Desert Eagle

data for Mark XIX pistols
Type: Single Action
Chambering: .357 Magnum, .41 Magnum (obsolete), .44 Magnum, .440 Cor-bon, .50 AE
Length overall: 10.24 in. - 260mm
Weight: 62 oz. - 1,715 g empty
Barrel length: 6 in. - 152 mm (also 10" - 254 mm)
Magazine: 9 (.357), 8 (.44) or 7 (.50) rounds

The Desert Eagle Pistol was conceived in 1979, when three people with an idea for creating a gas- operated, semi-automatic, magnum-caliber pistol founded Magnum Research, Inc. in St. Paul, Minnesota (USA). Early pistols, then known as Eagle 357, were announced in 1982

Magnum Research, Inc. patented the basic design of the Desert Eagle in 1980, and the first working prototype of the pistol was completed in 1981. It was about 80% functional, with a rotating bolt, full gas operation and excellent shooting characteristics. The final refinements to the pistol were made by Israel Military Industries (IMI), under contract to Magnum Research, Inc. After research that included thousands of rounds of test-firing, a fully functional .357 Magnum production model was produced in an edition of just over 1,000 pistols. These pistols, collector's items today, have traditional land-and-grove rifling, and they will not accept extended barrels or caliber conversion kits. The serial numbers for these pistols start at #3001.
Development of the Desert Eagle was not yet complete, however, in 1985, the barrel was changed to incorporate polygonal rifling, to help enhance the pistol's accuracy. In 1986, a .44 Magnum version of the pistol was perfected; it was the very first semi-automatic .44 Magnum pistol successfully brought to market.
Further enhancements to the Desert Eagle line continued. In 1987, the .41 Magnum Desert Eagle Pistol (not currently in production) was introduced to fill a specific market niche. In 1989, the Mark VII model of the Desert Eagle became standard. All Desert Eagle Pistols manufactured since 1989 have Mark VII features: enlarged safety levers, an enlarged slide release and an improved, two-stage trigger.
In around 1996, Magnum Research, Inc. successfully introduced the .50 Action Express Desert Eagle Pistol to fill an unmet need in the sporting/hunting market. Since Magnum Research introduced the caliber - once considered impossible to build - several other manufacturers have begun to produce .50 Magnum (a.k.a. .50 Action Express) firearms, but only one semiautomatic pistol design survived to date, and it is the Desert Eagle (there are few semi-custom or limited production revolvers and rifles made in this caliber as well). During the same period the basic design was upgraded to current Mark XIX specifications. Key improvement was the adoption of one frame size for all calibers (before that, mark I and Mark VII pistols had different frame sizes for different calibers). This unification allowed to use different barrels on same frame, permitting easy change of caliber with switch of only few components - barrel, magazine, and bolt (there are two nomenclatures of bolts used in Mark XIX pistols, one for smaller .357 Magnum ammo, and another for larger .44 Magnum and .50AE ammo; this is possible because .50AE case has rebated rim of the same diameter as .44 Magnum).
Today Desert eagle pistols are used for competition shooting (in disciplines like Silhouette shooting) as well as for hunting and general plinking (although the cost of gun and its ammunition makes it rather expensive fun gun). General belief of the Desert Eagle being used by various Special Operation forces so far found absolutely NO proofs. Indeed, for the price and weight of this empty gun one can easily have two pistols like Glock 17 or SIG-Sauer P228 plus good supply of ammunition; furthermore, these pistols will be much more reliable in severe combat conditions, and provide much bigger magazine capacity. Add to it severe recoil in its larger calibers (especially .50AE), huge muzzle blast and super-loud sound, and you'll see why only Hollywood warriors use this monster as a combat weapon. In real life, if you need a weapon more potent than a typical combat pistol (such as Glock or SIG-Sauer or Beretta or any other respectable model chambered for caliber between 9mm and .45ACP), you shall get either a rifle or submachine gun, period.
One last note - Magnum Research company, trying to capitalize on the fame of this pistol, also used Desert Eagle moniker to sell entirely different sidearm, the Jericho 941 pistol, also made in Israel by IMI. While Jericho looked like scaled-down Desert Eagle, in fact it is entirely different weapon inside, and, unlike its bigger brother, a truly useful combat weapon in its own right.

Desert Eagle is a gas operated, locked breech weapon that uses stationary (but removable) barrel. Locking is achieved using the separate rotating bolt with four radial lugs that enter the breech of the barrel for engagement with respective cuts. Bolt is inserted into open-topped slide, which is operated using gas, which is bled from the bore through the small port drilled close to the chamber. Short stroke gas piston is located below the barrel closer to the muzzle, and gas chamber is linked to the gas port with long channel, bored below the barrel. Trigger is of single action type, with exposed hammer and ambidextrous safety, located at either side of the slide. Magazines are single stack, with different configuration for each major caliber. Sights are either fixed or adjustable, both front and rear being dovetailed into the barrel and slide respectively. Recently made pistols also had top of the barrel shaped to accept scope rings directly.

