Desert Eagle query

[Double Eagle]

I am not a hunter, but I have always wondered about the way the Desert Eagle design is marketed towards handgun hunters.

On the pro side, it is a semi-automatic large calibre hunting handgun and there are few of them around. On the down side, I see factors such as weight, inability to fire cast bullets and in the eyes of some the fact that it is a gas-operated semi-automatic counts against it.

Do you know anyone who swears by this design, and if so- what is it that they like about it, and in what role do they employ it?

Do any of them use it to hunt dangerous game, and would it be a suitable handgun for bear defensive given that it delivers better than 30% more kinetic energy at the muzzle than a .44?

 

[stinger]

I don't think there is such a thing as a handgun that is suitable for bear defense. Grab the long gun.


JMHO,


Stinger

 

[Double Eagle]

I definitley agree on that, but I have heard of photographers and others with a lot of kit packing things like chopped, customised Bowen .50s and .454s.

 

[Art Eatman]

There's the old joke that even a .25ACP beats a loud scream.

From what the Alaska TFLers say, you can use the .454 Casull as the equivalent starting point for a handgun for their brown bears. I've read comments from some of them that the hottest pepper spray is better than the hottest handgun.

FWIW, Art

 

[Jeeper]

I have never met any hardcore handgun hunter that would use a desert eagle. To me they are just an ego gun. The 50 is more powerful than the 44 but its ballistics suck. The DE is also way too big and heavy to lug around for backup. I have always hated that gun. I have nothing bad to say against them as far as quality, it is all just a personal preference.

 

[Ewok_Guy]

I knew a guy who used a scoped longer barreled version of the DE for hunting. I know he took a few deer with it but I don't think he ever took anything as nar-nar as a bear!

 

[Alabaster Jones]

I don't belteve I'd trust the DE on dangerous game. A friend of mine has a .44 and has had many reliablity issues with it. Of course the cleaning/maintainance of the gas system plays a very big part in that. Deer, sure. I just dont want to hear the absence of a bang if I'm facing a bear or some other even more potentially dangerous beast.