- Baby Eagle redirects here. For the indie rock band, see Steve Lambke
Steve Lambke is a Canadian singer-songwriter. He is a vocalist and guitarist for the indie rock band Constantines, and releases solo material under the name Baby Eagle.-Biography:...
.
The
Baby Eagle/Jericho 941 is a double action/single Action, semi-automatic pistol developed by Israel Weapon Industries and introduced to the market in 1990 as the
Jericho 941. It was first imported into the US in 1990 by K.B.I., Inc. of Harrisburg, PA. and was later imported by
O.F. Mossberg & SonsO.F. Mossberg & Sons is an American firearms manufacturer, specializing in shotguns, scopes and firearm accessories. From the 1940s through the 1960s, it also produced a line of .22 caliber target and sporting rifles.-See also:*Mossberg Brownie...
and named the
Uzi Eagle, and was imported by
Magnum ResearchMagnum Research Inc. is a privately held corporation based in Fridley, Minnesota. The majority owners, Jim Skildum and John Risdall , have been associated with the company since its founding in 1979....
, Inc., and named
Baby Eagle until the end of 2008. Beginning January 1, 2009, the pistol is imported into the US by K.B.I., Inc., importers of
Charles Daly firearmsCharles Daly is a firearms manufacturer and importer, located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in the United States.-History:Charles Daly was born in New York City on October 12, 1839...
.
Design and Features
The original Jericho 941 was based on the well-respected CZ-75 pistol designed and produced by
Česká zbrojovkaFirearms associated with the name Česká Zbrojovka , often rendered simply as "CZ" have been produced by various factories that have been mutually independent in their management and ownership.The factories include:...
(CZ) of the
Czech RepublicThe Czech Republic is a country in Central Europe that is sometimes considered to be Eastern European. The country borders Poland to the northeast, Germany to the west and northwest, Austria to the south and Slovakia to the east. The capital and largest city is Prague...
and built using parts supplied by the Italian arms house
TanfoglioFratelli Tanfoglio S.N.C. is an Italian gun manufacturing company. Their current weapons are used extensively in sport competitions and for personal defence. Tanfoglio is located in Gardone Val Trompia - Italy, and is known for its broad sport pistol catalogue...
, which had been making their own CZ-75 clones. Using a well-tested design allowed IMI to avoid the teething problems most new pistol designs experience, and subcontracting much of the basic fabrication work to Tanfoglio allowed IMI to quickly and economically put into production a pistol that would have enough Israeli content to satisfy government contract requirements.
The single most significant innovation attempted by IMI was offering a new, much "hotter" cartridge, the .41 Action Express (see below) to go along with the Jericho 941. The ballistics difference between 9MM and .41 AE is generally considered similar to the difference between .38 Special and .357 Magnum in the USA - the .41 AE was perceived as a "magnum autoloader round".
Unfortunately the .41 AE was even less successful in gaining traction in the marketplace than the 10 mm, and was soon discontinued. Experience with heavily loaded rounds gave IMI a considerable lead, however, in chambering for the soon-to-be successful .40 S&W and also allowed the Jericho to "up-chamber" to the very popular .45 ACP. Shooters praise the accuracy of the Jericho/Baby Eagle, its reliability, and its pricing. It is generally considered to be a very slim design, for a large caliber pistol with a double-stack magazine, with "natural" pointing due to grip angle. The Jericho 941 design has been modified to include
accessory railThe Picatinny rail or MIL-STD-1913 rail or STANAG 2324 rail is a bracket used on some firearms in order to provide a standardized mounting platform.-History:...
s on the frame for mounting lasers or weaponlights, a popular feature on many current-generation semi-automatic handguns.
Steel Frames
|
Full-size |
Semi-compact |
Compact |
Caliber
| 9x19
| 40S&W
| 9x19
| 40S&W
| 45ACP
| 9x19
| 40S&W |
| Mfg. Part No. |
Israel Weapon Industries*
| 941 F/R (16/15rd)
| 941 F/R (12rd)
| 941 FS/RS (16/15rd)
| 941 FS/RS (12rd)
| 941 FS/RS (10rd)
| 941 FB/RB (13rd)
| 941 FB/RB (10rd) |
Magnum ResearchMagnum Research Inc. is a privately held corporation based in Fridley, Minnesota. The majority owners, Jim Skildum and John Risdall , have been associated with the company since its founding in 1979....
*
| MR9900 (10rd)***
MR9915R (15rd)
| MR9400 (10rd)***
| MR9900RS (10rd)
MR9915RS (15rd)
| MR9400RS (10rd)
| MR4500RS (10rd)***
| MR9900RB (10rd)***
| MR9400RB (10rd) |
| Weight** |
Pistol w/o magazine
|
| |
| |
|
| Magazine empty |
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| |
|
Loaded magazine
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| Dimensions |
| Overall length |
|
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|
| Height |
|
|
|
| Width |
|
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|
| Barrel length |
|
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|
| Sight line radius |
|
|
|
*Optional finishes available.
