Desert Eagle

The Desert Eagle chambered in 50 Action Express is arguably the most powerful semi-auto handgun in existence. This handgun can also be had in 357 Magnum, 429 DE, and 44 Magnum. It was first brought on the scene for Magnum Research by Israel’s Riga Arms Institute around 1983.

It’s a beast of a pistol, weighing almost four pounds unloaded, and to carry it concealed a man would have to be the size of a phone booth! (For those too young to remember phone booths, Google "phone booth images.") By 1985, some of its patents were refined by IMI (Israeli Military Industries) and in 2010, Magnum Research was acquired by Kahr Arms of Worcester, Massachusetts. Like the Browning Hi-Power and countless others over the years, different manufacturers have made some design changes along the way.

A variety of largely cosmetic modifications are offered to Desert Eagle owners online, many of which can be viewed on You Tube. However, as is often the case, details are inadvertently left The central, two-pronged pin looks like a screw but isn’t. out, may be incorrect, or may apply to since-changed examples. A gunsmithing friend of mine says he loves You Tube as many of his first time customers come to him with projects they started via videos found online but never finished. Such was the case for me recently.

Anew customer brought me his partially disassembled Desert Eagle. He had plans for having some of its parts plated with titanium nitride (Ti N), an attractive, yet tough gold-colored finish, but the more he studied the innards of the pistol, the more intimidated he became. He decided he wanted someone more knowledgeable to finish the disassembly and make another cosmetic modification he had seen on the Internet. First, I tackled the disassembly.

This was pretty straight forward except for a very stubborn rear sight mounted in the slide which was too large for my sight pusher, and a confusing magazine release. The sight finally yielded to a heavy brass punch and the urging of an even heavier ball peen hammer.

Due to the difficulty of removing it, I recommended to the customer that I open up the dovetail slightly so as to allow reassembly without damaging the soon-to-come new finish and then drill and tap the sight for a set screw similar to that used on Glock pistols. He approved. The magazine release was disguised as John Browning’s 1911 design. Like Browning’s, it has what looks like an ordinary screw in the middle, but isn’t. Unlike Browning’s, it isn’t a spring loaded catch either!

I searched my decent-sized library of relevant books, (and even tried You Tube) but the only clue came from the Gun Digest Book of Automatic Pistols Assembly/Disassembly where it said "drive out the (screw-looking) pin using a concave tipped punch". So, I carefully made a concave-tipped punch on my lathe, then ruined it on the screw-looking pin! I made and ruined another, then looked at a so-so drawing of the "pin" on the Numrich Gun Parts website where I determined it’s a pin with two springy legs.

With that knowledge, using a #3 countersink, (Brownells part # 265-149-503) I made a punch with a cone-shaped cavity at

the business end. The cone-shape forces the legs of the screw-looking pin together and drives the pin out. This staking tool is made from a Vise- Grip clone from Harbor Freight. The pliers are riveted together to separate the halves enough to add the "tooth" into the upper jaw, I drilled out the "pivot rivet", made a tooth out of a hardened masonry nail, drilled a hole in the upper jaw just slightly smaller than the OD of the tooth, and press fitted them together.

I then silver soldered a narrow steel flat on the bottom jaw and threaded the smaller hole where the pivot rivet had been to install a "pivot screw". On to the modifications the customer wanted. First, the ambidextrous safety mechanism consists of two levers, one on each side of course, and each with a spring detent underneath and connected by a little cylindrical device which prevents the firing pin from doing its job when in the "SAFE" position.

The safety spring detents are simply arched flat springs, 0.018" thick with little detents that snap into divots machined into the sides of the slide. The scratching from the detents on the areas of the black portions of the slide between the divots leaves little arc-shaped silver grooves, a disfigurement my customer doesn’t like. So, he (or someone on You- Tube) figured out that shortening the springs (or making new, shorter ones) allows the little "spring trails" to be hidden by their respective levers.

I chose to make new levers out of the old ones. I began by making an actual-sized drawing to determine where to shorten the springs and where I would machine new divots in the slide. To shorten the existing springs, I used a bench grinder with a water tray to keep the springs cool and then a 1500 grit belt grinder to finish them. I thought I could use a tool I made years ago from a Vise-Grip clone to stake 1911 front sights.

After I got a milling machine I quit staking and cut dovetails where necessary, so the modified Vise-Grip staking tool was just waiting to be used again. Before I pressed new detents into the springs I first practiced on some flat spring steel 0.018" thick and pressed away, adjusting the pliers until I got the depth right. With that found, I used the actual springs and it worked.

I then put a little white paint into the recesses where the new divots would go, reassembled the safety mechanism—modified springs and all— and worked it vigorously; enough to scratch new arcs through the white paint. The new divots would be located at the ends of the new arcs. This created another divot just under the arc. The original "ready to fire" (red) dot (one on each side) remains.

Using the mill for such precise work, I used a #2 countersink followed by a #30 drill bit to drill the four new divots to a suitable depth. I degreased the old divots and filled them flush with J-B Weld, as I think it flows better (flush) then the often-used Acraglas in a case like this.

Whoever ends up doing the Ti N for this customer’s pistol will also be doing the slide and frame in a highpolish, black Cerakote, So, after separating all the parts into baggies marked "Ti N", "Cerakote", and "Leave As Is", I was finished with an educational and challenging job. AG