Desert Eagle, hard on brass?

[AKMac]

Hey guys.

I'm pondering the purchase of a desert eagle to go along with all my other big boomers.

I've been told that DE's are very hard on brass, and in some cases chewing up the brass so bad you can't use it again. As an avid reloader I wouldn't want this to happen to all my precious and expensive brass.

I was just wondering if this is true, or propaganda spread by the anti hand cannon crowd

 

[DesertFox]

I've seen this happen. Extraction can be, shall we say "very positive" with marking on the rim and sometimes dents in the case. They are plenty fun to shoot in all calibers. If you don't kill it with the shot, you can club it with the pistol as it weighs a ton.

 

[AKMac]

Is this something that is mostly cosmetic, or does it ruin the brass?

 

[lyrikz]

I have a .50ae desert eagle and i do my own reloading. There is cosmetic scratches on the cases and sometimes the lips get a tiny bit chewed. I have brass i am reloading for the 3rd time. No issues yet.

I bought 500 pieces of brass and just rotate them in and out with the old. SHould last a long time. Just finished reloading about 400 rounds this week.

As for myths and what not of the gun. I bought mine because i liked the fact it was something that not alot of people have. When i go to the range, its a conversation starter and people just love it. Gun is extremely accurate. The weight doesnt bug me. I practice using it one handed also just in case it was my only pistol and one hand was hurt. lol.

Its a fun gun. And looks like no other.

 

[56hawk]

I have a Mark XIX with a 44 and a 50 barrel. The rims on the 44 brass can get chewed up a bit making them hard to get into the shell holder when reloading. The 50 brass doesn't seem to have any problem though.

Reloading the 50 can be a bit of a pain though. Almost all of the dies are steel and the cases have to be lubed when resizing. I have also found that 50AE cases take a lot of force to resize. Even more than most rifle cases.

 

[mljdeckard]

And they like hot ammo.

 

[AKMac]

This is exactly the information I was seeking!

As luck would have it, I actually found two pieces of .50AE brass the other day at the range. One had a dented case mouth and the other didn't look bad at all. Assuming these were most likely fired from a DE, I didn't see anything that would be of concern for reloading.

Lubing the cases wouldn't be that big of deal to me. I have carbide .500S&W dies and they still require lubing just because of the size.

That sort of sucks about them chewing up the .44 mag heads. I suppose I would just have a set of .44 DE brass set aside.

 

[CAR-AR]

I have a MK VII in .44 and I don't have any problems with reloading. There are slight marks on the cases but there is no problem with reloading or shooting the loaded rounds.