File:DesertEagle_50AE.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Desert Eagle
Also known as IWI Desert Eagle
semi-automatic pistol
Key facts
- Type
- Semi-automatic pistol
- Place of origin
- United States/Israel
- Designer
- Magnum Research and Israel Military Industries
- Designed
- 1979–1982
- Manufacturer
- Israel Military Industries , Saco Defense , Magnum Research and Israel Weapon Industries , Magnum Research
- Produced
- 1983–present
- Variants
- See Variants
- Mass
- Mark VII 3.9 lb (1,769.0 g ) (.357 Magnum) 4.2 lb (1,905.1 g ) (.44 Magnum) Mark XIX 4.4 lb (1,995.8 g )
- Length
- Mark VII 10.6 in (269.2 mm) (6 in barrel) Mark XIX 10.75 in (273.1 mm) (6 in barrel) 14.75 in (374.6 mm) (10 in barrel)
- Barrel length
- 6 in (152.4 mm), 10 in (254.0 mm)
- Width
- 1.25 in (31.8 mm)
~9 min read
Article
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. Kahr Arms acquired Magnum Research in 2010.