Quote from Sardok:
too many tv shows man...
they can only trace a bullet if they have the one that was found on, say, a crime scene.. and one to compare it to.. if your dumb enough to let both of these get into the police's hands, after comitting a crime, then, more fool you.. you deserve to be caught.. but, hey, i gotta agree with you.. why bother with a 3000 dollar pistol when you can buy something that does the same thing, and would be harder to trace for less the 1000... you guys would prolly call me stupid anyway.. all being cs players.. but id MUCH prefer to be using a ruger .22 pistol, over a desert eagle.. mainly because of reliabilty, we still use one that my old man bought about 30 years ago.. its never missed a beat.. and has had server thousand rounds through it =)
Right on the mark, Sardok.
In Australia, it's illegal to go hunting with a pistol. That rules out using the DE .50 AE for hunting large game. Anyway, in all honesty, you'd be better off with a TC Contender with scope in .40 H&H. Better accuracy, more reliability, and more effective.
So, here in Oz, pistols only have three real uses. Showing off, target practice, and defense.
It's widely considered that a .45ACP is more than adequate to bring down a human in one shot. It's got enough power to deliver quite a bit of kinetic energy to a human-sized target, but it's not powerful enough to punch through the body, wasting energy. Hell, a 9mm is good enough for defense. Carrying around a .50AE pistol for "self-defense" is just massive overkill.
Showing off? Sure, go buy it. Brag about how it's got one of the biggest bores available on a handgun today. Then experience the effect of leading on the rifling, sore hands from getting booted by the thing, and the aggravation of getting spare parts when they inevitably break down :) The polygonal rifling of the DE _does_ reduce fouling, though - and the use of copper gaschecks on hand-made reloads would help quite a bit too.
Never mind that a .45 or a 9mm is definitely more of a pleasure to shoot on a regular basis. I've put a hundred rounds through a .44 Magnum S&W revolver in one shooting session - and let me tell you, the muzzle blast gave me a splitting migraine (yes, I was wearing ear protection - it's concussive shock), my left hand was numb, and my arm was twitching for quite a while afterwards. Yet, I can do the same thing with a 9mm, no hassles at all.
Another note. Most people who bust into your house aren't going to look at you holding a pistol and think "Hey, that's an IMI Desert Eagle. They usually come in .50 Action Express caliber, which would surely hurt me pretty bad". They think "F*ck, the mark has a gun! I'm outta here!". Nobody is gonna stand there and laugh at you when you're pointing a loaded firearm at them - .22, 9mm, .45ACP, or .50AE caliber.
Darkwolf.