Range Report: Magnum Research Desert Eagle 1911G .45SCP

Hello folks...

Took possession earlier this week of a Desert Eagle 1911G...here is the range report, with my impressions of the gun.

First, my initial inspection right out of the box:

1) Lateral slide play: Less than a typical Mil-Spec 1911 Colt or Springfield.

2) Radial slide play: Same as a Mil-Spec. If anything, I would say just slightly less.

3) Trigger: a bit of vertical movement in the tunnel, but not sloppy. Nothing to complain about.

4) Creep: Non-existant. If you can feel creep in this trigger, consider a career as a brain surgeon, because those sensitive fingers of yours could work miracles.

5) Trigger Break: Had two different gunsmiths measure it, because I thought I was doing it wrong. I was showing 4 pounds, the experienced hands were showing a bit under 4...

6) Stainless Steel barrel

7) Stainless Full-length Guide Rod

8) Stainless Grip Safety/Beaver Tail

9) Nicely checkered and finished walnut grips.



How it Shoots

Did the first two mags (16 rounds total) getting used to the sight picture, and finding out where she put them as opposed to where my normal sight picture expects them to go.

Then I loaded up two more mags, set a Shoot-N-See target at 7 yards, and went to work. Nice easy shooting, trying to keep each shot roughly 5 seconds apart, controlled breathing, etc. The center ring is 4.75" tall, 3.25" wide...




Did the same, this time only one mag, at 10 yards...




Next up, center mass sillhouette target at 15 yards, two mags, slow shooting...A few of the shots, I was placing them in practically the same holes. The center ring (not the bullseye ring) is the same measurement as the shoot-n-see I was using...



Then, just for fun, I did up three mags at 25 yards, keeping the shots 2 to 3 seconds apart...I wanted to see what my rapid-fire sight acquisition was going to be like.





Now for my overall thoughts on the gun after shooting it...

Sights: Great, if your situation is well-lit. At night, I would probably do better throwing my shoes at an attacker. The sights are NOT your thin-bladed combat sights...they are very nice size, beefy, and present a great sight picture, but they are all black. No dots, no glow-in-the-dark, nothing. When my targets were in shadow from the interior range lighting, it was hard to discern the black target from the black sights.

Recoil: Oh my God, I was beginning to expect the gun to produce big fluffy balls of cotton candy at some point. This is, without a doubt, the most tame, well-mannered pistol I have EVER shot.

Balance: Again, unbelievable. Target acquisition was very fast following the recoil...negiigible muzzle flip, and once the slide did its ejection and chambering, she was right back on target, as if it had its own eyes.

Comfort: The checkering on the grip is nice and sharp. This gun doesn't slide around in your hand when you shoot it...she stays put, but the grips are comfortable.

Put 100 rounds through her today, (Independence Ammunition, made by Ammunition Accessories Inc., Lewiston ID, 83501) with each round feeding perfectly, no FTF's, no jams, nothing.

Is it worth the $669 retail that I paid online in a Gunbroker purchase? Absolutely. I would expect a gun that is this accurate with this nice of a trigger to be priced in the $840 - $895 range. And it would be worth every penny.

Planned Upgrades:

1) Three-dot sights.
2) Laser equipped guide rod

Other than that, she needs nothing. Out of the box performance is spectacular.

My father bought one of these last September. His does not have the front slide serrations. I met him at the range two days after he got it and we shot it along with my Springfield Loaded. At seven yards we were getting one slightly large hole.
I have to agree with everything you say. It would be very difficult to find a better 1911 for less than $900.

I do have a few complaints with it, however:
My Ceiner .22LR conversion slide will not fit. The slide on the DE 1911 is too wide.
Also the Magnum Research magazines seem to be too wide to fit in my springfied. Although maybe they would fit in other 1911's.
Finally, as you mentioned, the sights could be better.
Do you know if the slide has a Novak cut, or would it be a proprietary Magnum Research thing? I want to get my dad a set of night sights for it.

I'm going to say it's proprietary. Also, the mags are proprietary, but they are very well built mags.

Check the Magnum Research site for accessories...they are supposed to be releasing a .22 kit for it in early 2011...

You need to remember that MR took the standard 1911' and did what amounts to a custom shop version, concentrating on giving a very good trigger, tight slide and bushing, and stainless treatment. For me, it really doesn't matter that some parts of it are proprietary...if it's a tack driver (which this is), it's reasonably priced (which this is), and it out-performs guns right out of the box that are easily more than 50 to 75 percent higher in price (which it does, and embarrasses the competition while it does so...) then I'm OK with some of it being proprietary.

I tend to agree with you for the most part. It's a good shooter. That's the most important thing. I just have a problem when things are proprietary simply to keep prices high. However, that doesn't seem to be the case with MR. I also have a BFR in .475 it is an excellent revolver at a reasonable price. I will be watching their website for sights etc for this 1911 pistol.

Good report, I haven't heard a thing about this pistol since it was released. I wasn't expecting much and frankly found MR's quip, "it took nearly 100 years for the 1911 to earn the name Desert Eagle" to be pretentious and a bit offfensive.

It's good to see it's quality, but are the magazines and sight cuts really propretary? I can understand their own sight cuts but why mags? The only reason for this I could think of is a sad cash-grab.