Desert Eagle .50AE Captured!

[nmstang]

Ever since we got our Desert Eagle I have wanted to capture the rounds to test the effectiveness. Well this weekend I finally put everything together and made it happen. First I collected 8 Directory Plus Phone books which are 1 1/4" thick and shrink wrapped them together very tightly leaving the top and bottom open to soak up water. I soaked the phone books for about 5 hours and they expanded greatly with the water even though they were wrapped in several layers of shrink wrap. The stack was 4 to 5" taller when we got home yesterday afternoon. We loaded the new wetpack into the truck and headed to the range. I shot a total of 7 rounds into the pack from a distance of 5 yards and I had to keep moving around because the impact would move my wet pack. I ended up putting two too close together and it made an interesting capture but the bullets expanded perfectly on every shot. These are the bullets we used in the test.



Here are the shots into the end of the pack



Here we cut open the pack to locate the bullets



Most of the bullets were captured in the 5th book but one was at the back of the 4th which is visible in the photo. There was some damage in the 6th book but none of the bullets went completely into it. Here are the bullets after removing some of the wet paper with a toothbrush and toothpick. Notice the expanded bullets are between 3/4" and 7/8" in diameter. Also notice the two that are stacked on the left. Those were the ones I got too close together.




And finally here is a before and after picture of the .50AE round.



This is an absolutely fun gun to shoot. The recoil is very heavy but manageable and as you can see from the pictures it would make a great self defense gun, however, you would have to keep it on the nightstand or in the vehicle. It is a very large gun and to carry it concealed would be tough.
Thanks for checking this out.

[Bman505]

Nice review! Thanks

[DCR Enterprises]

That is an awesome weapon. The bullets expanded exactly as they should and at 1800 ft/lbs energy, it will take out anything!!!

[Grinder]

There's a gun I'd like to shoot sometime. Nice review. Oh and good use of the phone books. I never know what to do with those things after they drop them off at my door.

[pops87fxr]

Great images, very well done.