A Desert Eagle has always been on my "want" list, and is now pretty much at the top.  I kinda want all 3 calibers, but .50 AE is the priority.  Main question is, muzzle break or no?  I won't have the opportunity to shoot one before buying (unless someone here is local to the Norfolk area and wants to shoot with me, I have other fun toys to reciprocate ) to gauge the recoil characteristics.  I will mainly be shooting at indoor ranges, and worry that the increased blast might be worse than the softer shooting.  What are the feelings from anyone who has been able to shoot both?  If it doesn't significantly reduce recoil and DOES make it super-blasty (or vice versa), that makes the decision pretty easy.

I've always thought about getting one of the 3 caliber 'kits' (or just buying the conversion pieces separately) in the standard Mark XIX.  But now I'm looking at the L5 and thinking maybe that one for .357 mag eventually.  Leaving just .50 AE base gun and .44 mag barrel/magazine.  Also, any thoughts on the L6 version?  It's lighter, right?  Is that going to get into unreasonable/un-fun to shoot recoil territory in .50 AE?  I kinda like the idea of a lower pic rail, not that I'd necessarily have a great reason for it.  Obviously not going to make this a daily carry.

Merkur is good.

okay I googled that and came up empty.  What are you talking about and how does it relate to my question?

I've had all three, the 357 was fun to shoot with virtually no recoil. the 44 was the same, kind of tame, even with hotter reloads.

The AE is what you want. I shoot mine on an indoor range and it is worth the fun. It kicks, but nothing that I'd want to pay extra for a comp for. After all, I'm not trying to turn it into a rapid fire special, I've not shot a comp, but mine clears the line when I shoot it.

I might buy a 44 barrel if I ran across a deal to convert mine, as I still have 44 mags from my last DE.

I only own one because I can reload 50 relatively cheaply.

No info on a the L5/L6

I’ve got a MK-XIX in all three standard calibers. I’ve also got an L5 in .357 Mag.  I originally bought it with a 10” .44 barrel, which I had chopped and threaded for a silencer. Or I can screw a brake on it.

As noted, the .357 is really easy to shoot. The .44 is pretty mild as well. I bought the .50 barre last, since I figured the .44 would do about anything I would want.

The DE has a fairly high bore axis. It’s heavy enough that you don’t really notice it much in .357 or .44, but I find it tends to have a fair amount of muzzle flip with the .50 barrel. I expect the brake does more to reduce the flip than to reduce recoil.



I don’t believe I’ve ever shot the .50 indoors. The other two calibers are plenty loud there. I mostly shoot outdoors anyway.

The L5 is still a big gun. And the XIX is a brick next to it. I’ve only played with the L5 in .357, so I can’t comment on the other calibers.

The muzzle brake is interesting. The L5 feels pretty snappy. After shooting it, the XIX feels really sluggish when cycling. Kind of hard to describe. They just recoil differently from each other.

For comparison. The biggest difference is in the amount of muzzle flip.

.357
.44 with brake
.44 with no brake
.50



And .357 L5 vs .357 MK-XIX

Don't bother with the brake.
I have the .50 AE with out the brake, and it's a hoot to shoot.
Recoil is not sharp, its there, but not painful at all.

The blast is neat, everything turns orange for a sec.

At an indoor range, its an attention getter for sure.

Eta, i do want to get the .357, and 44mag conversion.
The pistol is quickly becoming one of my favorites.

I have a DE in 44.  I wanted the Israeli-made version, so that comes with the 6" regular barrel.  I bought the 6" IMB Integral Muzzle Brake barrel separately.  Having both versions, I'd recommend the IMB muzzle brake, makes it a pleasant shooter.

All current DEP have interchangeable slides. The frame is the same across all models and in some cases it shares the same bolt with a different barrel.

I have the .357 magnum version of the DEP. One thing to be careful about the .357 and the .44 versions is that a lot of ammo out there are underpowered (less recoil) and typically geared to the revolver (cast/lead ammo). So you might buy ammo that could clog up the DEP gas system or you could get ammo that simply does not cycle. For my .357, I have to use full powered rounds and that is a bit hard to find in some cases. The good news is that rounds that are typically hard to shoot in a revolver are extremely easy to shoot out of a DEP.

The new ones with the integrated brake do a really good job at reducing recoil, I've seen a very-small-for-his-age 12 year old so a full mag in .50AE without problem.