{"id":2828,"date":"2024-12-20T01:58:22","date_gmt":"2024-12-20T01:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/?p=2828"},"modified":"2024-12-20T01:58:22","modified_gmt":"2024-12-20T01:58:22","slug":"the-impractically-powerful-desert-eagle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/?p=2828","title":{"rendered":"The Impractically Powerful Desert Eagle"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

When your character is introduced literally carrying a tree, no mere plinking pistol will do.<\/p>\n

When special sunglasses expose the propaganda and aliens hiding in plain sight, or you\u2019re facing mutant amphibians, a Glock isn\u2019t the gun you need.<\/p>\n

When a Graboid threatens your high plains town, a Browning High Power isn\u2019t the sidearm to slay the beast. A Colt Python or Smith & Wesson Model 19… maybe.<\/p>\n

Really, the only gun worthy of dispatching such mercenaries, mutants, aliens, or dirt dragons is the Magnum Research Desert Eagle, or, as it\u2019s known in video game circles, the Deagle. The pistol started its life in 1983 chambered for .357 and .44 Magnum cartridges and added the thunderous .50 Action Express when the company introduced the third variation in 1995.<\/p>\n

A big gun<\/a> for the big screen, the angular and shiny Desert Eagle arrived on the scene as the first large caliber semi-automatic pistol. Before the Deagle, wheel guns monopolized large calibers. In the 1970s, Clint Eastwood\u2019s Dirty Harry<\/a> fought punks with a Smith & Wesson Model 29 for .44 Magnum, while Charles Bronson and a parade of tough guys handed out street justice with the Colt Python in .357 Magnum.<\/p>\n

The Deagle Goes Hollywood<\/h3>\n

Arnold Schwarzenegger, former world champion bodybuilder, Conan the Barbarian, the Terminator, and former California governor, is an outsized human whose larger-than-life movie characters returned again and again to the Desert Eagle. Tree-toting Schwarzenegger went strapped with the Deagle to rescue his daughter when \u201cCommando\u201d hit screens in 1985. As the hunter and hunted, Schwarzenegger\u2019s \u201cDutch\u201d Schaefer, holstered the Desert Eagle a second time in 1987\u2019s Predator.<\/p>\n

In \u201cRed Heat,\u201d Ivan Danko, the Soviet cop played by Schwarzenegger, blasted baddies with a Podbyrin 9.2 mm, a Desert Eagle with a custom barrel to envision what a Russian gun might look like in 1988. Director Walter Hill wanted the gun to resemble a Walther P38 \u201con steroids.\u201d The armorer on the film called it \u201cThe Hollywood Eagle,\u201d using a Desert Eagle Mark I chambered in .357 Magnum.<\/p>\n

Professional wrestler Roddy Piper brandished the Desert Eagle in a pair of 1988 films. When it was time to chew bubble gum and kick ass, the Deagle came out in \u201cThey Live,\u201d and when he plugged mutants in \u201cHell Comes to Frogtown.\u201d Mickey Roarke was the first to take up the Desert Eagle in 1985\u2019s \u201cYear of the Dragon,\u201d while Dolph Lundgren \u0336 Ivan Drago, himself \u0336 spit lead with one in 1989\u2019s \u00a0\u201cThe Punisher.\u201d Danny Glover, who carries a wheelgun in the \u201cLethal Weapon\u201d films, hoists a scoped Deagle in 1990\u2019s \u201cPredator 2.<\/p>\n

More recently, Ryan Reynolds\u2019 \u201cDeadpool\u201d dual-wielded the Deagle with .50 AE to punch holes in bad guys in the super hero movie series. His Desert Eagles Mark XIX has \u201cSMILE Wait 4 Flash on the muzzles of his guns.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime you need a weapon that is big, scary looking, with all those sharp edges \u00a0\u0336 \u00a0agents in the \u201cMatrix\u201d or the action hero \u00a0\u0336 \u00a0it has more presence. There aren\u2019t that many giant handguns around. You have to give them a big old revolver or a Deagle,\u201d said Jonathan Ferguson, Keeper of Firearms and Artillery, for the Royal Armouries.<\/p>\n

Desert Eagle History<\/h3>\n

Originally manufactured in Israel before production shifted to Minnesota in 2009, the Desert Eagle and its variations have beem featured in more than 600 films, television series, and video games as the company actively lobbied motion picture prop houses to include the hand howitzer in their Hollywood arsenals.<\/p>\n

