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I recently tested a number of coated bullets. While doing so, I also had time to capture a plated .44 Magnum bullet (240 grain) to see if it is feasible to fire such bullets in a Desert Eagle.
For those not familiar with the Desert Eagle, it is generally frowned upon to fire bullets with bare lead through the gun as it will clog the gas system, which is integral to the barrel and hard (if not impossible) to thoroughly clean.
I have heard from several people that plated bullets – and those with thin plating in particular – shed their plating or otherwise fall apart when fired at high velocities (which the Desert Eagle typically requires to function).
I used 21.0 grains of AA#9 under a 240-grain Rainier bullet, which generates a book velocity of between 1,200 and 1,500 FPS depending on which manual you happen to have. This bullet was selected because the plating is thinner and thus more likely to fragment (an assumption on my part). I used a Colt Anaconda with 8” barrel for the test.
I fired one bullet into water jugs and managed to recover it 14 jugs later, although my chronograph read an impossible 1,819 FPS – clearly an error. I will be building more of these bullets and testing them over the chronograph to get an average velocity and accuracy. The results will eventually be posted here.
The good part of all this is that the recovered bullet was pristine aside from the rifling marks (see below). While this is only a single-bullet test, it certainly puts my mind at ease about shooting plated bullets through my Desert Eagle.
I recently tested a number of coated bullets. While doing so, I also had time to capture a plated .44 Magnum bullet (240 grain) to see if it is feasible to fire such bullets in a Desert Eagle.
For those not familiar with the Desert Eagle, it is generally frowned upon to fire bullets with bare lead through the gun as it will clog the gas system, which is integral to the barrel and hard (if not impossible) to thoroughly clean.
I have heard from several people that plated bullets – and those with thin plating in particular – shed their plating or otherwise fall apart when fired at high velocities (which the Desert Eagle typically requires to function).
I used 21.0 grains of AA#9 under a 240-grain Rainier bullet, which generates a book velocity of between 1,200 and 1,500 FPS depending on which manual you happen to have. This bullet was selected because the plating is thinner and thus more likely to fragment (an assumption on my part). I used a Colt Anaconda with 8” barrel for the test.
I fired one bullet into water jugs and managed to recover it 14 jugs later, although my chronograph read an impossible 1,819 FPS – clearly an error. I will be building more of these bullets and testing them over the chronograph to get an average velocity and accuracy. The results will eventually be posted here.
The good part of all this is that the recovered bullet was pristine aside from the rifling marks (see below). While this is only a single-bullet test, it certainly puts my mind at ease about shooting plated bullets through my Desert Eagle.
