10Reviewed by Peter Caroline

When you hear the name “Desert Eagle,” whatprobably comes to mind is a gigantic .50 caliberpistol weighing in at nearly 4-1/2 pounds. It’s cer-tainly no one’s ideaof a pocket pistol.Magnum Researchalso makes “Baby”Desert Eagle Pistols,in 9mm, .40 S&Wand .45 ACP cal-ibers that run fromabout 1-3/4 to 2-1/2pounds. The newestDesert Eagle, how-ever, is the “Micro,”an ultra-compact.380 that weighs atad less than 14ounces unloaded.

Thanks to somereally effectivedefense loads inrecent years, the.380 ACP cartridgehas come into itsown as a personalprotection round.Granted, it’s no.45. But how many.45s can be easilyconcealed in apocket or purse?The .380 ACP is aperfectly adequatedefense cartridge,particularly at con-versational dis-tances. And, peo-ple are buying a lotof pocket .380s,made by Kel-Tec,North AmericanArms, Ruger andSeecamp, to namea few. With today’suncertainty aboutwhat tomorrow’sgun laws mightbring, and anincreased emphasison concealed carry,there will be a lot more .380s out there.

Unlike most newly hatched firearms, whichmake their debut at the SHOT Show, the MicroDesert Eagle came to my attention through an ad inone of the gun publications. I contacted MagnumResearch on-line to get a sample to test and evalu-ate. The package arrived by FedEx the next day.

My first impression of the Micro Desert Eaglewas: This was exactly the kind of very small pistol

that I would expect from a company known for itsvery large pistols. Small as it is, there is a definitefeeling of solidity to this pistol; it feels like youcould use it as a skull crusher if you ran out of

ammo! And it isindeed a bit heavierthan the competi-tion. Fully loaded,the Micro runs 15.8ounces. TheSeecamp LWS380is 13.8 ounces, andthe Ruger LCP is11.8 ounces.

The MicroDesert Eagle is aDouble-Action-Only pistol. Thetrigger pull was ini-tially very heavy,but got quite a bitlighter with use.Even so, it was offthe 8-pound scaleon my RCBS triggerpull gauge; I’d esti-mate 10-12 poundpull, similar to mySeecamp LWS380,which is also aDAO. The RugerLCP has about a 7-1/2-pound pull, butit’s not a conven-tional DAO, but apre-cocked triggerlike the Glock. Likemost DAO pocketpistols, there is nosafety per se; thelong, heavy triggerpull is the safety.

At the range, Iset up a silhouettetarget at sevenyards, a realisticdistance for a classof pistol whose nor-mal employment is“stick it in their earand pull the trig-ger.” It took about

three or four magazine loads to get accustomed tothe long DAO trigger, and then I was pleasantlysurprised to get some very nice offhandgroups…seven shots in two to three inches. I wasusing Remington 88-grain JHPs, Winchester 85-grain Silvertip HPs and Federal 90-grain Hydra-Shoks. The more expensive Hydra-Shoks deliveredthe groups closer to two inches, not that groupsize is that critical in the type of situation where

THE EAGLET HAS LANDED: Micro Desert Eagle .380

The Ruger LCPweighs 11.8ounces whenloaded.

Fully loaded, theMicro DesertEagle runs 15.8ounces.

The SeecampLWS380 is 13.8ounces, loaded.

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