PC and a Desert Eagle?

[rockrat]

Just wondering if anyone has shot PC boolits thru their Desert Eagle pistol and how it has worked out for you?

[Dragonheart]

I don't own a Desert Eagle, but I have shot PC bullets in a number of autoloading rifles, including 44 magnum and numerous handguns. I can't imagine you would run into any problems with a properly coated and cured bullet. In fact many find the lubrication on the nose of the bullet due to a coating that is so slick, autoloaders that are very finicky digest these rounds with no issue.

[tomme boy]

Don't they have the same rifling as glock has

[BamaNapper]

I had a Desert Eagle many years ago and traded it off because of how picky it was for ammunition. I never used cast boolits in it because of the gas port, irrespective of the rifling. My concern was that as lead accumulates in the gas port, the gun stops cycling. I never needed to clean the gas port in mine, but it doesn't look like it would be fun digging lead out of it. But that was before Hi-Tek and powder coating. Today I'd be tempted to give it a try.

[Conditor22]

50AE Desert Eagle 377 grn. boolit sized .501, PC'd over H110 is a tack driver.

Shot 100's of rounds with no problems.

[rockrat]

Thanks for the info. I have an early 44 and looking at a 357 too, but feeding was another story. I have shot cast thru my 44, but I guess not enough to clog things up. Maybe a couple dozen, followed by a mag full of jacketed to blow out the gas channel. Kind of like shooting 22lr thru a 223 suppressor, then following with a mag full of jacketed to blow the junk out of the suppressor (at least what I read what to do when doing 22lr)

[dogmower]

Don't they have the same rifling as glock has

i have shot ZILLIONS of rounds through my glocks and HKs with polygonal rifling. NO leading with PC

[tomme boy]

i have shot ZILLIONS of rounds through my glocks and HKs with polygonal rifling. NO leading with PC

Ya but some still can't get theirs to stop leading. I have not had any problems in my glocks.

[Minerat]

But Glocks are not the same. It the rifling in the glock but in th DE it is a gas operated recoil system that unlocks the bolt to eject the fired case and Mag Research says to not use lead in the system or risk clogging the gas port. I have a 50 AE so this is interesting. I have been feeding mine Berry's 325 gr copper clad but have been fine so far. If PC works, I'm getting a 50 cal mould and have a go.

[mattw]

I have a 41 Mag DE, I have not been brave enough to try PC in it yet. I do not shoot it a lot and it just is not worth it to me.

[6bg6ga]

I had a Desert Eagle 44 magnum. Because of the particular gas port system unless you really want to chance wrecking the gun you use jacketed bullets only. Even a few lead will fill the port holes and render the gun usless and possibly worthless. It is an expensive venture to try to get the lead removed from the gas port system with an almost 50% chance your gun can once again become workable. Sorry but there has to be a point here where logic outweighs saving a few cents a bullet by trying to use even powder coated bullets in this particular firearm.

I'll point out that cleaning the ports is NOT a job the common owner can do. The firearm has to be sent in and very nasty chemicals are part of the lead removal operation that is not all the time successful. If it were just a question of the rife ling I would have tried it. As I have pointed out it goes much deeper.

[tomme boy]

mercury works wonders on lead removal.

[Dragonheart]

mercury works wonders on lead removal.

Mercury at $30 an ounce when you can't convince many casters to invest a $100 in a quality bullet mold, good luck 0on selling that one.

Personally, I put a 50/50 mix of white vinegar and standard over the counter 3% hydrogen peroxide in stainless barrels and it dissolves the lead.

[Dragonheart]

I have a 41 Mag DE, I have not been brave enough to try PC in it yet. I do not shoot it a lot and it just is not worth it to me.

So what does it take to get into powder coating?

A pound of powder to coat approximately 10K of bullets about a $20 investment. A plastic container like Cool Whip comes in, $0.92 and you get to eat the Cool Whip, non-stick foil $6.88 a box, a working toaster oven - Free to about $25. So in neighborhood of $50 you could get into powder coating, even less if you already had an old oven to dedicate.

