440 Cor-Bon Ammo for a Desert Eagle
 

In the "Monster Hunter" game I'm running the player wants a gun big enough to get through bio-engineered and/or demonic opposition, or god forbid something that's both. (think Resident Evil meets Devil May Cry). The Desert Eagle fits the bill nicely. But doing a little reaserch I found this:

I was wondering if using ammunition like this would change the damage of the gun. I was thinking it would up the damage to p++? or give it an armor divisor of half?

Opinions welcome.

Re: 440 Cor-Bon Ammo for a Desert Eagle
 

It should be pi+, as it's 10.89mm (which IIRC is fairly low on the pi+ scale). The increased penetration would be on account of it going faster than most .44 caliber projectiles (and sufficiently-so as to have superior penetration to the .50 AE... or at least that was the goal).

For a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation, GURPS damage is roughly linear with velocity if mass and cross-section remain constant. Wikipedia gives two very different velocities for 240 grain .44 Magnum - 1180 ft/s vs 1475 ft/s - and I'm not certain which is more typical. A 240 grain .440 Cor-Bon has a velocity of 1800 ft/s. That's either +50% or +20% to damage, respectively. Note that would be relative to a .44 Magnum.

Less back-of-the-envelope, Douglas Cole previously worked out that average damage, in points, is typically around 0.6*SQRT(KE/cal^0.4), with caliber in mm and KE in J. Applying that here, you're looking at 18 points, which is right between 5d pi+ (average 17.5) and 5d+1 pi+ (average 18.5).

Re: 440 Cor-Bon Ammo for a Desert Eagle
 

Working with the detailed version of the model with that formula, I also get 18.1 points, for 5d pi+.


The older version of the model produces the same results (it has an overly precise power law scaling that tends to also overstate rifle-bullet penetration by a tetch).

So it's definitely a monster.

Re: 440 Cor-Bon Ammo for a Desert Eagle
 

It appears that firing .440 Cor-Bon requires a specialized variant on the gun, not just a change in ammunition (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Eagle#Mark_XIX), but at around 2300J, it's definitely rifle-level (comparable to 6.8mm).

Re: 440 Cor-Bon Ammo for a Desert Eagle
 

Thank you for the quick responses. I really appreciate the help.

Re: 440 Cor-Bon Ammo for a Desert Eagle
 

It's a rechambering, so either factory-produced or by getting a .44 magnum barrel and boring out the chamber to fit the 440 Cor-Bon, which presumably would require the barrel be mounted in a gun set up for .50 AE in order for it to fit in the magazines, etc.

Re: 440 Cor-Bon Ammo for a Desert Eagle
 

There might also be problems getting Corbon ammo outside of the U.S., although those could be ignored in a cinematic campaign.

Re: 440 Cor-Bon Ammo for a Desert Eagle
 

Looking at the case, it's probably difficult to neck down with normal handloading tools (a big calibre difference and a very steep neck). However, buying a decent number of rounds and taking care to preserve the cases will allow handloading, and aside from the cases nothing is particularly special.

.429DE is similar, can probably be loaded just as hot, is more currently more readily available, as another option.

Re: 440 Cor-Bon Ammo for a Desert Eagle
 

I don't know about the availability outside of the US, but the .454 Casull is also in the same range (High Tech gives it 5d-1 pi+). An advantage to the .454 Casull is that weapons chambered for it can also use the much more common .45 Long Colt and .45 S&W without issue. Which means, if your monster-hunting rounds (probably hand-loaded match-grade +P, potentially HP/Poison rather than FMJ) are a precious commodity, you can opt to generally use more common (but less powerful) ammunition most of the time, only switching to your special rounds when needed. From the few examples in HT, .45 Long Colt will deal around 3d-2 pi+, while .45 S&W will deal around 2d-1 pi+.

Re: 440 Cor-Bon Ammo for a Desert Eagle
 

It's unnecessarily hard to engineer semi-automatic pistols to use revolver rounds and tends to play havoc with reliability. I don't think anyone has ever used a Desert Eagle for a more useful purpose than playing at a firing range, but I'd bet that the .357 Magnum chambered version jammed more than the later versions which dispensed with the rimmed revolver rounds.

Besides, you already have the .45 Winchester Magnum for automatic pistols. If you're absolutely determined to have more power, more blast, more flash, more noise and more recoil than a person could reasonably want, you could also custom-make a semi-automatic pistol in .450 Bushmaster or even 45 Raptor (basically just a .460 S&W Magnum without a rim, so that is can be chambered in a semi-automatic firearm, albeit for sane people, in a semi-automatic rifle). ;-)