ANyone get the Desert Eagle L5 .50 ae ?

They hit the stores a couple of days a go. I have one in bound.:D

I keep asking myself, "do I want a lighter .50 AE?"
(Of course I keep answering myself YES! I will have to think on it while funds accumulate.)

:)

MrBlackCat

The Desert Eagle L5 in .50ae is pretty much impossible to find... for me atleast. One of the local superstores that sells hand guns finally listed a L5 .50ae in stock. I just ordered it!

I have been wanting a Desert Eagle for ever. I was saving up for a .50ae in stainless with the muzzle break when they started advertising the L5 and L6. The L6 in .50ae makes more sense to me than the heavy XIX's. Then they started advertising the L5 in .44 mag. That peaked my interest but I could never find one in stock in my state and all the mail order places were asking over list for the .44 L5 then put another almost $100 0n top for credit card fees, shipping, local FFL transfer fees and background check not to mention the hassle.

The .50 L5 just appeared on the local super store website TODAY and I ordered it ($1589). I have ordered other firearms from this super store and they have always had in stock what they say they have in stock and have shipped it to my local outlet promptly. I hope to have my .50 L5 by the end of this week.

Now I need to get some .50ae dies, brass and bullets. I am not sure if it is worth it to setup a Dillon 650 head for .50ae or just load them single stage.

At lunch I picked up my new Desert Eagle XIX L5 in .50ae from Sportsman's Warehouse. I just got home from the range.

I have shot a Desert Eagle XII in .41 mag many many years ago but I have never shot one in .50ae before, no less a light weight one. I am very impressed!

I had no idea what to expect recoil wise... it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected. The really wide grip does a very nice job of spreading the recoil out over the entire palm of my hand. A nice big push instead of a sharp pop. I had it locked in pretty tight to keep control of the muzzle flip on the first shot... there really wasn't any. I shot 40 rounds of Hornady 300gr XTP's. I am sure this isn't on the hot end of .50ae ammo and it was a pleasure to shoot. 255gr Buffalo bore .45acp +p in my XDS 3.3" is much much much more punishing! And pretty much any though my DB9 sub-sub compact is much less fun to shoot. A friend has a long barrel 500 S&W. I shot it once with 440gr Buffalo Bore ammo. One shot was all I wanted to shoot. I will confess I was a little afraid that I would be spending all this money for a gun I wouldn't enjoy shooting... definitely not a problem.

I wiped off the factory sweat (oil) loaded up a clip and went for it. 40 rounds without a single failure of any kind. I heard that L5's can be more temperamental about ammo than the 6" XIX's. I was very pleased that this L5 functioned perfectly.

My only complaint about my 50ae L5 is the sights. I have never liked combat sights. I am much more comfortable with 3 dot sights. I am sure this gun is plenty accurate but I definitely am not with with no reference marks on the sights to line them up with what I am aiming at. New sights are definitely going to be my first upgrade. Does anyone have any suggestions for adjustable sights? I might get a red dot eventually but I am in no rush. Adjustable fiber 3 dot sights seems like it would be much more for to me.

I wish I could post a picture but I don't have any kind of photo share account.

Thank you for the report! Is good to hear it functioned well.
Actually the Hornady XTP stuff is near the top for loading. It shows 1475FPSmv, which is accurate for a 6" Desert Eagle barrel. Think of it like this... the lowest I remember shooting is around 1200FPSmv, the highest I have seen advertised (I have some, but have not taken time to test it yet) is the Underwood 300Gr running right at 1580FPSmv. So the range of factory stuff is basically 1580 to 1200 FPSmv, which makes Hornady XTP at 1475 pretty high on the scale. I personally enjoy the lighter stuff like the original IMI 50AE (Samson brand, long discontinued) and lately I have been buying the cheap target (dirty) ammo from Armscor and American Quality (RNFP and HP) as it is loaded a bit lighter, but works fine in my 50AE... it is available several times a year for .86 cents a round. I buy/shoot many hundreds of these rounds. At some point I will be doing a factory ammo comparison across the chrongraph with more than a dozen brands and loadings... still searching for a round-tuit on that one, but I have all the ammo waiting on the shelf for the perfect day when I have time. :)

On a side note, the "best" brands of factory ammo in my experience and opinion are Magnum Research (speer/cci makes it for them) and Hornady. I don't care for stuff that beats my gun and myself up, so the target ammo is what I shoot 90% of the time. I don't mind cleaning my gun a bit more often... in the field, all you have to do is pop the slide and wipe the rails and recoil springs every once in a while (8 to 10 magazines maybe?) and you won't have issues.

