Desert Eagle and coated bullets

[broham]

I like shooting my 44 eagle but hate that I have to use expensive jacketed bullets. Has anyone ever pushed coated bullets in the power range to still cycle the action without issue?

 

[Sunray]

A plated bullet should do. Cast data. Lot of arguements on the assorted forums about cast bullet in DE's.
I still laugh about how big the friggin' thing is. Shot one at Second Chance 25 plus years ago that had been reduced in frame size. My trigger finger still came nowhere near the trigger.

 

[Havok7416]

broham, I'm wondering the same thing myself, but I'm reluctant to (possibly) destroy a $750 barrel. I did just pick up some plated bullets to try in my .44 DE. We will see how that goes.

 

[newfalguy101]

The worst that will happen is a plugged gas system, which will turn the gun into a very big single shot pistol which just happens to have a magazine.

Shooting cast/coated bullets wont destroy anything

 

[Havok7416]

The gas port is integral to the barrel and can't be reliably unplugged.

 

[GarrettJ]

I have run a lot of Berrys and Xtreme plated through my Desert Eagle .357 barrel with no issues.

More recently, I've run some Rainier plated bullets through the .50 AE barrel. I have found a few small copper flakes in the gun when cleaning after shooting the Rainiers. I haven't experienced any operational issues with them, but I've only run maybe 100 rounds through it so far.

I have not tried powder coated bullets in my DE.

Supposedly you can send a plugged barrel to Magnum Research to be unplugged. I have no direct experience with this, though.

 

[Havok7416]

Garrett, thanks for the input on the plated bullets. My guess is the .50 plated bullets are coming apart during firing, hence the copper flakes - assuming you are loading near max. Maybe not enough to literally come apart though. If you can, it would be interesting to capture a bullet after firing to see what's left.

Sending a barrel back to MR would be somewhat less of a burden, but the fact remains that it would have to go back. Long-term that's obviously not a great solution.

 

[GarrettJ]

I've been meaning to try to recover a bullet. Need to wait until the range isn't under a foot of snow. I did pull a seated, crimped bullet to check that I'm not over-crimping.

Velocity is around 1200 fps. which may be the upper limit for Rainier. The .357 Berry's are going more than 100 fps. faster, and still doing fine.

 

[Havok7416]

1,200 FPS is the upper limit on most plated bullets. I think Berry's thick-plated offering can do 1,500.

If it helps, I will be recovering a .44 Mag plated (Rainier) bullet as soon as I finish moving in a few weeks.

 

[zerobarrier]

I push rainier plated bullets thru my desert eagle .50 300 and 335gr. Never had a problem.

 

[Walkalong]

http://www.berrysmfg.com/faq-q9-c1-How_do_I_load_Berrys_Preferred_Plated_Bullets.aspx

Has anyone ever pushed coated bullets in the power range to still cycle the action without issue?

The only issue I see with lead or coated lead would be using an alloy strong enough to hold the rifling at those speeds. I would lean towards 18 BHN or thereabouts for .44 Mag. Softer may work though. I really don't see why a coated bullet wouldn't work, when millions of lead bullets have been shot through .44 Mags with no issues when done right.

 

[Havok7416]

Walkalong, the issue is that the Desert Eagle does not allow for lead bullets. I would love to shoot coated bullets through my Desert Eagle if they work. Part of my capture test is toward this end.

 

[Walkalong]

Walkalong, the issue is that the Desert Eagle does not allow for lead bullets.

Why not?

 

[Havok7416]

All I know is that the manual says to not shoot lead bullets through the Desert Eagle (even factory loaded). There is a Desert Eagle-approved bullet list that shows which rounds work in the gun.

 

[Walkalong]

Interesting. Polygonal rifling, like a Glock? People shoot lead in them all the time.

Curiosity killed the cat, although I was suspect for a while, so I would have to try it myself.

 

[Havok7416]

My understanding is that it has to do with the gas system, not the rifling. I would happily quote the text of my manual, but sadly it is packed up somewhere. I will send you a PM and/or post here once I unpack in a few days.

 

[Walkalong]

I went back and read all the posts.

The gas port is integral to the barrel

This has to be it. I wonder how critical it is.

 

[Wreck-n-Crew]

Seems that the reason for the lead bullets being on the "do not load list" published by Magnum research is a little easy to see by the cut out Here:


It asks the question that has been asked before about coated bullets and how well the coating stays on. Looks like a small port and over time...well it seems you could build enough up to cause a problem even with copper fouling over time. I don't think i would shoot them in it if it were my gun. YMMV