Brass Tacks: The Magnum Research Desert Eagle 50

When you think of “big” handguns, it’s hard not to mention the Magnum Research Desert Eagle 50 AE. I’ve been tinkering with one, and here’s the downlow. 

Deagle .50
While available in other calibers, the .50 AE cartridge allows the Magnum Research Desert Eagle 50 AE to really hit its stride.

Desert Eagle 50 AE: What?

The Desert Eagle 50 AE is a semi-automatic pistol that operates more like a rifle. The barrel is fixed – it doesn’t move during recoil. This allows the “Deagle” to have a top rail over the barrel. There is a slide that contains a rotating bolt system sort of like those on AR series rifles. Also, like those, the system is gas-operated. All of this manages the power of the 50 AE round and creates a workable semi-automatic design.

50 Auto Express cartridges compared to 9mm cases.
A couple of 50 Auto Express cartridges next to 9mm cases for scale.

The Hornady Custom 50AE cartridges are enormous, almost 1.6 inches tall. It would leave a mark if someone threw one at you. Due to cartridge size, the single-stack magazine only holds seven rounds. The ambidextrous safeties allow you to safely carry one in the chamber for a total capacity of eight.

So it’s .50 AE: So What? Why Not?

This pistol falls squarely into the category of… why not? Some people like sports cars, others trucks, others still those ones that ride low and bounce. It’s the same with handguns I suppose.

A version of Jack Reacher's Desert Eagle
The Desert Eagle 50 AE uses a seven-round, single-stack magazine. I used the red dot for accuracy testing.

The Desert Eagle is all about big. I have size large hands and it’s hard for me to get a proper grip. I can reach the trigger with ease, but let’s just say there’s lots of exposed grip on the support side. Flipping the frame-mounted safety up to fire is doable with the firing hand, but it’s a stretch. When you do reach the safeties, they feel heavy and industrial, consistent with the overall “big” everything theme.

Deagle Desert Eagle .50 AE
Look familiar? The Desert Eagle is gas operated and used a rotating bolt like modern sporting rifles.

As for power, it’s not the most powerful handgun when compared to calibers like 500 S&W and 460 S&W Magnum. It’s in the same ballpark as 475 Linebaugh with just shy of 1,500 foot-pounds. That’s more than a standard 5.56mm round but less than the 2,800 of a .30-06 rifle.

50AE Auto Express Desert Eagle Round
This Desert Eagle round might not be the most powerful handgun cartridge available, but it’s certainly no varmint round.
.50AE Desert Eagle Round
Deagle bullets in .50 AE next to 9mm casings for comparison.

How does it feel to shoot? The picture here tells a thousand words, but let’s just say it’ll wake you up in the morning! It didn’t inflict real pain with every shot, but after shooting some groups my hands were somewhat red from the repeated recoil. If you hold on tight, it’s still gonna muzzle flip, but not uncontrollably so. As for dual-wielding with one in each hand like the movies?

Umm, no.

Deagle .50 caliber pistol
Yes, that’s real. Magnum Research Desert Eagle + Hornady Custom XTP 50 AE. This sort of display is one of the reasons the Deagle is so popular in movies and games.

Deagle .50 magazine

This article originally ran in May of 2018. 

Tom McHale is a committed learning junkie always seeking a new subject victim. As a lifelong student of whatever grabs his attention on any particular day, he thrives on beating rabbit trails into submission. In between his time as a high-tech marketing executive, restaurant owner, and hamster cosmetology practitioner, he's published seven books and nearly 1,500 articles about guns, shooting, and the American way.

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14 thoughts on “Brass Tacks: The Magnum Research Desert Eagle 50

  1. Only in America can you order such a gun online and own it. Long Live the 2nd Amendment. We shall remain Free with it and will become slaves without it.

    1. Well say your prayers tonight as his announcement is at 10am. Build a wall and take the 200 billion saved for mental health and drug treatment. A simple solution that the left will never allow. Mentally ill people are wanted by the dems on the streets not in institutions. They are a integral part of the lefts war on Americans. They need them killing in order to support of repealing the 2nd. I am praying this is all about rebuilding the mental health system. A system that has been systematically shut down since the 60’s. Thank LBJ for Vietnam. Send the 60,000 (2017) rapist and murderers currently in our prisons back to their countries and fill American prisons with American criminals. The rule of law now protects aliens but not citizens.

  2. I had a Model XIX for awhile. After two trips back to the factory for FTF issues, I traded it off. Yeah, it’s a big gun and fit well in my XL paw. When it was running right, it was fun, but definitely not ‘practical’ by any stretch. I had my “fun” with it and moved on…

  3. LOL – “The ambidextrous safeties allow you to safely carry one in the chamber for a total capacity of eight.” So a non ambidextrous safety means you wouldn’t be able to carry w/ one in the chamber? Psst. I EDC a Glock w/ NO external safety. Relying on a safety to keep you “safe” is just ignorant. Where do they find the people who right this crap?

    1. Unlike your Glock, this is a single action only pistol, with a single action trigger. The long, spongy, terrible trigger pull on a Glock, as well as the trigger safety makes Glocks and all the plastic-fantastic striker-fired variants relatively “safe” to carry a chambered round without the need for a manual safety, as a double action revolver is considered safe. If the Glock didn’t have all the built-in safeties and that long, sproingy trigger pull, but a crisp, single action trigger like this Deagle, it wouldn’t be safe to carry one in the pipe either. I think most people understood what he meant, or perhaps understood the differences in basic handgun firing mechanisms to know why this single action pistol…with a single action trigger-pull wouldn’t be at all safe to carry in a “cocked and UN-locked” state, thereby rendering a capacity difference from 7 to 8. Read some of McHale’s other articles. I think you’ll find he’s an excellent gunwriter.

      1. Just cause you don’t know how to pull a trigger doesn’t mean the rest of the world doesn’t. Not to mention most pistols, whether SA, DA or striker fired come from the factory with horrible triggers cause of idiots like you who don’t know to the 4 rules of gun safety or at least don’t have the brain power to practice them. Manual safeties are for morons like you who feel “safe” pointing there loaded gun everywhere with their finger on the trigger cause it’s on “safe”. You can put 100 mechanical safeties on a gun, but only the user is what makes it safe. Furthermore whether the safety is ambi or not has NO BEARING WHATSOEVER on making it “safe” to carry with one in the chamber vs. one for a RH shooter only. Moron.

        1. That doesn’t have anything at all to do with what I said, dude. You might want to read that all again with comprehension in mind. There’s literally nothing you said that relates to what was said—in the article nor the comment. I’m sorry you don’t understand it. And I do know how to pull a trigger boss. I think my 3 latest acquisitions have been striker-fired weapons (surely you weren’t “triggered” by my trigger commentary—it has nothing to do with the point). My comment was strictly based on the misunderstanding of what Mr. McHale said in the article. Name-calling is what the gun grabbers do. I kinda sorta thought it was beneath us—guess not. Also, this is a 3 year old article that they re-ran about 6 months ago. I had to look this puppy up to see what the heck you were talking about. HA!

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