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Old August 13, 2005, 12:48 AM   #1
scottys1
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.357 Desert Eagle load

I've found a new shooting partner-my daughter! Even though she knows all the safety rules and can shoot, she has shown a sudden interest in shooting regularly. I have been enjoying this immensely. Anyway, back to the story...

At one of our recent range sessions, she brought her boyfriend. One of his guns is a .357 Desert Eagle. He has had a lot of problems with it jamming. I looked at it and found that it is nearly new and needs some break in time. Of course I offered my help in this endeavour.
After some shooting it seems the loads he has been using are not hot enough to cycle the slide far enough to strip the next round from the magazine. He has tried two or three factory loads and some commercial reloads.

He is a fine young lad (good enough to see my daughter) and is soon to leave to become one of our newest Air Force recruits. It would be nice if one of my parting gifts to him until he comes back would be a load that makes his Desert Eagle run.

My question is are there any powder burn rate and/or bullet weight restrictions concerning the Desert Eagle such as apply to the M-1 Garand? I definetely don't want to hurt his gun. While I have loaded plenty of .357, all of my experience has been with revolvers. Any advice would be appreciated.
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Old August 13, 2005, 01:14 AM   #2
Kamicosmos
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I load my .357 Desert Eagle with:
158 grain bullet (strong jacket, or you'll get leading! ie, no rainers, berry's, or other plated bullets.)
15.5 grains of H110.

It cycles just fine, produces a crowd-pleasing fireball, and is louder than most .44 Mags!

Great part about the .357 guns...they're so heavy, shooting full-power .357s is nothing! In fact, you'll shoot it faster than you should. I've burned my hand on the barrel, I heat it up fast with that load!
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Old August 13, 2005, 01:41 AM   #3
scottys1
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Thank you Kamicosmos. It's good to know a load that works.

I wasn't going to use anything but jacketed bullets. I don't have any H110 on hand (I can get some if need be) but I do have N110 and AA#9.
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Old August 13, 2005, 06:01 PM   #4
Kamicosmos
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N110 should work fine.

I have some military surplus powder that is very similar to AA#9. I haven't used it yet in the Eagle, but have worked up some loads in my other .357s. It will probably work, but I still prefer H110 in the Eagle.
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Old August 17, 2005, 10:17 PM   #5
scottys1
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Just back from the range with an update:

After looking through my loading manuals, I decided to try some ammo I already had loaded for my revolvers, 17.0 gr of N110 behind a 125 gr FMJ bullet. This load runs around 1400 fps from my 6" S&W 686.

Tried it in the Desert Eagle. It's noticeably hotter than what he had been using before and it ran like clockwork. The 40 rounds I had on hand ran without a hitch.

Now to clean some guns and back to the loading bench. Kamicosmos, thanks again for your help.
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Old August 18, 2005, 10:26 PM   #6
T. O'Heir
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"...has tried two or three factory loads and some commercial reloads..." This tells me it's not the ammo. How well does it fit his hand? I'm thinking he may not be able to hold the frame still while the slide recoils (aka limp wristing) due to the size of the beast. Or if it fits ok, he's relaxing his grip too soon. Mind you, I do seem to recall seeing someplace that Desert Eagles require hotter ammo, again, due to the size of it.
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Old August 19, 2005, 10:26 PM   #7
scottys1
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Limp wristing was my first thought also, but it acted the same when I fired it paying particular attention to hold it firmly. It would fire a round, eject the brass, then fail to fire. Racking the slide would reveal an empty chamber and feed the next round. This would happen 2-3 times per magazine. This was with the commercial reloads. I don't know the specific factory loads other than the box of Remington 110 gr ammo I gave him to try. I realize this is lighter than the usual .357 bullet so it didn't surprise me too much when it also didn't work.

The hotter load made it run just fine, but I will continue to try other loads. The Desert Eagle recoil is noticeably softer than I'm used to with revolvers. I'll bring a revolver and shoot them back to back and chrono some loads to see how they compare. Should be an interesting project.
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Old August 20, 2005, 11:23 PM   #8
Kamicosmos
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I like to run my loads through my Eagle, 6" ported Taurus revolver, and 2.25 inch SP101.

It's kinda like Goldie Locks and the Three Guns:
Big, bigger, biggest Flash
or
some recoil, more recoil, lots of recoil.

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Old August 21, 2005, 01:31 AM   #9
scottys1
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I do pretty much the same thing. The outdoor range where I usually shoot is lighted but the adjacent bay to the one with lights is rather dim. A few years ago, a shooting session turned into a fireball contest. I won it with, surprisingly, Remington .38+P factory ammo in my ported Taurus 605. They must load this stuff with rocket fuel. It made me rethink using it for defense purposes.
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