I came across a deal on one a month or two ago and decided I couldn't pass it up. The look kind of grows on you after a while. It's quite a bit lighter than the "full-size" MK-XIX guns. And shooting the two side by side, the XIX seems almost sluggish. The L5 is more snappy - not snappy recoil, just seems to recoil faster. Not a bad thing.
The 5" barrel is a nice size. With the integral muzzle brake you effectively have 4" of rifling. I get a 125 to 150 fps. loss in velocity going from the XIX to the L5, shooting the same .357 ammo. There does not appear to be anything that interchanges between the two guns (other than mags and maybe a few small parts). The barrel locking surfaces are different. You can't just swap top ends completely either. They are different guns.
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A buddy of mine got one and said he's had nothing but problems.
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I'm not to the point of saying "nothing but problems" yet, but it's not exactly flawless either. Ultimately, I think it's an engineering issue. The recoil springs were shortened a bit, which makes sense as the whole front end is shorter. However, as the slide closes the last 1/4" or so when the bolt is locking, there seems to be very little spring pressure pushing the slide forward. The XIX has noticeably more spring tension at this point in the slide travel.
Because of this, the most failures I have experienced have been where the slide fails to close completely. It needs a slight push with the thumb on the rear of the slide to get it all the way into battery. Even worse, there is a point where the slide has moved far enough forward that the hammer disconnector is disengaged (trigger will release the sear), but the hammer block is not disengaged. This results in a "click" as the hammer drops on a live chamber, but is not allowed to hit the firing pin, resulting in a "dead" gun.
I think the solution here is to keep the gun clean, use "hot enough" ammo, and use a firm hold to allow the side to cycle fully against the frame. All of this is true with any Desert Eagle, but apparently even more important with the L5.
I'm currently playing with 180 gr. bullets and Vhitavouri powder, to see if that keeps it running clean enough for longer.
For comparison, here are the two guns. You can see less muzzle flip with the L5, but the "feel" of the two is more pronounced than just what you can see on the screen. This was with Federal 158 gr. JSP ammo.
Desert Eagle .357 comparison: L5 vs. MK-XIX