.50 AE Desert Eagle problems

I finished up the shooting part of a class today.  After we were done with the class part I brought a gun out that i had wanted to try.  

 "Vera".   (Holster is a custom order from Kramer Leather)
       
Why Vera?  If you have watched the series "Firefly" you would understand.  One of the characters introduces vera as his "favorite gun".  Well "Vera" is not my favorite now, but at one time she was.  

This is a tiger stripe .50 Action Express, Magnum Research, Desert Eagle.  (preferred gun of movie pimps, matrix agents, gangsters, and crazy ohio gun shop owners, everywhere)

While Magnum Research lists this in their catalog and wholesalers list it in their inventory, it is the only one with tiger stripes that i have ever seen and so far, i have never seen a re-listing. 

I ordinarily would never have purchased this as I'm not a fan of the gun.  They are difficult to grip, and one needs a medium, to large size hand to do so.  The thing weighs 5 lbs unloaded and recoil is on the bottom end of severe (as handguns go).  I only have two other handguns that are more brutal than this one.

The thing that sold me was the tiger striping.  The finish is done in titanium nitride which is very hard (something like rockwell 90 i think) which has some advantages.

I had some problems with this gun and that is the reason for this blog.

1)  The magazines lose spring tension if you keep them loaded.  I did a google for this problem and found out it is a common issue; lots of people seem to experience this.  The lack of tension prevents the slide lock from activating on the final shot.

I think I fixed this.

I took the magazine apart and the spring stuck out at an angle not parallel to the body of the mag.  One end of the spring was attached to the follower, and the angle of this attachment forced the spring out at this angle.  As a result, the spring rubbed against the mag body and created to much friction in operation.

My fix was to bend the end of the spring in the follower which left the spring parallel with the mag body and therefore, less friction.  

I also do not leave the magazines loaded now.  This seems to have remedied the problem.  If your spring seems to be weak, just stretch it out a bit.

2)  The slide occasionally failed to return to battery when firing.  I think this is a simple problem of limp-wristing the gun.  Keep those carpals locked and there should be no problem.