**Overall weights may vary due to manufacturing differences and accuracy of scale.
***Listed on CA Roster of Handguns Certified for Sale. |
Polymer Frames
|
Full-size |
Semi-compact |
Compact |
Caliber
| 9x19
| 40S&W
| 9x19
| 40S&W
| 9x19
| 40S&W |
| Mfg. Part No. |
Israel Weapon Industries*
| 941 FL/RL (16/15rd)
| 941 FL/RL (12rd)
| 941 SL/RSL (16/15rd)
| 941 SL/RSL (12rd)
| 941 FBL/RBL (13rd)
| 941 FBL/RBL (10rd) |
Magnum ResearchMagnum Research Inc. is a privately held corporation based in Fridley, Minnesota. The majority owners, Jim Skildum and John Risdall , have been associated with the company since its founding in 1979....
| colspan="2" | N/A
| MR9900RSL (10rd)
MR9915RSL (15rd)
| MR9400RSL (10rd)
| MR9900BL (10rd)
| MR9400BL (10rd) |
| Weight** |
| Pistol w/o magazine |
|
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| Magazine empty |
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|
Loaded magazine
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| |
| Dimensions |
| Overall length |
|
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| Height |
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|
| Width |
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| Barrel length |
|
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| Sight line radius |
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*Optional finishes available.
**Overall weights may vary due to manufacturing differences and accuracy of scale. |
The introduction of the Jericho 941 also introduced a new caliber to the market, the
.41 Action ExpressThe .41 Action Express is a pistol cartridge developed in the 1980s to reproduce the performance of the .41 Magnum cartridge in semi-automatic pistols.-History:...
(or .41 AE), which was developed in 1986. The .41 AE was a unique rebated rim cartridge designed to use .410 inch (10.25 mm) bullets and duplicate a reduced power police loading of the .41 Magnum. The Jericho originally shipped with two barrels, one for 9x19mm Parabellum and the other for .41 AE. Since the .41 AE was designed with a rebated rim the same dimensions as that of the 9 mm, the extractor and ejector worked equally well for either cartridge.
Soon after its commercial introduction, the
.40 S&WThe .40 S&W is a rimless pistol cartridge developed jointly by Winchester and Smith & Wesson, two famous American firearms manufacturers. It uses .40-inch diameter bullets ranging in weight from 135 to 200 grains and operates at about 33,000 psi pressure...
was introduced to the market. Ballistically, the .40 S&W was nearly identical to moderate .41 AE loads (the reloading manuals that list the .41 AE generally say to use .40 S&W data), although commercial loadings of .41 AE were somewhat more powerful than the .40 S&W. With the stronger backing of major American firearms and ammunition manufacturers, the .40 S&W quickly pushed the .41 AE out of the market. The Jericho 941 was only on the market for 1 year before the dual 9 mm/.41 AE chambering was dropped, and the pistol was sold as either 9 mm or .40 S&W. Some shooters like the Baby Eagle in .40 S&W for its extra reserve of strength, since the Baby Eagle was originally designed for a more potent cartridge (the .41 AE), which is the reverse of some makers who dropped .40 S&W barrels into pistols previously spec'd for the milder 9 mm cartridge and had subsequent barrel and cartridge case failures.
A later compact version, the Jericho 941, was chambered in
.45 ACPThe .45 ACP , also known as the .45 Auto by C.I.P., is a rimless pistol cartridge designed by John Browning in 1904, for use in his prototype Colt semi-automatic .45 pistol and eventually the M1911 pistol adopted by the United States Army in 1911. The .45 ACP has a good performance reputation...
or 9 mm. It is not clear to what extent the Jericho original 41. AE/9 mm Jericho frame and slide were "built-up" to handle the .45 ACP's much larger diameter; although the .45 ACP is a milder load running at much lower pressures than the .41 AE, the barrel opening for the .45 ACP is, of necessity, much larger. Desert Eagle does not permit the use of +P or +P+ loads per its website FAQ, although reviewers have shot and reported the ballistics on +P .45 ACP defensive loadings.
Initially Baby Eagle pistols used barrels with
polygonal riflingPolygonal rifling is a type of rifling wherein the traditional lands and grooves are replaced by "hills and valleys" in a rounded polygonal pattern, usually a hexagon or octagon.-History:...
, which sometimes produces slightly higher velocity due to better bullet to barrel fit. IMI switched to conventional land and groove rifling from 2005 to 2007.
