Post by mrblackcat on Aug 9, 2017 0:09:36 GMT
So I have this 25+ Year old Mk VII Desert Eagle in .50AE... I got the "Barrel Bug" a while back and bought a 44 Magnum barrel for it. Worked great with only a TINY bit of fitting. Supposedly all the .50AE guns were completely Mk XIX Compatible, but I am not so sure after hitting this with my new .357 Magnum conversion.
Long story short... I got the magazines, bolt and barrel, all new for .357 Magnum. The barrel was too tight, but so were the other three barrels I bought recently. Just involved some minor sanding/polishing of the rear barrel lugs where it makes contact with t barrel lock cam. I am talking like a couple of thousandths of material removal. Not an issue for me.
Bolt went right in as the original, barrel went on with simple adjustment. I put some rounds in the magazine and inserted it... almost. It would not go. I was hitting something. So I opened the slide and inserted the magazine. It has plenty of the designed-in play/movement as .41, .44, and .50 magazines all do. So I dropped the slide... it stopped like it hit metal. This is because it did. I pressed the mag-eject and the slide slammed shut. Ok, this is bad. The metal the top of the magazine hits is the smooth part on the bottom of the slide that rides the hammer and the top round in the magazine. Normally this slide surface passes through the top of the magazines with a bit of clearance, but not on the .357 Mag magazines I have. I only have two original Magnum Research .357 Magazines... they are authentic I am sure, and they measure the same height (like mag catch height) as all the other magazines.
So I tried the other magazine... same, but I was able to "force" it past this binding point, but there was still significant friction. After some Dykem and testing, I found that the very back of the magazine is too narrow for my guns slide contact surface.
The resolution for my was to Dremel out just the very back of one of the magazines until it would fit over the slides contact surface.
So here are the dimensions I find...
The inside width of the magazines feed lips at the very back are...
.50 = 0.376
.44 = 0.385
.41 = 0.385
.357 = 0.327
Yeah... almost a 1/16th of an inch narrower than the other magazines, but the problem is that my slides contact surface is 0.357 +/- 0.003
So I just Dremeled out the magazine to .376 and it works fine like that... almost.
Well the slide cleared the magazine now. Excellent. But it would not load rounds reliably at all. Almost every round would stick right where it entered the chamber. This was because the casing was digging into the bolt and could not slide upward to get parallel with the chamber. I was snagging on both the ejector and just the lower rings of the bolt face... because they were sharp. So after an hour of quality time with Dykem and polishing of the bolt face in the right places, the chamber mouth in a couple of places it would feed... almost. The extractor claw could not snap over the case rim without a push or a slam of the slide. I verified this by taking out the extractor spring (nub) and it went completely in without resistance. All that was necessary to resolve this issue was to polish extractor claw back. Not the inside of the hook, the outside "dish" of the hook... slips right over the rim now.
Now it works well with the right ammo... I put a box of Federal 158Grain JSP's through it, I got from WalMart. 1240FPS stuff, so on the lower end, but ran perfect. So then I cracked open some American Quality FMJ's I had gotten for it... would not cycle the slide open enough to eject a round. 1100 fps... must be too low. I will note and expand on this in another post in the ammo section.
Here are the images of the magazine clearance issue... Note that these are resting in position with the slide out of the gun and don't ride this deep when in the magazine well.
.50AE Magazine...
.44 Magazine...
.357 Magazine... (unmodified)
As you can see, there is no way this is going to clear. In the images, even though out of focus, you can see where the magazine chewed up the sharp corners of the slide surface... big time right near the camera. I had to sand the gouges out of the slide surface edges... they were really rough. You can also see the damage to the slide edges at the back in this image. That magazine REALLY gnawed on that slide.
So, can anyone measure their slides contact surface and tell me what you get? I just don't see how this could be. Are their different models of magazines maybe? Are these "Ancient New Stock" from Mk I's maybe? (Just kidding as they are dated 96) I just don't see how this could possibly work... so I suspect my slide is odd being a Mk VII .50, or Mk XIX Transition model.
Any insight would be appreciated, and any dimensions to compare would also be appreciated.
I don't know about current production Desert Eagles, but I have to say that while my stock .50AE has always worked like the stuff of dreams since I got it, the addition of two other .50AE Barrels, a .44 barrel, and now this .357 barrel has been far from simple. When I imagine experiencing these things without machinist experience and a good bit of patience, it would be very negative over all I think.
