Anyone out there planning on doing some hunting with the new 429DE? I think it is going to be an awesome round! I think it will be my next designated hunting handgun! Just have to convince the wife I need one haha.

I might be testing one in the near future.

Should be awesome! I think it's the second coming of the 440 Carbon.....the 429 DE needs a 300 gr factory load

I believe the cartridge has great potential and I think MRI should be complimented for developing it. Unfortunately I also think that a poor marketing strategy by MRI will lead to it disappearing quickly. At the moment it seems to be marketed as little more than a novelty.

In order for the round to be sustainable, a few things have to happen:

i. MRI need to direct their marketing and options towards real people and practical applications. Looking at the Desert Eagle website you could be forgiven for thinking the guns were marketed solely for Hollywood producers and coke dealers. Their option are all about flashy finishes (tiger stripes, gold plate etc) not function. That has to change if they are to be taken seriously.

ii. The calibre needs to be marketed as a hunting calibre not just a hotshot novelty/fashion item. A 300g load would help. The current ammo seems to be designed only for bragging about velocity. It's good to see that Whitworth may be reviewing it shortly. Irrespective of what he publishes, I'm confident he will privately point the company in the right direction.

iii. The cartridge needs to become SAAMI approved which will lead to reliable load data, approved dimension dies, components etc. ie it needs to become mainstream not propriety. (just look at the debacle around .458 SOCOM due to the lack of SAAMI approval or how the 300 Whisper concept took off once it became 300 BLK). Quite some time ago a company rep told me that they thought the company had submitted the cartridge to SAAMI. I note nothing seems to have happened despite Kahr Arms being a voting member.

iv. Handgunners need to shoot. You need lots of practice to be competent. To do this affordably reloading components need to be readily available. At the moment Starline produce the brass for the 429DE. They have told me that it was a one time exclusive contract from MRI ie no sales of brass to the public. At the time they were unaware of whether there would be further orders. If brass isn't available, the cartridge dies.


I really hope MRI get their act together on this one. I would certainly buy one if I knew I could readily get brass etc in my country and if I knew there was reliable load data available. I currently have a Desert Eagle L5 in .44 Mag on order (its been a 11 months wait so far) and would welcome a 429 DE barrel for the it. At the moment they are only available for the XIX series, not the L5 or L6.

I APPLAUD MRI FOR CALIBER HONESTY AND CALLING IT THE 429 DE vs. THE 44 DE BUT WILL THIS COST THEM SALES? THERE ARE NUM NUTS OUT THERE THAT DO NOT UNDERSTAND THAT THE 44 MAG IS REALLY THE 429 MAG.

They are 100 percent different rounds Rey......the 429 DE is based on the 50 AE case

DAVID: UNDERSTOOD, BUT THE 429 DE WILL USE "44" BULLETS AND THERE WILL BE FOLKS OUT THERE THAT WILL THINK THAT THE 429 DE USES A SMALLER DIAMETER BULLET THAN THE 44 MAG.

I CRY WHEN I LOSE 45 ACP BRASS AT THE RANGE, I CANNOT IMAGINE, NOR AM I SURE I COULD ENDURE, THE TRAUMA WHEN I COULD NOT FIND PRICEY 429 DE BRASS.

Gotcha buddy!! I understand now

Yes and the 38 spl is a 36...so what? Walkingthemup i think you have hit it on the head. MRI is mostly about Hollywood and toys, JMHO

How do you figure? I don?t think anyone produces better hunting revolvers than Magnum Research.

Price is a bit steep. Not unexpected given the platform, but still.

This is the something I find perplexing. As Whitworth said, MRI produce the BFR range which would have to one of the best engineered and built revolvers going. Extremely well made, attention to detail, manufacturing ethos around precision and designed for hunters and anyone who appreciates fine equipment.

The same company produce the Desert Eagle. A sound design for its time and one of the only Semi's giving true high power capability. I can't comment on build quality as yet but I expect it will be good. Then they spoil the whole concept by concentrating on bling finishes and the whole Hollywood prop image rather than substance.