MP-38/40

Caliber: 9x19mm Luger/Para
Weight: 4,7 kg loaded, 4,03 kg empty
Length (stock closed/open): 630/833 mm
Barrel length: mm
Rate of fire: 500 rounds per minute
Magazine capacity: 32 rounds
Effective range: ca. 100 meters

The M.P. 38 submachine gun started its life under requirements from German Heereswaffenamt (HWA, Army Weapons Office), which saw the need for a compact submachine gun, suitable for use by armored vehicles crews and paratroopers. German arms-making company Erfurter Maschinenfabrik Gmbh, better known under its trade name Erma, began the development of a new weapon under HWA specifications. It must be noted that a new submachine gun was not built from the scratch; instead, it was just an evolution of a rarely known prototype weapon, provisionally known as Erma MP-36. MP-36 was a compact version of the better known Erma EMP submachine gun, but fitted with now-familiar underfolding metallic shoulder stock and bottom-feed magazine, which was slightly canted forward to accommodate EMP magazines. MP-36 was a selective-fired weapon, and in fact the improved MP-38 was a simplified version of its little known predecessor, adapted for different magazine. Therefore, it took only few months before the new weapon was ready for official adoption and mass production. Manufacture of a new submachine gun, designated as MP-38, commenced in summer of 1938, at Erma, and later on also at C.G. Haenel.
The gun was manufactured for just 2 years, when it was replaced in production by externally similar, but less expensive MP-40, which used more stamped parts instead of machined parts, found in MP-38. There also were minor variations in design of MP-38, such as shape of cocking handle etc. MP-40 was also produced in a number of variations, which differed in shape of certain parts; also, toward the end of the war, several production shortcuts were introduced to save the costs of manufacturing. probably the most interesting variation of the MP-40 were the MP-40-II and MP-40-II. These guns featured dual magazine housings which hold two magazines in a laterally sliding bracket. This increase the total ammunition capacity "in the gun" to 64 rounds, in a desperate attempt to catch up with 71-round magazine capacity of Soviet PPSh-41. The later variant, MP-40-II, was made in limited numbers, but turned out to be a failure - sliding dual-magazine housing was a constant source of jams and failures, and was very sensitive to dirt and fouling.
Nevertheless, MP-38 and especially MP-40 submachine guns were of good design, and set the pattern for so called "second generation" of submachine guns ("first generation" being represented by the wood-stocked and carefully machined MP-18, MP-28 and the like). The second generation weapons usually were of compact design, and made using mostly steel stampings and pressings, or castings.
It also must be noted that many MP-40 that survived the WW2, continued to serve up until late 1970s or early 1980s, in few European armies such as Austrian or Norwegian.

Both MP-38 and MP-40 submachine guns are blowback operated weapons that fired from open bolt. Both weapons were full-automatic only, but relatively slow rate of fire permitted for single shots with short trigger pulls. The proprietary bolt system with telescoped return spring guide served as a pneumatic recoil buffer, helping to decrease rate of fire to a very manageable level. The bolt handle was permanently attached to the bolt on early MP-38's; on late production MP-38's and MP-40's bolt handle was made as a separate part and also served as a safety - pushing the head of bolt handle inward locked the bolt either in cocked or forward position. Lack of such feature on early MP-38's resulted in field expedients such as leather harnesses with small loop, used to hold the bolt in forward position. One unusual feature on most MP-38 and MP-40 submachine guns was an aluminum or plastic rail under the barrel, which served as a barrel support / protector when firing over the board of armored personnel carrier. The short handguard was made from plastic and was located between magazine housing and pistol grip; barrel lacked any heat insulation, which often caused burns for supporting hand. Folding shoulder stock resulted for compact weapon when folded, but it was insufficiently durable for combat use and hand-to-hand combat. Single-feed, double-row box magazine was another weak point of the design; it was hard to load without additional help, and often caused jams.

M1 Carbine

Caliber: .30 US Carbine (7.62x33 mm)
Action: Gas operated, rotating bolt
Overall length: 904 mm
Barrel length: 458 mm
Weight: 2.36 kg without magazine
Magazine capacity: 15 or 30 rounds

