First day at the range. Wow...this gun is FUN to shoot! I took my time and got to know the gun today, wasn't shooting for accuracy really so I don't have any pics of targets at this time. The recoil was simply not what it's all cracked up to be by folks on the internet. I've shot a S&W 500, that was several notches above this in terms of recoil. To me, and this is just me, the weight of the gun significantly takes the recoil out of it so much so that it felt like some really hot .357 rounds I have shot out of a 2 inch revolver. I was shooting Hornady 300 grain XTP, and it could be that load isn't as hot as some others. I have seen that said in some of my research.
I went through 40 rounds, would have done more but I didn't bring any more than that.
One thing, and this didn't happen to me, you have to be mindful of the slide, grip placement is essential with the weak or support hand. The take down button on the left side was my reference point. Just keep your thumb at or below that and loop your index finger around the front of the trigger guard. The recoil seemed to push nicely back towards my trigger hand, and with my grip technique I didn't encounter much muzzle flip. I did when shooting one handed, but that's to be expected.
All in all, I know there are folks that love to hate on the Desert Eagle 50AE, but it's simply unwarranted. If you enjoy large caliber hand guns, this is a great gun to pick up right now, especially since you can get a package deal now from Magnum Research that includes both the .44 mag and 50AE barrels and mags with one gun. I didn't purchase that one at this time, might get the 44 mag barrel later though.
I will post about a couple other items I tried out later, the VP9SK from HK, and also the new Fostech Echo trigger for the AR-15.