The Desert Eagle, also commonly known as the Deagle, is a single-action, gas-operated, semi-automatic pistol capable of chambering the .50 Action Express, the largest centerfire cartridge of any magazine-fed, self-loading pistol, and a number of other high-powered cartridges.

Magnum Research Inc. (MRI) designed and developed the Desert Eagle. The design was further refined by (and was also manufactured by) Israel Military Industries (IMI), until 1995, when MRI shifted the manufacturing contract to Saco Defense, in Saco, Maine. In 1998, MRI moved manufacturing back to IMI, which later commercialized its small arms branch under the name Israel Weapon Industries. Since December 2009, the Desert Eagle pistol has been produced in the United States at MRI's Pillager, Minnesota, facility. This established the basic layout of the Desert Eagle. A second patent application was filed in December 1985, after the basic design had been refined by IMI Systems (Israel Military Industries) for production, and this is the form that went into production.

The pistol is fired by a single-action hammer and has a manual safety switch on the slide. The ambidextrous safety switch rotates a drum mechanism that sits over the firing pin, causing the firing pin to lock in, which prevents it from moving forward and reduces the possibility of the gun discharging accidentally. With the safety off, pulling the trigger releases, allowing the hammer to fall downward, hitting the firing pin, and causing the chambered round to discharge.

The Desert Eagle uses a gas-operated ejection and chambering mechanism normally found in rifles, as opposed to the short recoil or blowback designs most commonly seen in semi-automatic pistols. When a round is fired, gases are ported out through a small hole in the barrel in front of the chamber. These travel forward through a small tube under the barrel, to a cylinder underneath the front of the barrel. The slide, which acts as the bolt carrier, has a small piston on the front that fits into this cylinder. When the gases reach the cylinder, the piston pushes the slide rearward, with a large pin inside the camming surface in the rear of the bolt causing the bolt to rotate and unlock. A mechanism on the left side of the bolt prevents the bolt from rotating freely as the slide moves, forcing it to remain aligned correctly with the barrel while the breech is open. The spring-loaded ejector is continually being depressed by the case, until the case is free of the chamber and the tension from the ejector is released, causing the case to eject, breaking free of the extractor in the process. The slide reaches its rearmost position, and then moves forward again under the tension of the recoil springs. The bottom lug of the bolt pushes a new round into the chamber, then the bolt locks up and the gun can be fired again.

The rotating bolt has three radial locking lugs (the fourth lug is only for pushing the next round in the chamber), with the extractor on the right-hand side fitting where the fifth lug would be, and strongly resembles the seven-lug bolt of the M16 series of rifles, while the fixed gas cylinder and moving piston resemble those of the Ruger Mini-14 carbine (the original patent used a captive piston similar to the M14 rifle).

Switching a Desert Eagle to another chambering requires only that the correct barrel, bolt assembly, and magazine be installed. Thus, a conversion to fire other cartridges can be quickly accomplished. The rim diameter of the .50 AE (Action Express) is the same as the .44 Remington Magnum cartridge, consequently, only a barrel and magazine change is required to convert a .44 Desert Eagle to the larger, more powerful, .50 AE round. The California-approved version differs from the regular XIX models in that it has an automatic firing pin block and a two-slot Weaver-style rail for mounting optics.

== In popular culture ==<!-- The subject of this article has appeared in popular cultural contexts such as films, video games, novels, strip cartoons, and the like. These are mostly trivial mentions, and listing them adds no value to the encyclopedic treatment of the subject.

Before adding items to this section, please read Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Content guide#Popular culture. Additions that appear to be insignificant and/or are not attributed to a reliable source WILL be removed.

If an item you have added has been removed and you wish to contest its removal, please start a discussion on this article's talk page proposing that it be restored. -->

The Desert Eagle has been featured in more than 600 films, television shows and video games, making it well known in popular culture. The commercial success of the pistol is due in part to its use in films, according to Magnum Research chairman and CEO John Risdall. Snatch, Eraser, Red Heat, Last Action Hero, Cliffhanger, Demolition Man, Assassins, The Last Boy Scout, Double Impact, and Austin Powers.

Users

thumb|257x257px|A map with Desert Eagle users in blue

  • : GROM Military Unit
  • : GOE

References

  • The Desert Eagle Pistol Knowledge Database
  • Desert Eagle at Modern Firearms

ang:Handscēota