Desert Eagle question

[Raging480]

Do these guns shoot custom ammo?  Or is there some way that you can load revolver rounds into them, 357, 41, 44?

[unspellable]

The Eagle will shoot standard factory loads or hand loads.

There are to caveats:

They won't like a load that's too light, it will fail to cycle properly.  (I can't say just how light is too light.)

They don't like lead bullets, you have to stick to jacketed bullets.  If you run lead bullets you will get lead fouling in the gas port and things will grind to a halt.

[Raging480]

To anyone who has one:  Are these good guns?  accuracy, durability, and such?  I know they aren't the most practical, but dang, I think it would just be too cool to have one!

[unspellable]

See if you can shoot one before you buy.  The grip is very large and not for everyone.  It's fairly heavy.  Recoil is not bad as the gas operated action tends to spread the recoil out over a longer time interval.  To my eye, they are rather homely in appearance.

[AZ223]

I had one in .44 Mag; it is a big grip, so you do need to make sure it'll fit your hand. As stated, recoil is very manageable; not much different from my 686. Very accurate; I had the 6" barrel and was shooting well (5" grps) at 50yds, which was very good for me back then.

I have some misgivings regarding reliability; the DE is very particular and has quite a few quirks. Anything but premium ammo results in stuck shells. Some of this can be remedied by making sure the mouth of the magazine is of specific dimensions (look for a DE forum; I don't remember what they were). Also, when loading the magazine, make sure the head of the case is in front of the one below it, and when holding two-handed, avoid putting pressure on the magazine; either will result in misfeeds. Lastly, I had to keep mine dripping with oil; if it dried out AT ALL, things started going wrong -- I had one instance where the metal block in front of the hammer stuck in the down position after firing, and with the hammer cocked the firing pin & spring assembly fell out the back. I was told this was because it had got too dry, and things would stick. That was after only 40 rounds!

I may have had a lemon, but I found others with similar experiences on a forum; I don't have the link to it any more. I love the look of them, and they're FUN to shoot, but since hunting was why I'd bought it in the first place, I eventually sold it because of the reliability issues.

Others may have better experiences with them, so best to check around...