This is the newest addition to my airgun collection. The Desert Eagle by Umarex. This pistol is big, bulky and accurate.
Description
As THE FIRST .177 caliber BLOWBACK AIR PISTOL, the Desert Eagle is a big, weighty air pistol designed in the likeness of the real Desert Eagle by Magnum Research, Inc. Usable by both left- and right-handers this air gun has built-in Picatinny rails for mounting various accessories such as tactical lights and electronic sights. This Desert Eagle air pistol is powered by a 12g CO2 cylinder that inserts in the bottom of the grip. The slide opens at the push of a lever to reveal an 8-shot rotary magazine. Enjoy the big BLOWBACK action of the Desert Eagle Air Gun. (from Umarex's website)
The construction of this pistol is plastic for the frame and receiver with all metal internal components. Normally I would stray away from this type of plastic because I don't like the "toyish" feel it has, however in this case it's probably a good thing it's not metal. The weight of it would be upwards of 5-8 pounds. I would have prefered a heavier plastic, or even a polymer or polycarbonate. I looked at this pistol numerous times on my trips to the retailer prior to buying it. On my last visit, there was only 2 pistols in stock that I was/am interested in and this time I did decide to buy the DE after spending about a half hour with it. With the exception of the plastic, the only thing that concers me about this pitsol is the release for the slide. It is a thin plastic with what feels like a fairly light spring that could most likely break if used to forcefully, even if unintentional. I suggest taking extra care when releasing the slide to re-load.
The CO2 is housed in the grip. There is no drop-out magazine on this model, which I would have prefered. To load the CO2, a large cartridge tightening screw must be removed from the base of the grip. A tool is provided. The CO2 just drops right into the handle, replace the screw and tighten. The 8-shot rotary magazines are loaded into the drop forward slide. The kit comes with 2 rotary magazines.
This gun is large, same size as the firearm it's modeled after. It measures in at over 10 1/2 inches in length with a 5.7 inch barrel and weighs 2.4 lbs. The grip is quite large as you will see in the pictures, it measures in at 6 inches in
circumference just below the trigger guard and 6 3/4 inches at the base. I have a fairly large hand, 8 inches from wrist to tip of middle finge, and I cannot operate it effectively single handed. The safety can be operated either left or right handed.
Shooting this gun is best done two-handed because of its size and fairly heavy trigger pull. The pull is DA is about 1 inch and 6 lbs. In SA, there is about 3/8 inch of free travel in the trigger before it reaches the engagement point. I have put about 80 shots down the barrel now and I must say that I am very impressed with this guns performance. Even with the blowback action, there is almost no recoil effect like you get with the Beretta PX4 Storm. I attribute this to the size and weight of the gun and the fact that the slide is fairly light and only travels 1 1/4 inch. The accuracy is exceptional and
consistant for a pistol. At 31 feet, I was shooting grouping of 1 1/2 inches consistantly. The rear notch sight is adjustable left/right the front sight is fixed blade. Both front and rear sight are black molded plastic and the lack of
sight aids make target acquisition a little difficult, especially in low or poor light conditions. This can be easily remidied by putting white dots on the sights with enamel model paint. The gun also comes with upper and lower accessory rails that you can mount an aftermarket sights or lights to.
Overall the Desert Eagle proved to be a better gun than I had originally thought and the performance surpassed all expectations that I had. The only things I would like to see changed on this gun is the plastic changed to a stronger polymer, the trigger pull lightened or made to be adjustable, built in sight aids, a dropout magazine for the CO2 and the slide release changed to metal.
Description
As THE FIRST .177 caliber BLOWBACK AIR PISTOL, the Desert Eagle is a big, weighty air pistol designed in the likeness of the real Desert Eagle by Magnum Research, Inc. Usable by both left- and right-handers this air gun has built-in Picatinny rails for mounting various accessories such as tactical lights and electronic sights. This Desert Eagle air pistol is powered by a 12g CO2 cylinder that inserts in the bottom of the grip. The slide opens at the push of a lever to reveal an 8-shot rotary magazine. Enjoy the big BLOWBACK action of the Desert Eagle Air Gun. (from Umarex's website)
The construction of this pistol is plastic for the frame and receiver with all metal internal components. Normally I would stray away from this type of plastic because I don't like the "toyish" feel it has, however in this case it's probably a good thing it's not metal. The weight of it would be upwards of 5-8 pounds. I would have prefered a heavier plastic, or even a polymer or polycarbonate. I looked at this pistol numerous times on my trips to the retailer prior to buying it. On my last visit, there was only 2 pistols in stock that I was/am interested in and this time I did decide to buy the DE after spending about a half hour with it. With the exception of the plastic, the only thing that concers me about this pitsol is the release for the slide. It is a thin plastic with what feels like a fairly light spring that could most likely break if used to forcefully, even if unintentional. I suggest taking extra care when releasing the slide to re-load.
The CO2 is housed in the grip. There is no drop-out magazine on this model, which I would have prefered. To load the CO2, a large cartridge tightening screw must be removed from the base of the grip. A tool is provided. The CO2 just drops right into the handle, replace the screw and tighten. The 8-shot rotary magazines are loaded into the drop forward slide. The kit comes with 2 rotary magazines.
This gun is large, same size as the firearm it's modeled after. It measures in at over 10 1/2 inches in length with a 5.7 inch barrel and weighs 2.4 lbs. The grip is quite large as you will see in the pictures, it measures in at 6 inches in
circumference just below the trigger guard and 6 3/4 inches at the base. I have a fairly large hand, 8 inches from wrist to tip of middle finge, and I cannot operate it effectively single handed. The safety can be operated either left or right handed.
Shooting this gun is best done two-handed because of its size and fairly heavy trigger pull. The pull is DA is about 1 inch and 6 lbs. In SA, there is about 3/8 inch of free travel in the trigger before it reaches the engagement point. I have put about 80 shots down the barrel now and I must say that I am very impressed with this guns performance. Even with the blowback action, there is almost no recoil effect like you get with the Beretta PX4 Storm. I attribute this to the size and weight of the gun and the fact that the slide is fairly light and only travels 1 1/4 inch. The accuracy is exceptional and
consistant for a pistol. At 31 feet, I was shooting grouping of 1 1/2 inches consistantly. The rear notch sight is adjustable left/right the front sight is fixed blade. Both front and rear sight are black molded plastic and the lack of
sight aids make target acquisition a little difficult, especially in low or poor light conditions. This can be easily remidied by putting white dots on the sights with enamel model paint. The gun also comes with upper and lower accessory rails that you can mount an aftermarket sights or lights to.
Overall the Desert Eagle proved to be a better gun than I had originally thought and the performance surpassed all expectations that I had. The only things I would like to see changed on this gun is the plastic changed to a stronger polymer, the trigger pull lightened or made to be adjustable, built in sight aids, a dropout magazine for the CO2 and the slide release changed to metal.