[6bg6ga]

Well, 50/50 vinegar and hydrogen peroxide works fine when you and can for example disassemble a 1911 and completely submerge a barrel in a small glass filled with the mixture. The problem from what was explained to me when I owned a Desert Eagle is there are very small gas ports that plug up and this is what they have extreme difficulty opening back up after they are plugged with lead. Advocating the use of Mercury or the vinegar/ peroxide mixture is rather foolhardy when you consider the cost of the Desert Eagle and the probability of rendering it totally useless unless of course you desire to make it a single shot. So you have a 50/50 chance of flocking it up big time just to run powder coated bullets thru it. Seems hardly worth while to me but then again what do I know I only owned one.

[Dragonheart]

Well, 50/50 vinegar and hydrogen peroxide works fine when you and can for example disassemble a 1911 and completely submerge a barrel in a small glass filled with the mixture. The problem from what was explained to me when I owned a Desert Eagle is there are very small gas ports that plug up and this is what they have extreme difficulty opening back up after they are plugged with lead. Advocating the use of Mercury or the vinegar/ peroxide mixture is rather foolhardy when you consider the cost of the Desert Eagle and the probability of rendering it totally useless unless of course you desire to make it a single shot. So you have a 50/50 chance of flocking it up big time just to run powder coated bullets thru it. Seems hardly worth while to me but then again what do I know I only owned one.

Makes me glad I never had the need to own one.

[Lloyd Smale]

buddys shot his 50ae quite a bit with pc'd cast and says they shoot great and haven't plugged up a thing. Matter of fact he claims the guns easier to keep clean they if he shoots jacketed.

[6bg6ga]

buddys shot his 50ae quite a bit with pc'd cast and says they shoot great and haven't plugged up a thing. Matter of fact he claims the guns easier to keep clean they if he shoots jacketed.

Lloyd, you may be correct and I can count on your posts to be truthful. My Desert Eagle never saw PC bullets or lead simply because it was drummed into me by the gunsmith simply not to do so. My Desert Eagle was extremely accurate and I could actually bench group at 50 or 100yards and cover a 5 slot group for the most part with a quarter with a slight amount of hole showing. To me trying to caution someone about the dangers of lead in a DE is simply trying to stop someone from the possibility of a mistake. If you say it works then in must work with PC but then again is everyone that is doing PC taking the time to insure the coating is up to snuff?

[Lloyd Smale]

Now I know there not ar15s and I know there a heck of a lot harder to clean if they do get there gas systems plugged but I will say this. Ive got 3 ars in 300 bo that ive shot pc cast out of. One of them my little 7 inch pistol no doubt had over 5k put through it last summer. 99.9 percent of it pc cast at full power. I took my 7.5 in 556 pistol out most days with it and it probably had about the same round count give or take 500 by the end of the year. Only cleaning done to either of them was to hose out the chamber, pull apart the bolt and clean it a couple times and I cleaned the bores on them once. What I found was this. The pc barrel was probably easier to clean then the 556 barrel shooting jacketed. But neither were hard. At the end of the season I pulled off the gas tubes and ran a pipe cleaner and solvent though each and the 556 tube was defineately dirtier then the 300 bo barrel that shot pc. My guess is because you just use slower burning powder in the 556. Most of those were loaded with 335 or exterminator or tac and the bo was loaded with aa9 wc820 110 and wc297. Same thing with the chambers. the 556 was always dirtier then the bo. Seeing that the DE has kind of a similar gas system I would have to guess that your not going to plug the gas system any faster using pc or jacketed bullets. I really think the problem guys had with the gas systems on the DEs was more due to filthy bullet lube and inferior lubes that allowed leading then it did with what the bullet was made out of. Easy test for you if lead is pealing and going into your gas tube then its going to leave a scratch mark on your bullet. Shoot some bullets into a plastic drum full of water and recover them. Pc done right will not scrape off in a good barrel. So if you have one land that has a scratch the hole length in the pc you might be looking at trouble. If the bullet looks consistant I wouldn't loose any sleep over it.

[6bg6ga]

From what I understand the DE's gas system has holes you cannot get to. The blackouts and 5.56's and 308's are easy and not a problem with anything you shoot in them. They clean up no problem.