Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/861022
Born In tHE USA Beginnings of that legendary pistol design (BTW, there are so many myths and stories about it…) is brake of 1970s and 1980s, when on the other side of Atlantic, the spree for big pistols with very powerful ammunition has started. In this time frame, multiple new guns in .357 Magnum and .44 Magnum appeared, and after that even bigger and more powerful .41 Magnum .454 Cassul and finally .50 Action Express, that was made especially for the Desert Eagle, were born. All those high caliber pistols were designat- ed for steel targets shooting and for… hunting with handgun for big game that are very popular in the US. Concept of powerful handgun chambered for powerful revolver ammunition born in the John Risdall and Jim Skildam minds, founders of Magnum Research Inc., in January 1983 when Bernard C White (from Magnum Research)and Arnold Steinberg (Riga Arms Institute) applied patent for new handgun. What's interesting is that on the official MRI website,, the name of White's is never mentioned. ISrAElI plot In 1985-1995 Desert Eagle pistol designed by Magnum Research were manufactured in state- owned Israel Military Industries company which was sub-contractor for US company . It is worth to men- tion here, that in 1985 IMI applied for a patent con- sisting of changes that were implemented during the production. In 1995 because of the changes in the Israeli company structure and ownership, the produc- tion was shifted to Saco Defence in Saco, Maine. In 1998 Magnum Research once again contracted the production to Israel, but to now private-owned Israeli Weapon Industries. IWI produced Desert Eagles until 2009. All of the intellectual property, including pat- ents, copyrights and trademarks always the property of Magnum Research. The original name for the pistol was Magnum Eagle (or Eagle .357), but very quickly it was changed to more catchy Desert Eagle. Later on, this first production variant was name Mark I. The new pistol was cham- bered to .357 Magnum caliber, but company was www.fragoutmag.com