I use to own a .357 Mark VII and although I loved to shoot it the inconsistency in cycling was a pain in the arse.   About 5 years ago I sold my Mark VII to a friend that hasnt shot it once since I gave it to him.  It sits in a clear Lucite display case with figures of Agent Smith and Neo from the Matrix.  Soon after I sold it to him I wondered if I made the right decision.  I filled the.357's empty space in my gun room with a S&W revolver and though I like that gun I always felt the D.E. belonged there.  

Recently I stumbled across a Mark XIX .44 Mag in nickel finish on Gunbroker.com with case, 2 mags and papers.  Both mags were nickel and one was still in the plastic as well as the cleaning tool and lock.  The gun was bought from an estate auction and the price was 1,100 starting bid... not sure how I managed to get it but I was the only bidder within minutes of the end of the auction and ended up winning.  So now I am a proud owner of a nickel Mark XIX and I ask myself did I make the right decision?  Do any current owners of the .44 mag have any problems shooting various ammo?  Will Winchester white box, Magtech, Fiocchi, etc work and if so which feeds the best?  With ammo prices they way they are I want to be conservative about what I spend but I don't want to waste money on ammo that cant cycle.  Also with my Mark VII I had some lighter springs made that would cycle pretty much anything but I was leery of using them because I was worried I would accidentally use the hotter rounds with the light springs and possible damage the Mark VII.  

Did I buy a winner that I will enjoy shooting or will this one retire to a Lucite case in my vault with Agent Smith looking out like my friend has the Mark VII?

All opinions and comments welcome.

Villain

Hey there,

Congrats on your new D eagle.  I tried to buy a Mark VII nickel version myself off Gunbroker a couple months ago, but somebody used the "buy it now" feature a second before I did  

I did alot of researching before purchasing my Mark VII .44.  The most relevant information I found was that if your only interested in shooting .44 magnum get the Mark VII or maybe even the first version.  I beleive the Mark XIX uses a bigger/heavier slide needed for the .50 AE so full power loads are needed with the smaller calibers.  If I recall correctly, I think i've seen some people claim success with some or all of the lower powered loads.  Let's hope you have a good one.  
If your XIX turns out to be a pain in the heinieyou can always swap out the .44 barrel and mags for .50 cal which should run much better or if you don't care for the .50 just sell/trade your XIX for a earlier model.  Most people complain about the cost of .50 ammo, but when I was searching for .50 cal prices I was coming across boxes of the good stuff for a bit over $20 which is pretty good in my book.  

That's stinks your .357 didn't run too well.  I too thought about getting a .357 DE, but only if it will run the 125gr. JHP loads.  I think the best .357's were the Mark I's.

Enjoy the DE

EDIT - Oh yeah...get yourself one of the Hogue rubber grips.  Either of them are great and well worth it.

I have the old, original version of the DE in .44(the one with the teardrop shaped safety). I paid $600 ftf for it from an EE ad. It works like clockwork with every jacketed 44 magnum load I've ever fed it.

Gentleman,

Thank you for the input.  Have you ever fired .44 Special through your platform if so is a spring reduction needed?

You might want to ask Magnum Research INC before trying it, but I really doubt you would find a factory 44 Special load strong enough to fully cycle the Eagle anyways.

44 special doesn't have enough power to even eject the casing–– tried it.  The only commercial ammo I tried in mine was Winchester White Box.  After that didn't work well at all, I started experimenting with handloads for it.  I finally ended up with 22.1gn of Vihtavuori N110 behind a 240 grain Hornady XTP, with CCI magnum primers.  It cycles the gun very reliably, snaps that action back and forth with no problem, has very tolerable recoil for the advertised velocity (QuickLOAD says it's just over 1400FPS) and N110 is really clean.  

Just my 2 cents.

That I was assuming from the get go but in 1911's when you change them over to 9mm one of the things you change is the recoil/guide rod spring.  I was wondering if any .44 DE owners have experimented with this same theory.  Has anyone tested the spring tension/pull weight and attempted to swap them out with something of a lower power?

hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

The springs on the guide rods are a light spring within a heavier spring.  I suppose you could remove the light inside spring and see if it will cycle the 44 specials.  It might not have enough momentum to slam the next round in the chamber though.

To my limited knowledge there are no aftermarket springs for this.  You could always order some from MR and see what you can figure out.  It would be cool to be able to shoot 44 specials out of it :D