Sunday, January 24, 2010

Review: Rap4 / Umarex Desert Eagle .43

I have been playing paintball since the late 90’s now. I have owned over 50 markers during my paintball career, and rarely does one strike me as impressive or outstanding upon taking them out of the box for the first time.

That being said I admit when I picked up the desert eagle, felt its weigh in my hands, ogled the fine attention to detail, and saw “MAGNUM RESEARCH INC” written across the slide the first words that came out of my mouth were “Holy S**t!”

*****
PLEASE USE common sense and discretion with these markers and similar milsim markers.

*****

-Video Supplement:


Pictorial:

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Note I have the US version (non shell ejecting) The German version ejects shells.


The Desert Eagle is a gorgeous marker. Forget eye candy, it is eye porn. If you take away the 12 gram adapter it looks IDENTICAL to the real thing right down to “® DESERT EAGLE PISTOL – MAGNUM RESEARCH INC. MINNEAPOLIS MN.” Written down the slide. No orange tip to be seen on mine either (not required in Canada).

If I took a stroll down to my local bar and told the biggest ugliest guy there something offensive about his mother and pulled this hand cannon he would most defiantly be either hiding under a table or running for his life (And I would most defiantly have an ERT forcefully taking me custody at gunpoint, but that’s aside the fact lol).



Apart from the 12 gram adapter when it is screwed into the grip frame and the caliber indicator saying “.43 Paintball” instead of “.44 Magnum”, “.347 Magnum” or “.50 AE” you cannot tell the difference. Unlike an airsoft DE with a 6mm barrel the paintball version looks like the same thing even from the front. Can you tell the difference between .43 and .44 caliber when looking down the barrel? I sure can’t.
This pistol is BIG. Roughly desert eagle size if I had to guess (har har har). Don’t dream of getting it in a small (normal handgun) sized holster. I had the rap4 Small holster on my rap4 vest which worked great with my p99 and p226’s I’ve owned in the past. One try with a desert eagle was like trying to put a couch through a doggy door.



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The Desert Eagle is single action Closed bolt blow back pistol.
It shares most of its cosmetic and functional features with the real desert eagle. The Trigger is corrugated to prevent your finger from slipping when pulling the trigger. The safety is located on the slide in the form of a selector switch.
The Desert Eagle comes standard with a top and bottom weaver mounts for aftermarket accessories, making it the most upgradable RAM pistol out of the box. The lower weaver mounts can be removed if need be via 2 set screws.

The marker is cycled when the hammer hits the valve stem like all other blow back, which is located where the firing pin would be on a real desert eagle making it as real as possible. Since it is single action there is no de-cock button like the P99 or P226. Instead the hammer must be manually restrained with the thumb while you pull the trigger to de-cock the marker.



The desert eagle is equipped the longest barrel of all of the RAM handgun line, which is a 7 inch brass barrel, brass barrels are usually associated with quality, performance, and the ability to shoot through breaks well (according to palmers pursuit shop who make almost exclusively brass barrels). With a 7 inch barrel as opposed to a 5 or 4 inch as seen on other RAM handguns we should experience more paintball acceleration and stabilization, and hopefully more range and better accuracy.

Unlike the other RAM pistol barrels, the desert eagle does not have cross compatibility.

People with big hands rejoice, people who complained about the tib 8 run and hide. This thing has a MASSIVE grip frame, even bigger than the tib8 possibly.

The DE features rudimentary iron sights that do not even have colored dot indicators. It can however be equipped with dot sights and lasers for low light conditions, which trumps any iron sights.


The magazines have also received an upgrade. On previous ram markers a spring located in the grip ejected the magazine, this spring was prone to falling out. The desert eagle has this problem fixed with a spring button on each individual magazine. No chance of losing a spring and smoother ejection.



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The Desert Eagle is NOT as comfortable to shoot or as maneuverable as the Sig p226 or Walther P99, and is much heavier in the hands.

On the Chrono it read:
277, 270, 265, 271, 275 = + - 12

On airing it up there was no HISS of excess air getting vented like on the p99 and 226. I assume the internals have gotten some form of an upgrade.
This Baby has got some kick to it! Obviously not comparable to the real thing, or even a 9mm handgun, maybe comparable to a .22 caliber handgun. For a paintball gun this is saying allot.


