The Desert Eagle is one of the most recognized firearms from around the world. I’ve seen it written that where the Colt Single Action Army was once the most familiar weapon due to its prominence in movies (John Wayne, rest in peace) the same thing has now happened with the Desert Eagle. Certainly the movie industry has fallen in love with this pistol.

So if the SAA was the go-to handgun of the Wild Wild West, what is the Desert Eagle best used for? Well, nothing, maybe. Any purpose you might attribute to the Desert Eagle, there is likely a better choice. Personal protection? A Glock, 1911, or anything resembling a Springfield XD* is likely to be lighter, easier to conceal, and still pack enough punch to count as adequate protection. A backup military weapon? For the weight, you might as well hand the poor soldier a second AR or AK. Price wise it isn’t much better than a full size military rifle either.

But wait! For the cool-factor? There isn’t much better. A few weeks ago at the range we had a number of handguns out, along with an IWI Tavor. The young fellow at the range passed right by a S&W 500 with a 5″ barrel to gawk at the Desert Eagle. Yes, we let him shoot it. He even wanted his picture taken with it to put up on his wall.

In this case the DE in question wore a brushed nickle finish. Not quite as gaudy and attention grabbing as a Titanium Gold finish, or Heaven help us! A tiger-stripe Ti-Gold finish. But the brushed nickle was as close to stainless as I could find when I was shopping around a couple of years ago. I just like stainless steel handguns.

Lo and behold, Cheaper than Dirt is making their 1911 in stainless now! Er, yes, the 1911. So why did I start out with the Desert Eagle? Which was available in stainless starting with the Mark I (they’re on the Mark XIX now)? Did I mention that the hulking Desert Eagle was an attention grabber?