My 50AE has been magnaported with a 10" tube and the hogue grips. I am only 5'10" and with the 325gr hollow points I can shoot it one handed,...not for groups mind you,..but I can comfortably hold on to it and hit a target. I have the leupold gilmore on mine and hope to take a deer with it this year. The grips change the whole rig to a very handy,..bigass gun

I think the Desert Eagle platform is just about as close to perfect as one might find for a hunting handgun and find their selection of cartridges to be very practical.

I have a couple of 41mag barrels with slide at a friends house for safekeeping while I move and will get a Mark IX frame with 50 AE barrel for it soon.

For medium to large game it's hard to beat a Desert Eagle.

Don't mistake them for a combat or self protection gun. They're simply too big for that.

They're big and burly for real men and hunters and NOT for girlie men...

$bob$

Sean,

I hope this discussion has not gotten out of hand. I intended my initial response to serve as one man�s opinion, but looking back at it and my subsequent post the exchange might be perceived as a little testy. (That is one of the risks of refusing to use emoticons I suppose.) The original point I was attempting to make was that the DE was a �handgun� rather than a �pistol� in _my_ hands, according to my personal definition, i.e. a pistol can be operated with one hand, while a handgun requires two. You never suggested otherwise and I do not recall why I felt the need to make the point. As I stated I did not enjoy my brief exposures to the DE. It did not fit me and the spring tension and leverage needed to operate the controls seemed extreme, compared to more usual pistols. Perhaps I encountered a couple bad ones, or poorly maintained ones (the 44 was a range rental). For the record I do not quick draw and shoot with one hand when hunting big game. I have used two hands for every big game shot I�ve made with pistol or handgun.

All that said, I had the chance to reacquaint myself with the breed yesterday afternoon while helping at our club�s deer rifle sight in. A generous young fellow treated me to a magazine full of 50 AE with both the six inch iron sighted and ten inch scoped barrel for his DE (that barrel change is wicked quick isn�t it?). I was impressed by his reports of the 50 AE's massively satisfactory terminal performance on whitetail and black bear, he was impressed when I outshot him with his own gun. Perhaps the DE has improved over the years, or perhaps I have mellowed a bit. The DE is not horribly clumsy, maybe just a little awkward. Good hunting!

McB

MCB,

Yeah... Looks like we're on the same page after all...

If you run into your friend again and he's interested in selling his DE 50 please give him my email address.

bobwmonahan@earthlink.net

Sean and I are interested in DE's in 50AE with BOTH 6" and 10" barrels.

$bob$

Sean,...My FFl buddie sold it to me. It was his brothers,..so I can't speak to the turn-around time. I stole it with both the 6" and 10" tubes and the grips, and the magnaport work with only 50rnds fired for $1100 The job I have is 6 ports. They cut 2 on each side behind the sight,..and one was very professionaly cut right under the front sight base. I was told by my pard that magna port said that was the max they could do without compromising barrel integrity. But I will say she is a pussycat with the job. I have shot full house 357mag loads that recoiled harder. Send your rig to them,..you won't be dissapointed.

In 41 Mag with 220 TMJ over 20.5 grains of H110 with a Federal 155 primer in Starline Brass.