Underwood 50 AE 300gr Bonded JHP – Powerful 20 Round Box

Description

The 50 Action Express exists to make a semi-automatic pistol hit like a magnum revolver, and the Underwood 50 AE 300gr Bonded JHP is loaded to actually deliver on that rather than to keep recoil polite.

• Why a Bonded Bullet at These Velocities
• Underwood 50 AE 300gr Bonded JHP Specifications
• Honest Notes on Shooting the 50 AE

Why a Bonded Bullet at These Velocities

At 1580 feet per second a 300 grain half-inch bullet carries roughly 1663 foot-pounds. That is rifle-class energy out of a handgun, and it is also the precise reason bullet construction matters so much here. A conventional cup-and-core hollow point arriving that fast at close range will often shed its jacket, dump everything in the first few inches, and stop short of anything vital on a large animal.

Bonding solves that. The lead core is chemically fused to the copper jacket rather than merely seated in it, so the two stay married through impact. The Underwood 50 AE 300gr Bonded JHP expands to a wide frontal area and then holds together, typically retaining most of its weight and driving deep enough to reach the far side on hogs and black bear.

Underwood loads this in Sparta, Illinois, on nickel-plated cases. Nickel matters more in a large-bore semi-auto than most shooters realize: the harder, slicker surface feeds more reliably from a steeply angled magazine and resists the corrosion that comes from a pistol carried in a holster for weeks.

Underwood 50 AE 300gr Bonded JHP Specifications

The 50 AE was designed by Evan Whildin in 1988 specifically for the Desert Eagle, using a rebated rim so the fat case would work through a bolt face sized for the 44 Magnum. Practically that means the Underwood 50 AE 300gr Bonded JHP runs in Mark XIX and L5 Desert Eagles and in a handful of single-shot and revolver platforms built for the cartridge.

Recoil is substantial but not as violent as the numbers suggest, because the Desert Eagle is a gas-operated pistol weighing over four pounds and much of the impulse is spread out by the action cycling. In a lighter fixed-breech platform the same load is considerably harder to manage.

Reliability in a Desert Eagle depends on ammunition being loaded to full power, since the gas system needs the pressure to cycle. This is a full-power load, which is the correct kind for the platform. Weak or downloaded 50 AE is the usual culprit when a Desert Eagle short-strokes.

• Cartridge: 50 Action Express
• Bullet weight: 300 grain
• Bullet type: bonded jacketed hollow point
• Muzzle velocity: 1580 feet per second
• Muzzle energy: approximately 1663 foot-pounds
• Case: nickel-plated brass, boxer primed, reloadable
• Rounds per box: 20
• Boxes per case: 10
• Manufacturer item: 510
• UPC: 816874024154

Honest Notes on Shooting the 50 AE

Buy the Underwood 50 AE 300gr Bonded JHP if you hunt hogs, deer or black bear with a Desert Eagle, or carry one in bear country. The bonded construction is what makes a large-bore handgun bullet reach vitals rather than making a spectacular shallow wound.

Skip it for practice. At defensive and hunting pricing a box of twenty is not range ammunition. A full metal jacket flat nose in the same weight costs far less and cycles the same.

Understand the platform before you commit. The 50 AE is expensive to shoot, the pistols that fire it are heavy, and ammunition selection is narrow. None of that is a fault in this load, but all of it is worth knowing before you buy a case.

For practice in the same cartridge, the Hornady 50 AE 300gr XTP is a jacketed alternative. Pistols chambered for it include the Desert Eagle Mark XIX 50 AE and the Bond Arms Cyclops in 50 AE. Underwood publishes full 50 Action Express load data on its own site.

MAG5 Firearms stocks 50 AE ammunition and the pistols that shoot it. If you are outfitting a Desert Eagle for hunting, ask and we can pair a practice load with a hunting load.