This is just an idle question to satisfy a curiosity.   I googled the hell out of it, and can't seem to find even a guess at an answer.

I was just wondering, since it's introduction, about how many DE's in .50AE have sold and/or are in circulation?  Outside of movies and TV, how prolific are they actually?  How many are out there?

Can anyone even guess at a ballpark figure?

Few of them locally. How many are actually shot at a range, I dunno. I've been shooting mine at my brothers land for a while and rarely go to the local range anymore.

Bought a DE .44 mag and .50AE combo; one frame with two barrels and magazines for both. Someone else's safe queen, rarely shot by them. Great deal. We usually shoot the .44 mag since the .50 AE ammo is so pricey. When we go to an indoor range, the .50AE is pretty loud. Even with an older gun, no muzzle break, the recoil is still manageable.

No way of knowing outside of factory stats. NSSF shows manufacturing numbers but not broken down by individual models, only as a brand as a whole.

When guns start to get into the 1000 range you start to see less people actually having it. Magnums are rare at the range I go to and I have yet seen a person shoot a DEP of any caliber there. This is a span of nearly 20 years of having gone there.

My thought is most people see the DEP as too large/bulky and if they do own it they have it merely for bragging rights. That's true for me as well.

It wouldn't hurt to shoot Magnum Research a email and ask them on how many they sold.