct 1999


ANSWER: Dear Glen,
The Desert Eagle, being gas operated, is an extremely finicky handgun. The slow burning Ball powders that the cartridge requires necessitate frequent cleanings to remove the unburnt powder residue as often as every 50 rounds. Failure to adhere to a rigorous cleaning schedule will render the piece useless. Cast bullets are out of the question. Only FMJ or 3/4 jacket bullets will keep the gas port in the barrel from becoming fouled with lead. The removal of this clogging is a job for a gunsmith. A bronze phosphor bore brush will not do the job.

The pistol, itself, has all the ergonomics of a cinder block. It is heavy, and not at all suitable to concealed carry. Opinions are like belly buttons: everybody has one. The Desert Eagle has never appealed to me. If I needed a repeating handgun with more power than the .44 Magnum, I would buy the new Ruger Redhawk in .454 Cassul.

A public indoor shooting range that I used to frequent had a Desert Eagle for rental purposes. It was out of commission most of the time, though it was fired with .44 Magnum 240 gr. FMJ ammunition that was sold to them by my commercial ammunition factory at that time. W-W 296, H110, and AAC #9 were the only propellants suitable. All this was to no avail. That indoor range had to purchase a long-tem warranty from Action Arms to keep the contraption in working order. Turn around time was slow, and the firearm saw more time at the repair depot than in service. Pass it by. Any weapon that requires that degree of maintenence would never rate space in my gun safe.
Sincerely,

R. Mermelstein
GunOwnersAlliance.com - Ask the Rabbi: Desert Eagle .50 AE

Rabbi Mermelstein's qualifications:
Quote:
Rabbi Mermelstein has agreed to answer a limited amount of firearms-related questions for readers of the Gun Owners Alliance Web Pages. A life long gun owner, Rabbi Mermelstein had served in the US Army Infantry for three years during the closing years of the Vietnam era, attended rabbinical academies for nine years to earn his rabbinical ordination, and started his own company manufacturing ammunition for wholesale distribution throughout the country. He was the Handloading Editor for Petersen's HANDGUNS, featured on the masthead of that publication for 3 ½ years. He is of course, an avid shooter and handloader. Additionally, Rabbi Mermelstein is has published a book on the history and evolution of small arms cartridges entitled, "Mermelstein's Guide to Metallic Cartridge Evolution".
__________________
twisted no more
telekinetic is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360