A new cartridge has been introduced for the legendary hand cannon ? the Desert Eagle. This rebated rim bottleneck cartridge is called .429 DE It is formed by necking down the .50 Action Express case to .44 caliber
What a beauty.

I AM THINKING THAT VERY FEW HANDGUN HUNTERS BUY THE DE AS I NEVER SEE POSTS OF HANDGUN KILLS WITH A DE, SO I AM ALSO THINKING THAT THE MARKET FOR THE DE IS THE WANNA BE TYPES WHO THINK BIG AND FLASHY IS COOL AND MAKES THEM BIG TIME HANDGUNNERS, KIND OF LIKE AN ACQUAINTENCE OF MINE THAT WOULD SHOOT HIS 2 INCH 460 XVR AT AN INDOOR RANGE AND IMPRESS ALL THE NUMB NUTS THERE WITH THE SOUND AND MUZZLE FLASH.

My son-in-law has a DE which I have shot quite a bit. It is a credible performer and is very accurate for a SA pistol. Detractors who have never shot one would do well to try it out before criticizing. Points against the DE as a hunting gun are that it is a heavy pistol and has heavy ammo. Both problems when you are packing in tough terrain. It is not an extremely long range gun in its current chamberings, and the grip is huge. Not a problem for me because I have large hands, but it does not work well for a majority of shooters. However, if the new version does well, perhaps MRI (Kahr)will consider improvements to the pistol that will address some of its shortcomings. If you know the history of the BFR, then you know the rights were acquired from D-Max by MRI who renamed it the BFR, just as the rights to the DE were acquired from IMI. The first BFR pistols produced under the MRI banner were far less desirable than the current model. I have one so I know what I am talking about. I had a myriad of problems with mine, which necessitated both the barrel (cracked forcing cone) and cylinder (excessive barrel cylinder gap) being replaced. At one point, I was so frustrated that I told Jim Skildum then president of MRI that I thought BFR meant "Big F______ Reject". Working with my LGS and MRI we corrected a number of problems using my gun as a guinea pig. MRI incorporated many of these improvements into their redesign of the current BFR, which is a stronger more durable design than the old D-Max. Perhaps the DE will also be revised to make it a more desirable hunting gun.

The current BFR is a design brought to the table by Jim Tertin for MRI. He designed the current revolver independently. He actually had no part in the D-Max design (that was all Darwin). The old D-Max (still have one) was more akin to a Ruger as it used all Ruger internals and even the grip frames would bolt on. In all fairness, the newer BFR used Ruger internals as well up until 2013 or so. However, I know Jim Tertin personally and the BFR is entirely his design from scratch. He's a brilliant designer and a hell-of-a nice guy.

The 440 Corbon never really caught on unfortunately, hopefully the renamed 429 DE will.....should make one hell of a hunting round.....put it in the BFR or bring back the Lone Eagle.....should be very close to the Casull in ballistics...

I had no intention of slighting Jim Tertin, a firearms genius in his own right. I had a number of conversations with him through my trials and tribulations with the D-Max. Even though he has retired, I hope he continues to stick around, as does Kahr.

Jim has not yet retired, but he is close.

i should have been clearer. not bfr's but desert eagle's. yes they make some fine basic ones but push the flash mostly from what i see

Actually, Desert Eagle was owned by Magnum Research from day one and Jim Skildum actually came up with the concept. IMI was merely a subcontractor that built the guns for MRI.

This guy seemed to think my DE worked just fine...

http://www.handgunhunt.com/photopost/data/500/MN_buck_2014.jpg

Already have my .429 barrel, just hoping Kahr gets its act together and actually offers some hunting loads with good 240 or 300 gr. bullets as well as brass. However, given MRI's long-standing policy about not warrantying your gun if you use handloads, odds are they'll never offer brass for it unless Kahr has abandoned that nonsense.

Nice Buck!

Damn Nice Buck bobhansen1

Very nice buck

BH1: WHEN YOU GET THE 429DE BARREL SHOOTING PLEASE GIVE US A MV AND ACCURACY REPORT, AND WHEN IT GETS BLOODIED, PLEASE POST. NOT MANY GUYS SEEM TO USE THE DE's FOR HUNTING, BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN IT IS NOT A GOOD GUN.