Anyway, I am happy that I was able to resolve this issue... I hope this posting is of benefit to others.
MrBlackCat
Long story short... I got the magazines, bolt and barrel, all new for .357 Magnum. The barrel was too tight, but so were the other three barrels I bought recently. Just involved some minor sanding/polishing of the rear barrel lugs where it makes contact with t barrel lock cam. I am talking like a couple of thousandths of material removal. Not an issue for me.
Bolt went right in as the original, barrel went on with simple adjustment. I put some rounds in the magazine and inserted it... almost. It would not go. I was hitting something. So I opened the slide and inserted the magazine. It has plenty of the designed-in play/movement as .41, .44, and .50 magazines all do. So I dropped the slide... it stopped like it hit metal. This is because it did. I pressed the mag-eject and the slide slammed shut. Ok, this is bad. The metal the top of the magazine hits is the smooth part on the bottom of the slide that rides the hammer and the top round in the magazine. Normally this slide surface passes through the top of the magazines with a bit of clearance, but not on the .357 Mag magazines I have. I only have two original Magnum Research .357 Magazines... they are authentic I am sure, and they measure the same height (like mag catch height) as all the other magazines.
So I tried the other magazine... same, but I was able to "force" it past this binding point, but there was still significant friction. After some Dykem and testing, I found that the very back of the magazine is too narrow for my guns slide contact surface.
The resolution for my was to Dremel out just the very back of one of the magazines until it would fit over the slides contact surface.
So here are the dimensions I find...
The inside width of the magazines feed lips at the very back are...
.50 = 0.376
.44 = 0.385
.41 = 0.385
.357 = 0.327
Yeah... almost a 1/16th of an inch narrower than the other magazines, but the problem is that my slides contact surface is 0.357 +/- 0.003
So I just Dremeled out the magazine to .376 and it works fine like that... almost.
Well the slide cleared the magazine now. Excellent. But it would not load rounds reliably at all. Almost every round would stick right where it entered the chamber. This was because the casing was digging into the bolt and could not slide upward to get parallel with the chamber. I was snagging on both the ejector and just the lower rings of the bolt face... because they were sharp. So after an hour of quality time with Dykem and polishing of the bolt face in the right places, the chamber mouth in a couple of places it would feed... almost. The extractor claw could not snap over the case rim without a push or a slam of the slide. I verified this by taking out the extractor spring (nub) and it went completely in without resistance. All that was necessary to resolve this issue was to polish extractor claw back. Not the inside of the hook, the outside "dish" of the hook... slips right over the rim now.
Now it works well with the right ammo... I put a box of Federal 158Grain JSP's through it, I got from WalMart. 1240FPS stuff, so on the lower end, but ran perfect. So then I cracked open some American Quality FMJ's I had gotten for it... would not cycle the slide open enough to eject a round. 1100 fps... must be too low. I will note and expand on this in another post in the ammo section.
Here are the images of the magazine clearance issue... Note that these are resting in position with the slide out of the gun and don't ride this deep when in the magazine well.
.50AE Magazine...
.44 Magazine...
.357 Magazine... (unmodified)
As you can see, there is no way this is going to clear. In the images, even though out of focus, you can see where the magazine chewed up the sharp corners of the slide surface... big time right near the camera. I had to sand the gouges out of the slide surface edges... they were really rough. You can also see the damage to the slide edges at the back in this image. That magazine REALLY gnawed on that slide.
So, can anyone measure their slides contact surface and tell me what you get? I just don't see how this could be. Are their different models of magazines maybe? Are these "Ancient New Stock" from Mk I's maybe? (Just kidding as they are dated 96) I just don't see how this could possibly work... so I suspect my slide is odd being a Mk VII .50, or Mk XIX Transition model.
Any insight would be appreciated, and any dimensions to compare would also be appreciated.
I don't know about current production Desert Eagles, but I have to say that while my stock .50AE has always worked like the stuff of dreams since I got it, the addition of two other .50AE Barrels, a .44 barrel, and now this .357 barrel has been far from simple. When I imagine experiencing these things without machinist experience and a good bit of patience, it would be very negative over all I think.
Anyway, I am happy that I was able to resolve this issue... I hope this posting is of benefit to others.
MrBlackCat