Efficiency on the desert eagle blew me away. Shooting rapidly outside in cold weather I got exactly 44 shots on a 12 gram in cold weather. Impressed I decided to do an experiment.
I took it inside where I had an ambient temperature of 20 degrees (room temperature). I took 1 shot every 5 seconds in volleys of 5 and then gave it a 20 second rest in between. The results blew me away.
I got 73 USABLE SHOTS!!! Doing the same experiment on my sig p226 I got 54.
After shot 45 I began chronoing 1 of every 5 shots to see the pressure drop:
Shot 45: 271
Shot 50: 266
Shot 55: 265
Shot 60: 262
Shot 65: 246
Shot 70: Under 200 (Chrono could not pick it up)
The Slide stopped going back at shot 73

73 shots off a 12 gram. Even for .43 caliber that is above and beyond.

Using 73 as best conditions (indoor, warm, paced shooting) and 44 as worst (out door, snow, fast shooting), I estimate in a warm outdoor or indoor paintball game you will get 45-55 shots depending on rate of fire. 5 magazines worth indisputably.


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For my accuracy test I used a 1.5 by 2 feet plywood square as a target and marked off various increments of distance to shoot from. 1 magazine was used for each distance


Again for the accuracy test and chronoing see the video segment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9LAydyICeg


Test 1: High Humidity condition (Fog and rain ambient) Unfortunately for this test the video footage was not usable due to the weather conditions.


Range / Shots on Target
20 feet: 8/8
30 feet: 8/8
40 feet: 7/8
50 feet: 5/8
60 feet: 2/8

Test 2: Sunny conditions (minimal wind) Video recorded.

Range / Shots on Target
20 feet: 8/8
30 feet: 8/8
40 feet: 8/8
50 feet: 6/8
60 feet: 6/8
70 feet: 4/8
100 feet: 2/8



At 20-40 feet (Normal pistol use and room-room clearing range) The desert eagle would simply
hit what you were aiming at in any condition. My tests show that the desert eagle can be effectively accurate up to 70 feet max, significantly less in high humidity conditions. As seen in the vid balls were still breaking against a semi hard target at the extreme ranges.


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Field Stripping can be done tool free by rotating a maintenance lever and pulling the barrel assembly free. This is NOT to say it is user friendly. There are two springs on guide rods under the slide. If you disturb them good luck getting them back in. While its not impossible, it certainly is not user friendly. Once you get the hang of it you can have the DE apart and back together in under a minute, but it would strongly benefit from a housing or bracket for these runaway springs when you open it up.

Velocity adjustment is Sig p226 style. Remove the slide and get at the core with an Allen key. I don’t recommend changing the velocity ever, out of the 3 I’ve tested velocity I conclude that should be ideal out of the box.





Conclusion:


The desert eagle is a well built marker, like all Umarex handguns. In the air gun world Umarex is associated with the utmost quality, unfortunately in the paintball one they are distributed under rap4, which people lately have been associating with poor quality due to the pre METS era .43 cal rifles and t68 generations 1-4 which were prone to poor performance, factory bugs, and DOA (dead on arrival). This is unfortunate for the Umarex handgun line.

Frankly the Deagle exceeded my expectations. I expected a heavy, clunky p226. I got a marker with upgraded internals, better efficiency, better accuracy, weaver rails, and of course the Desert eagle bling factor.

The biggest deterrent is the fact it is indeed .43 caliber and not all fields will allow it. Since it is sub 300 fps many will likely let you ONLY WITH PERMISSION. Always ask your local field owners permission before bringing ANY .43 cal marker on with you.




Summary:

Accuracy: 4/5 (Relative to handguns)
Efficiency: 5/5 (above and beyond average)
Consistency: 4/5 (+ - 12 and a consistent output even to the end of the 12 gram
Durability: 5/5 This thing is a brick. A slab of metal. The weakest parts are made of Thick impact/weather proof polymer, not cheap plastic)
Reliability: 5/5 (I tested 3 different deagles and shot over 1000 paintballs and rubber balls. No chops, jams or barrel breaks. All ticked like Swiss watches, I have no reason to believe they will give out any time soon)
Ease of maintenance: 3/10 (If it wasn’t for the two main springs this would be much higher)
Upgradeability: 3/5 (Almost all Weaver upgrades, upper and lower)
Intimidation: 4/5 (As far as Handguns go The deagle is one of the most intimidating hand held weapons in existence, second only to High caliber Revolvers. People know if its pointed at them it means business)
Value: 3/5 (These are not cheap, .43 caliber is a great deterrent, and these handguns are NOT for everyone by a long shot)
Lasting Appeal: 5/5 (These will never get old. If they do watch an action movie. I predict resale value to hold tight for a few years)


Over all = 4/5

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