I don't have any adjustable sights on any of mine yet... I change barrels constantly, so it really isn't that important I suppose. I do use a few different scopes from time to time however... but I always go back to standard iron sights.
The ones that keep my attention, but are the most expensive, are made specifically for the Desert Eagle, available on the Magnum Research site by Fords Customs. They make excellent sights from all I have heard... but I don't own any.

Anyway, I am glad to hear your L5 is fun and functional... buying a firearm you don't enjoy shooting is something I too consider and avoid as best I can. I bought a Raging Judge Magnum (.454,.45LC,.410) with that consideration as well... the 454 is pretty harsh, but you can shoot .45 Special, or Schofield all day like a .22 from it, so no loss there.

MrBlackCat

Thank you for the reply. I have dies, bullets, brass and a caliber kit for my Dillon press in the mail on there way to me. I look forwards to loading up quite a few rounds.

I had "Big Bore Fever" and looked seriously at the Judges, Governors, Raging Judges, 629s and even a super Redhawk Alaskan in 454. I was overjoyed when I found a L5 50ae in the wild! I think it is going to cure my big bore fever... for a while.

I do own guns that I HATE shooting... I have a Diamond Back DB9 that is the most ruthlessly recoiling gun I own... but it is a 9mm I can pocket carry. My Kahr CM9 is MUCH more pleasant... but just a bit too big.

I looked at the Fords Custom sights... I just couldn't swing the price. I did order the other adjustable fiber sights from the Kahr web site. I hope they turn out to be decent. I have a Burris FastFire III that I might move from another gun to try on the L5.

It is good to know the Hornady is on the upper end of the 50ae power spectrum. I have pretty large hands and I think the L5 fits my hands very well with the rear grip bulge filling my palm nicely... hence the recoil wasn't bad at all. Funny thing, the next morning I felt no ill effects in my hand, the web of my hand or my wrist... but I did notice my bicep was quite sore. I guess all that recoil has to go some where.

I would love to find a Kydex type paddle holster for the L5 to tote around the gun when I am at the range. It doesn't appear that the L5 has made it on the radar of any of the holster manufactures yet. Has anyone heard of one? I am thinking of picking up a Kydex XIX 6" holster and cutting it down and reforming the bottom with a heat gun a bit. Are VII and XIX w/rail and wo/rail holsters interchangeable? Or do the rails add to the height of the gun ruling out some of the holsters?

After 5 years I still love my Desert Eagle L5 in 50ae. I did swap the sites to fiber sites and am MUCH happier with them. After a couple thousand rounds the slide started to fail to return to battery and I had to thumb the slide forwards the last 1/8". I called Kahr to order a replacement recoil spring and they sent me a replacement for free. With the new recoil spring no more fail to return to battery problems.

I found an L5 44 mag barrel on ebay and bought it. It shoots great with the same recoil spring. I really can't feel much of a difference between 50 ae and 44 mag when it comes to recoil. Both are quite manageable. I took a bit of playing around with but I found some handloads that work well. I don't have the recipe in front of me but I use the Speer 50 ae projectiles with H110 at pretty much max charge in the loading manual. These have been very reliable for me. I did do a bit of polishing of the locking lugs by putting Flitz on the lugs and racked the slide several hundred times. This did smooth the slide a noticeable bit. When I first bought the L5 I spent a fair bit of time looking for options to improve the trigger as I was not very happy with it. The trigger worked itself out and is now as lite and crisp as I would ever want it to be. The trigger is now in 1911 territory, i.e. vey good.

Since I was already reloading 44 mag for the DE L5 I also picked up a Dan Wesson 744 (44 mag revolver). I can say that 50 ae through the L5 DE is a more mellow recoil than the DW 744 even with a muzzle brake on the DW. I attribute this to the gas recoil system spreading the recoil out a much longer period of time vs the sharp crack of 44 mag through even a heavy a revolver with a brake.

I have gotten quite good at shooting the L5 and rarely have any kind of feeding problem. Most friends limp wrist my DE causing a failure to return to battery mostly. I went out shooting with my boss a couple years and rang the 50 yard gong with the first shot using my L5. He was a bit intimidated until I did something stupid... I tried to follow up with another 50 yard shot and it took me another magazine to ring the gong. If I was smart I would have just packed up and went home after the initial impressive showing!

I still haven't found a paddle holster for the L5. I was searching for a paddle holster and came upon this thread so I figured I would update it. I don't own a 6" barrel "full size" DE to compare with but I am very happy with my L5 purchase and it would probably be my first choice if I didn't own one... i.e. I am very happy with my decision!