The Jericho 941 is issued in current service throughout the
Israeli Security ForcesSecurity forces in Israel include a variety of organizations, including law enforcement, military, paramilitary, governmental, and intelligence agencies.-Military:...
.
The .41 AE cartridge
While the .41 AE and the easy caliber conversion it provided was a good idea, the timing was just not right. The .41 AE used the same bullet diameter as the never very popular .41 Magnum, and since the .41 Magnum was primarily a revolver cartridge (though IWI did offer it in the Desert Eagle for a brief time) not all .41 Magnum bullets were suited to an autoloading design. The powerful
10 mm AutoThe 10mm Auto is a semi-automatic pistol cartridge developed by Jeff Cooper introduced in 1983 in the ill-fated Bren Ten pistol, and originally produced by ammunition manufacturer FFV Norma AB of Åmotfors, Sweden....
cartridge, which had been suffering from poor acceptance from its start in the early 1980s, was eventually accepted by the FBI in a reduced power, subsonic loading.
Smith & WessonSmith & Wesson is the largest manufacturer of handguns in the United States. The corporate headquarters is in Springfield, Massachusetts. Founded in 1852, Smith & Wesson's pistols and revolvers have become standard issue to police and armed forces throughout the world...
then decided that the 10 mm Auto was too much cartridge for the reduced power loading, and that the .45 ACP sized guns that chambered it were too heavy and bulky; out of this came the .40 S&W, a shortened 10 mm Auto case, designed to fit in a 9 mm sized gun, with a reduced pressure loading that allowed a lighter, easier to shoot gun. The near identical ballistics of the .40 S&W and the .41 AE are a result of
convergent evolutionConvergent evolution describes the acquisition of the same biological trait in unrelated lineages.The wing is a classic example of convergent evolution in action. Although their last common ancestor did not have wings, birds and bats do, and are capable of powered flight. The wings are similar in...
in engineering; the .40 S&W starting from 10 mm Auto and moving to a shorter 9 mm length case and matching the ballistics of a reduced 10 mm Auto loading, and the .41 AE starting with a 9 mm and moving to the .41 caliber diameter to match a reduced .41 Magnum load.
In 1988, IWI also developed a 9 mm Action Express, which was a .41 AE necked down to 9 mm. It offered a much larger case capacity than the standard 9 mm case, allowing velocities that matched that of the
.357 MagnumThe .357 S&W Magnum, or simply .357 Magnum, is a revolver cartridge created by Elmer Keith, Phillip B. Sharpe, Colonel D. B. Wesson of firearms manufacturer Smith & Wesson, and Winchester. It is based upon Smith & Wesson's earlier .38 Special cartridge. The .357 Magnum cartridge was introduced in...
when loaded with light bullets. This move anticipated the parallel development of the
.357 SIGThe .357 SIG pistol cartridge is the product of Swiss firearms manufacturer SIG-Sauer, in cooperation with the American ammunition manufacturer Federal Cartridge. While it is based on a .40 S&W case necked down to accept bullets, the .357 SIG brass is longer...
from the .40 S&W in 1994.
While the .41 AE was doomed by circumstance to obscurity, the concept of using a rebated rim to allow easy cartridge interchangeability was not lost. The
.50 Action ExpressThe .50 Action Express is a large caliber handgun cartridge. It was developed in 1988 by Evan Whildin of Action Arms. The .50 AE is a power upgrade cartridge to the .44 Magnum.-Overview:...
, developed by IWI for the Desert Eagle pistol, uses a similar rebated rim that is the same diameter as the
.44 MagnumThe .44 Remington Magnum, or simply .44 Magnum, is a large-bore cartridge originally designed for revolvers. After introduction, it was quickly adopted for carbines and rifles. Despite the ".44" designation, all guns chambered for the .44 Magnum case, and its parent case, the .44 Special, use...
. This allows a caliber change with replacement of just the barrel and magazine. Bottlenecked pistol cartridges, which also allow caliber changes with just a barrel change, have also started become available; Sturm Ruger made a limited edition convertible P Series pistol in 9 mm/.30 Luger, Sig Sauer released the
.357 SIGThe .357 SIG pistol cartridge is the product of Swiss firearms manufacturer SIG-Sauer, in cooperation with the American ammunition manufacturer Federal Cartridge. While it is based on a .40 S&W case necked down to accept bullets, the .357 SIG brass is longer...
, based on the .40 S&W, and
Cor-BonCor-Bon is a brand of small arms ammunition produced by Dakota Ammo Incorporated. The company, based in Sturgis, South Dakota, was founded in 1982 by Peter Pi....
released the
.400 CorbonThe .400 Corbon is an automatic pistol cartridge developed by Cor-Bon in 1997. It was created to mimic the ballistics of the powerful 10 mm Auto cartridge in a .45 ACP form factor....
based on the .45 ACP.
External links