The M1 carbine is an interesting little weapon. The original request for a compact and lightweight shoulder arm to replace service handguns for second-line (non-fighting) troops was first issued by US Army in 1938. The idea behind this request was that a shoulder arm, such as carbine, firing ammunition of moderate power, will have more effective range and will be much simpler to train the users to fire it accurately, than the standard .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol or revolver. This request was probably the first recognition of the need in the Personal Defense Weapon in the modern sense. Request was shelved for some time and re-issued in 1940. It included the new cartridge of .30 caliber but of power far less than of US general issue .30-06 ammunition. The cartridge, officially named the "cartridge, ball, .30 caliber, M1", was developed by the Winchester company. It was a straight-case, rimless design with round-nose bullet weighting 110 grains (7.1 gram) and muzzle velocity of 1860 fps (~ 570 m/s). Muzzle energy was about 2 times more than of .45ACP pistol cartridge but still almost 3 times less than of .30-06 rifle cartridge. In the modern sense the .30 carbine cartridge can be called an "intermediate" but the lack of the muzzle energy and round nosed bullet limited the effective range to about 200 meters or so. Anyway, it had still much longer range than any pistol round of its time, along with moderate recoil. Many companies submitted their designs for US Army trials but the winner eventually became the Winchester. The design of the Winchester carbine is often contributed to the David "Carbine" Williams, who was the developer of the gas system. But, according to some sources, this carbine was born as a spare-time hunting carbine project of some engineers at Winchesters' workshop, and, when military request appeared, this design was resurrected and adopted for intended use. In any case, Winchester began to deliver its first carbines to the US Government in the July, 1942. Some other manufactures also were selected to produce the M1 carbines, such as Inland Manufacturing Division of the General Motors Corp., Underwood-Elliot-Fisher Co., Saginaw Steering Gear Division of the General Motors Corp., National Postal Meter Co., Quality Hardware & Machine Co., International Business Machines Corp (IBM), Standard Products Co. and Rock-Ola Co. During the period of 1942 - 1945 total of more than 6 millions of carbines were manufactured. Since 1944, the only companies still manufacturing M1 carbines were Winchester and Inland. After the end of the WW2 production continued for some time, and M1 carbine and its variations saw some serious action as a first-line weapon not only during the WW2, but also during Korean and early stages of Vietnam war. M1 carbines also were widely exported by US Government to numerous friendly nations, mostly in South-East Asia. M1 carbines saw limited use in the post-war West Germany and France. It should be also noted that M1 carbines are still manufactured by various small US companies for civilian sales, using both military surpulus and newly made parts. Large numbers of surpulus M1 carbines also were sold at the civilian markets in the post-war period.

In general, M1 Carbine was a really compact and handy weapon. It was lightweight and short enough to be more suitable for jungle combat, than a full-size battle rifles such as M1 Garand. It also offered relatively high practical rate of fire due to large-capacity, detachable magazines and low recoil. The M2 modification, which had a select-fire capability and a magazines of larger capacity (30 rounds, interchangeable with the older 15-round ones), could be described as an "almost an assault rifle" ("almost" is added due to the lack of effective range). Had Americans a little trouble to soup it up slightly in the terms of power and range, they could have a true assault rifle 20 years before they actually did, and probably with much less headache. But they did not, and M2 was manufactured in relatively small numbers and was mostly used during the Korean war. Another modification was the even more compact "paratrooper" version, M1A1, with side-folding metallic buttstock and a pistol grip. This version also was produced in limited numbers. The last modification was the M3, which originally appeared as an experimental prototype T3. It was no more than a M2 select-fire carbine, fitted with special mounts to accept night-vision sighting devices (IR sights). Intended use was as a short-range, night-time sniper rifle. M3 also was used in Korea and, probably, Vietnam.

It must be noted that during the war in Korea M1 carbines received some bad fame due to reliability problems in extremely low temperatures and also due to underpowered cartridge, which was sometimes unable to effectively penetrate the thick winter uniforms of North Korean and Chinese soldiers at extended ranges.

Technically, M1 Carbine is a gas operated, magazine fed, semi-automatic or select-fire (M2) short rifle. It uses the short-piston stroke gas operated action, designed by D. Williams. Gas piston is located under the middle of the barrel and has a travel of about 1/3 inch (8 mm). When gun is fired, the powder gases are bleed from the barrel into the gas chamber and propel the gas piston violently to the rear. The gas piston thus gives a sharp blow to the operating slide, which is located inside the stock and is linked to the rotating bolt, more or less similar to one found in M1 Garand rifle. The bolt has two forward lugs that locks into the receiver walls. The safety on all M1 carbines and variations is located at the front part of the triggerguard. On the earliest carbines the safety was in the form of the cross-bolt push-button but latter it was replaced by the lever-type switch, because in the heat of the combat the safety button was sometimes confused with magazine release button, located next to the safety. The fire mode selector on the M2 and M3 was located at the left side of the receiver. The cocking handle is permanently attached to the operating rod. Sights on the earlier M1 carbines had a flip-up rear diopter (peep-hole) with settings for 150 and 300 feets, and later rear sights were replaced by drift-adjustable diopter. Carbines were issued with sling and sometimes with additional pouch that was mounted on the buttstock and allowed to carry two spare magazines on the gun itself. Early M1 carbines had no provisions to mount a bayonet, however, some older models had bayonet lugs on the barrel.