Magnum Research’s Synthetic Booger Lets me Down

I bought a Desert Eagle in .50 AE to support Israel. The gun was made by Israeli Military Industries. It was very expensive, and a .50 AE pistol has no legitimate use, but I thought it would be fun to shoot.

The other day, I took it out and shot a few rounds. I had some problems.

The gun failed to extract spent shells most of the time. When it did extract, the shells generally hit me in the face, leaving cuts and bruises. This is a known Desert Eagle issue. The manufacturer’s response is to tell people to hold the gun more firmly, which doesn’t actually work. At least not when your extractor spring is shot, which mine was.

I figured the problem out by Googling. Magnum Research does not put real springs in Desert Eagle extractors. They use little red plastic globs that look like tiny cherry Jujubes. The extractor mashes the glob, and the glob resists, behaving like a spring. This works great until oil or gun-cleaning solvent hits the glob. Then it starts to fall apart.

Yes, Magnum Research uses extractor springs that dissolve in products commonly applied to guns.

I learned that you can stick an AR15 spring (steel) in the Desert Eagle, so I ordered one. I also ordered two OEM Jujubes in case the AR15 spring failed. I knew my next Jujube would fail because that’s what they do, so I bought two in order to extend the time that would pass until I had to order more of them.

Today I got started on replacing the Jujube. I found some videos about Desert Eagles, and I tried to apply what I learned.

Ordinarily, you begin disassembling a Desert Eagle slide by removing the firing pin stop. You push a little button on the slide’s rear, and the stop slides out, releasing the pin so it can be removed. The video I watched showed one button. My manual showed one button. My gun had two buttons.

It turned out I had a California gun, even though I bought it new in Florida. Really embarrassing. It’s like thinking you’re a man and finding out you’re really a woman.

California forced Magnum Research to add a second button to the firing pin stop, for reasons no one seems to be able to figure out. You have to push both buttons a certain way, and it’s a pain.

Kahr (owner of Magnum Research) sells 49-state stops and pins for a total of about $50. I have these parts on the way. My gun is stainless, and the new stop is black. That doesn’t make me happy. It’s a simple part, however, so I should be able to fabricate one from stainless eventually.

When I got the bolt out of the gun and removed the extractor, I found the old Jujube sitting there, looking a little worn.

HA. Never happened. What I found was red grease, smeared on the extractor and the cavity where the spring should have been. The Jujube–the grease–had completely dissolved. If I hadn’t known what I was looking at, I would have thought the spring was missing and someone had lubricated the gun with red Mobil grease.

Here’s a photo of my Desert Eagle’s original extractor spring.

This is not good engineering. There is no way to justify making gun parts from materials that dissolve in oils and solvents. It’s like making a baking sheet that explodes in the presence of flour.

I stuck the DPMS spring in the bolt and put the gun back together. I have no faith at all in the Kahr “springs.”

I haven’t shot the gun yet. I’m hoping the tension on the extractor will help toss shells away from my forehead. That would be nice.

This is a fun firearm when it works, but I’m starting to think it’s fundamentally bad, like the Marlin Model 60 .22. There are bad products that bring people a lot of pleasure, so when I say the Desert Eagle is bad, I’m not saying I don’t want it. I’m just saying I know what it is.

The Desert Eagle is very heavy. The grip is huge. It shoots shells in people’s faces. It’s hard to break down and clean. It’s expensive. It serves no purpose. You can never really say, “I need a Desert Eagle.” All you can say is that you want one because it will be fun to shoot.

I know people love the Marlin Model 60, but it has the guts of a BB gun. Open one up and see. It can’t shoot hyper ammo. It’s hard to put a sling on it. The trigger is very bad. It’s a pretty gun, it feels good in the hand, and it’s accurate when it works. But a real rifle like the Savage A22 will outperform it in every way.

I’ll feel much better when the California parts on my Desert Eagle are at the landfill. I guess I should go out and shoot it. I’ll have to go find my face shield.

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I got my face shield out, put 7 rounds in the Desert Eagle, and tried it out. As you can see from the photo, it’s working again. Only one of the casings hit the face shield as far as I know. I could be wrong. Your brain shuts down for an instant when you shoot this gun, so it’s impossible to know exactly what happens in that instant.

The gun shoots way high at this distance (7-8 yards). I can’t change that by adjusting the sights, because they’re fixed. I see that Kahr offers adjustable sights, but 1) they’re fiber optic, which is not good, and 2) they cost $234. Not a reasonable price for a $40 item. Williams sells sights for $65, full retail.

I adjusted the trigger while I was working on the gun, and it doesn’t help all that much. Still too hard to get it to go off.

I am not really in love with the Desert Eagle. I like it better as an idea and a pro-Israel statement than as a firearm. The trigger is still not good, it’s probably never going to completely stop firing casings backward, the sights need to be replaced, and because the blast and recoil are so strong, it’s only enjoyable to shoot for maybe 25 rounds. After that, you get tired of wrestling and having your wrists snapped. It’s not fun wearing a face shield, either. Maybe the .357 version works better. Of course, you can get an 8-shot .357 revolver for less, and it will be lighter and more like a serious firearm.

When someone says a revolver is lighter and more sensible in a certain caliber, while carrying nearly as much ammunition as a semiauto, it sounds impossible. But that’s what happens when you make a 4-pound pistol.

With the rounds I’m shooting, the Desert Eagle’s projectiles carry twice as much momentum as my 10mm carry handloads, and FBI agents’ complaints about the 10mm forced the agency to transition to .40 S&W, so obviously, the Desert Eagle is not user-friendly.

Whatever the gun’s virtues and flaws may be, at least it works now. I should send Magnum Research a bill for fixing their design.