Simply put, the gun is a monster. With a 6-inch barrel, it measures nearly 11 inches long and weighs more than 4 lbs., and that\u2019s without a full seven-round .50 AE magazine. The length is 3 inches longer than a Glock 17, with half of the capacity. It has a heavy 7 lbs. trigger pull for a reason \u00a0\u0336 \u00a0to avoid double taps.<\/p>\n

Fortunately Hollywood embraced the Desert Eagle since the military and law enforcement haven\u2019t. Only a couple of countries\u2019 Special Forces units keep the Desert Eagle in their arsenals. Like its long gun contemporary, the .950 JDJ, the Desert Eagle is a gun that exists because it can.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a military and law enforcement and arguably even a self-defense perspective, there is no real practical purpose for it,\u201d Ferguson said of the Deagle. \u201cIt was designed to be the biggest and best in its class and it pulled that off.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Desert Eagle has a gas-operated ejection and chambering system similar to what is often seen on rifles. The design allows for firing rimmed, high caliber cartridges, but explains away its massive size.<\/p>\n

The gun has been through three variations, the Mark I, Mark VII, and the Mark XIX. The Mark I was chambered in .357 Magnum and .44 Magnum, while the Mark VII, introduced in 1990, took on the .41 Magnum as well. The Mark XIX took it up a notch to chamber the thunderous .50 Action Express along with the .357 Magnum, .44 Magnum, and recently introduced .429 DE cartridges.<\/p>\n

The vaguely practical uses for this giant gat include handgun hunting, self-defense from predators, and target shooting.<\/p>\n

And don\u2019t forget making movies, television shows, and video games.<\/p>\n

Entering the 1990s, Schwarzenegger reached for the massive Desert Eagle Mark VII in \u201cLast Action Hero,\u201d and the Mark XIX with a black finish, for \u201cEraser.\u201d The 90s is also when the mild-mannered dad of \u201cFamily Ties,\u201d enters the Deagle discussion. Playing survivalist Burt Gummer, Michael Gross helped Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward fight off the Graboid in \u201cTremors.\u201d<\/p>\n

While action stars Ryan Reynolds, Hugo Weaving, Dwayne Johnson, and John Cena were hoisting the Desert Eagle into the 21st century, surprisingly so were comedians like Sasha Baron Cohen and Mike Meyers. Even the ladies started getting in on the act. B-movie actress Sybil Danning was an early adopter, causing mayhem with a Desert Eagle in 1989\u2019s \u201cL.A. Bounty,\u201d Pamela Anderson and Elizabeth Hurley would soon be wielding them as well.<\/p>\n

Gold Tiger Stripe Desert Eagle<\/h3>\n

Turn up the ridiculous impracticality of the Desert Eagle by adding some bling. It comes from Magnum Research in 10 different finishes including titanium gold, titanium gold tiger stripe, black tiger stripe, and two chrome styles. Demi Moore handled not one, but two gold-plated Desert Eagles in \u201cCharlie\u2019s Angels: Full Throttle.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the online game Counter-Strike took the internet by storm in 1999, the Deagle was born \u0336 but not as the Desert Eagle. In Counter-Strike it is the \u201cNight Hawk 50c,\u201d and it wasn\u2019t alone in handing the pistol a different moniker. Many games label the gun differently, like \u201cRaptor Magnum,\u201d \u201cLightning Hawk,\u201d and \u201cRiver Hawk.\u201d<\/p>\n

No matter what you call it, the Desert Eagle is a gun worthy of men of action who were at the birth of the modern action movie. Schwarzenegger and others pioneered the idea of the over-the-top shoot \u2018em ups and took them to bombastic heights.<\/p>\n

Some may consider the Desert Eagle a niche gun, but it\u2019s more of a clique gun, in a Hollywood class all by itself.<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/h3>\n

Internet Movie Firearms Database<\/a><\/p>\n

Magnumresearch.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Desert Eagle: The Pop Culture Icon Nobody Uses<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n


\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When your character is introduced literally carrying a tree, no mere plinking pistol will do. When special sunglasses expose the propaganda and aliens hiding in plain sight, or you\u2019re facing mutant amphibians, a Glock isn\u2019t the gun you need. When a Graboid threatens your high plains town, a Browning High Power isn\u2019t the sidearm to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}