Tell me about the .357 Desert Eagle

[Sir Galahad]

I saw a .357 Desert Eagle at my local shop and it sure looks like a fine pistola I'm considering. I have a few questions for any .357 Desert Eagle owners out there if you can help me with.

1.) RELIABILITY---Does this pistol feed and function well? I know it can't shoot .38s in it, but is it finicky with ammo?

2.) MAINTENANCE---How hard (or easy) does this pistol strip for cleaning?

3.) ACCURACY---What kind of accuracy can be expected from this pistol?

4.) RUGGEDNESS---Is this pistol going to last? Does it have any fragile parts prone to breakage?

As always, your help is greatly appreciated!

 

[Nightcrawler]

I"m not an owner, but I can offer a few ideas, and some things I've heard.

-It's a 4lb .357, made out of solid steel. You're not going to have to baby it. I've heard that modern lightweight loads, like the popular 125 grainers, won't even cycle it. Generally 10mm is considered the ".357 magnum" of autoloaders, but I'm willing to bet that the DE .357 can withstand loads that would blow up a Glock 20.

-It's better to handload for it, I've heard, to work up a load for it. If you do handload, I've heard that 158+ grain bullets work best. Try the 180 and 200 grainers, and see how fast you can make 'em go.

-It's gas operated. From what I've been able to tell, it needs to be cleaned about as much as an AR-15.

-Is it a Mk. VII, or a Mk. XIX? If it's a Mk. XIX, you can change top halves and convert it to .44, .440 Cor-Bon, and .50AE.

-If you intend to carry it in the field for hunting, get a good shoulder holster that can support and distribute the weight.

 

[Gewehr98]

Love mine.

Just gotta feed it the right ammo. The Desert Eagle needs a lot of gas volume to cycle all that steel. The gun is very accurate, 200 meter steel rams fall easily. The recoil is minimal, at least in the .357 Magnum and .44 Magnum versions. A word of caution: no cast or swaged bullets, they will foul the gas system. From my old club of a pistol, the reliability is great, no jams or hiccups, when I run 158gr truncateds, either plated or jacketed, out over 1600fps. (stout loads of either WW296 or Alliant 2400) This is my early Mk1, built 1984:




SG, shoot me a PM if you want the down 'n dirty of field stripping, parts, etc.

 

[Sir Galahad]

Hmmm...yeah, I also figured the polygonal rifling would exclude the use of lead. Well, there go the Federal CastCores. That kind of takes a a smidge of versatility away as opposed to this beauty long tom Smith I saw in the case next to it. The Smith had a 10" barrel or something close to it (I didn't ask to see it.)

 

[blue86buick]

-It's gas operated. From what I've been able to tell, it needs to be cleaned about as much as an AR-15.

Does this mean a lot or a little?

 

[nondescript]

They should be cleaned thoroughly and frequently to ensure reliability

 

[Kamicosmos]

Here's my Mark I .357.

I love it, was shopping for a DE for a long time, and found this as a great deal. Store apparently wasn't aware that it was a Mk I.
(I called Magnum Research to run the serial, and it's one of the first few hundred to have been imported in 1985.)

I run a pretty hot load of H110 with 158 grain bullets. Gun is very accurate, and pleasant to shoot because of it's weight.
Those H110 loads put out one hell of a fireball, and the gun is very loud, very sharp Craaaaack for a report. The barrel gets very hot though, so watch your fingers. Also, make sure the jacket on the bullet is very thick. I loaded up some rainers for it, and the rifling ripped through the jacket, and the slide started to lead up. That was a fun cleaning job!

Yes, it does like to be clean. I've never had any problems other that the leading incident, but I keep my guns spotless anyway...

I could talk about Desert Eagles all day, so I'll stop talking now...

Edited to add: Ever since I redid my web server to run Linux and Apache, I can't get images to link right. Grumble.

 

[Sir Galahad]

Thanks for the replies. I think I'll go down and take another look at it...

 

[Gewehr98]

Let us know how the decision-making process went!

I'm assuming you got my PM, Sir Galahad!

 

[litework]

I had a Desert Eagle in .357 for a number of years. It is a great range gun. It made a very distinct noise when it fired. You could actually hear that long slide go "clank." I really enjoyed shooting that gun and have never had better rapid fire groups with any .357 mag I've owned. A couple of things about the Desert Eagle...it is very ammo critical (at least the one I owned). It loved Winchester Silver Tips, but wasn't very reliable with anything else I tried. It especially hated PMC Starfires. I couldn't get that gun to cycle those bullets to save my life. The Desert Eagle is extremely easy to break down. Very similar to a Beretta 92FS if you are familiar with that gun. I, ultimately, sold the Desert Eagle. I was trying to limit the number of handguns in my collection, but I've since reconsidered this foolish philosophy. It was too large to carry with me on a regular basis and not big enough for me to use as a primary hunting weapon. In hunting, confidence is key, and I don't have that much confidence in the .357 magnum for deer sized game. My opinion of the Desert Eagle is that it is a "fun" gun. You'll have a really good time shooting it, and you'll miss it greatly if you ever part with it.

 

[Sir Galahad]

Well, the local shop doesn't open til Tuesday anyway, so I'll have more time to mull this over. This is one of those guns that has been in every fricken' movie and just looks BAAAADDDDD....and feels pretty darn good in the hand, too. (I got to handle it last time I was at the shop.) From what I'm hearing, it likes the 158ers which is fine by me because that's all I shoot out of my S&W .357 anyway. Decisions, decisions....

 

[10-Ring]

A buddy recently picked one up. We haven't put alot of runds through it (yet!), but here are a few impressions.
1. It seems to prefer HOT ammo. The hotter, the better.
2. The trigger pull is smooth but LOOOOOOOONG. It's not too heavy, just uncommonly long.
3. VERY accurate & reliable (at least over the 500 rounds we shot during it's 1st trip to the range).

Good luck, hope that helped.

 

[hksw]

When I got my Mk VII .44 mag way back in the early '90s, it came with a list of loads that could to be used. They were overwhelmingly jacketed but there were a couple or three lead bullet loads listed also. These, though, had to be run with gas checks.