Magnum Research Baby Eagle

Infobox Weapon
name=Baby Eagle/Jericho 941


caption=Jericho 941F
origin=flag|Israel
type=Semi-automatic pistol
is_ranged=yes
service=
used_by=IPCA
Israel
RENEA
ROKASWC
wars=
designer=
design_date=
manufacturer=Israel Weapon Industries
production_date=1990-present
number=
variants= See Variants
weight=
length=
part_length=
crew=
cartridge=9x19mm Parabellum .40 S&W .41 Action Express .45 ACP
caliber=
action=Short recoil
rate=
velocity=
range=
max_range=
feed=Detachable box magazine
sights=Fixed(Combat) or optional fully adjustable or optional illuminated night sights.

:"Baby Eagle redirects here. For the indie rock band, see Steve Lambke."

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 & Sons and named the Uzi Eagle, and is currently imported by Magnum Research, Inc., and named Baby Eagle.

Design and Features

The original Jericho 941 was based on the well-respected CZ-75 pistol designed and produced by Česká zbrojovka (CZ) of the Czech Republic and built using parts supplied by the Italian arms house Tanfoglio, which had been making their own CZ-75 clones. Using a well-tested design allowed IWI to avoid the teething problems most new pistol designs experience, and subcontracting much of the basic fabrication work to Tanfoglio allowed IWI 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 IWI 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," or an expensive way to shoot what was essentially .40S&W.

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 IWI 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.

Variants

teel Frames

Polymer Frames

The introduction of the Jericho 941 also introduced a new caliber to the market, the .41 Action Express (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. The magazine was designed to feed either round, and 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&W 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 9mm cartridge and had subsequent barrel and cartridge case failures.

A later compact version, the Jericho 941, was chambered in .45 ACP or 9 mm. It is not clear to what extent the Jericho original 41. AE/9mm 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 rifling, which sometimes produces slightly higher fps (feet per second) 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 Forces.

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 Auto 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 & Wesson 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 evolution 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 Magnum when loaded with light bullets. This move anticipated the parallel development of the .357 SIG 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 Express, developed by IWI for the Desert Eagle pistol, uses a similar rebated rim that is the same diameter as the .44 Magnum. 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 lIWIted edition convertible P Series pistol in 9 mm/.30 Luger, Sig Sauer released the 357 SIG, based on the .40 S&W, and Cor-Bon released the .400 Corbon based on the .45 ACP.

External links

* [http://www.magnumresearch.com/Baby_Eagle.asp Official Baby Eagle page] from Magnum Research, Inc.
* [http://www.imfdb.org/index.php?title=Jericho_941 The Jericho 941 in film] at the [http://www.imfdb.org Internet Movie Firearms Database]