Casting .50AE

[adam38654]

Any one try casting or shooting hard cast out of a DesertEagle in .357,.44,or,.50ae? I would like to shoot cast threw mine with all the barrels but the gas system seams un accessable for cleaning but so is the AR-15 gas tube. I would use gas checks if it was cost affective. I have also considered shooting some 300,335,or 400gr hard cast Rainier copper platted bullets. The plating and lead is so hard the 9mm HP's wont even open up at 1200fps.

[rockrat]

I shot cast out of my 44 Desert Eagle, until I read somewhere that it would clog up the gas system. Worked just fine with them. Wonder if you could shoot some, and then shoot a few jacketed, to clean the system out? Heard thats what you could do with the AR, when shooting 22lr with your conversion kits, or just clean out the gas tube, which isn't hard to do.

[BEGINER/RELOADER]

have read your thread on firing casted bullet in your DE would like to know of your results. I'm thinking of copper elctro-plating but am open to other ideas ?

[Ironduke]

The instructions that came with my old Mk VII 50 AE Desert Eagle said Pb boolits would clog the gas port. Additionally, the DE uses Polygonal rifling like the glock. I would not recommend PB in the DE for these two reasons. Sorry Bro.

[BEGINER/RELOADER]

once again thanks for all the input. in knowing the reasons for not using leaded bullet in a gas operated system, I'm still in a belief that some type of hardening or plating may be possible to overcome this issue. come on where American's we are the one's that tell everyone that we can.

[rockrat]

No trouble with leading or accuracy in my DE using plain based boolits. After reading about the gas system, though, I stopped using them. Though, I wonder if you used a rifle type gas check, maybe longer than normal, it would keep the gas port covered with the check long enough to not bother the gas system.

Don't have any problems with my AR's in 450bushmaster or 458 socom , using gas checked boolits, using rifle type gas checks. As said, if I did, the gas tube is easy to get to.

Plating should work fine, kind of like a jacketed slug

[Ironduke]

I suspect the reason we don't have trouble in the AR with cast is the pressure. The 50 AE operates at a max of 35K psi. The AR compatible cartridges operate at higher pressure, which may serve to keep the gas port cleared. That said, I know the Beowulf runs down around 35K psi, and I am sure the 458 Socom does as well. If these cartridges don't clog the gas port, then that negates my pressure theory.

Nevertheless, the DE still has polygonal rifling, and for that reason alone, I would not shoot cast in it.

You'll notice there is a forum page specifically dedicated to plating and coating of cast boolits. Those guys have done extensive research and experimentation on the use of powder coating, which can be cheaply, and easily done by any caster. The powder coat completely seals the boolit, and does away with the requirement for wax lube. A suitable boolit properly powder coated might be just fin in a poly barrel? But here I am merely speculating.