- Location
- North Vancouver
So I finally got to touch off a few rounds in my new Gold Titanium Desert Eagle .50AE. My son, a buddy of mine, and I got to the range and laid out the guns. A Sig Mosquito .22lr, Glock G17 9mm, and the DE .50AE. At first I was going to work my way up to the DE starting with the .22, but as soon as I saw it laid out, I just had to jump in with both hands.
After reading hundreds of pages of reviews and writeups on the DE and being about 5'6" 150lbs, I was a bit apprehensive about the recoil. Well, I held on tight and squeezed the trigger. BOOOOOOM. Actually, it turns out that the recoil is really not that bad. Yes, it's HUGE but not unmanageable at all. The recoil didn't hurt my hands, didn't knock me to the floor, didn't make me point the gun straight up in the air. It was just large and powerful. And absolutely the most fun ever. The Glock recoil is sharp and quick compared to the DE. The noise is huge too. The range I was at is a centerfire handgun and rimfire rifle only range. So it's mostly 9mm, .40, .45 etc. Relatively small bangs going off at any time. Once the big .50AE rounds started going off people were jumping all over the place.
Funny.
So I did have one problem with the DE. I was firing a string of 5 shots and the slide locked back on me after the first shot. I brought it down from the target, pulled the mag, checked for a problem, reinstalled the mag, racked the slide and continued on. After the third round the slide locked back again. After doing all of the previous things I realized that my thumb had pushed the slide release lever up during recoil and that was what locked back the slide. So, operator error on that one. I never once got hit with brass (limpwristing), and there weren't any other problems at all. In the video you'll see my son who is about 100lbs shooting it and although the recoil pushes the gun way up high, he is still able to handle the recoil. If you're gonna let someone shoot the DE the thing to tell them is to... squeeze tight-pull the trigger. Normally when you are teaching someone to shoot you teach them to squeeze the trigger with more and more pressure until the gun fires. This way every time the gun goes off it is a surprise and you will reduce the amount of flinching etc. This is NOT the way to teach someone to fire the DE the first time. Hold tight-pull the trigger. You do NOT want it to be a surprise when this gun goes off for the first time. You're not trying to get a hit in the ten ring, only getting the bullet down range in a safe manner. Once they've felt the recoil and understand it, then they can start shooting for aim.
So here are the Youtube videos and some photos.
This first video is me picking up and shooting the DE for the very first time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWOKbZCtTF8
This video is a comparison of the recoil between the .22lr, 9mm, and .50AE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtZdLd1OoE0
This video is a couple of angles with one hand.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFejblwOjDc
This is how I transport the guns to the range. I got the info on how to do the foam cutting from a post on ar15.com
Closeup of the DE as it was when I first opened up the case.
Here the new Hogue grips are installed. I didn't even bother to shoot it before putting the grips on. They feel fantastic and if you get a DE you must get the Hogue grips.
After reading hundreds of pages of reviews and writeups on the DE and being about 5'6" 150lbs, I was a bit apprehensive about the recoil. Well, I held on tight and squeezed the trigger. BOOOOOOM. Actually, it turns out that the recoil is really not that bad. Yes, it's HUGE but not unmanageable at all. The recoil didn't hurt my hands, didn't knock me to the floor, didn't make me point the gun straight up in the air. It was just large and powerful. And absolutely the most fun ever. The Glock recoil is sharp and quick compared to the DE. The noise is huge too. The range I was at is a centerfire handgun and rimfire rifle only range. So it's mostly 9mm, .40, .45 etc. Relatively small bangs going off at any time. Once the big .50AE rounds started going off people were jumping all over the place. Funny.So I did have one problem with the DE. I was firing a string of 5 shots and the slide locked back on me after the first shot. I brought it down from the target, pulled the mag, checked for a problem, reinstalled the mag, racked the slide and continued on. After the third round the slide locked back again. After doing all of the previous things I realized that my thumb had pushed the slide release lever up during recoil and that was what locked back the slide. So, operator error on that one. I never once got hit with brass (limpwristing), and there weren't any other problems at all. In the video you'll see my son who is about 100lbs shooting it and although the recoil pushes the gun way up high, he is still able to handle the recoil. If you're gonna let someone shoot the DE the thing to tell them is to... squeeze tight-pull the trigger. Normally when you are teaching someone to shoot you teach them to squeeze the trigger with more and more pressure until the gun fires. This way every time the gun goes off it is a surprise and you will reduce the amount of flinching etc. This is NOT the way to teach someone to fire the DE the first time. Hold tight-pull the trigger. You do NOT want it to be a surprise when this gun goes off for the first time. You're not trying to get a hit in the ten ring, only getting the bullet down range in a safe manner. Once they've felt the recoil and understand it, then they can start shooting for aim.
So here are the Youtube videos and some photos.
This first video is me picking up and shooting the DE for the very first time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWOKbZCtTF8
This video is a comparison of the recoil between the .22lr, 9mm, and .50AE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtZdLd1OoE0
This video is a couple of angles with one hand.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFejblwOjDc
This is how I transport the guns to the range. I got the info on how to do the foam cutting from a post on ar15.com
Closeup of the DE as it was when I first opened up the case.
Here the new Hogue grips are installed. I didn't even bother to shoot it before putting the grips on. They feel fantastic and if you get a DE you must get the Hogue grips.
