My experience with them is limited, but in general the samples I’ve tried have all been made very well and they went bang when I pulled the trigger. I admit to having a soft spot for the Jericho/Baby-Eagle/IMI pistols ever since I first saw the first ones hit the US market.
They look really cool.
…but they are a CZ-75 derivative with a screwed up safety arrangement. Not my favorite option on the market.
The quality looked excellent, and i like how its sort of unique. I know its not very customizable and thats not really a concern.
…if you are looking for a general purpose self defense weapon and are new to shooting, it SHOULD be a concern, as should the availability of holsters and other necessary gear for the weapon.
Everything about the baby eagle felt right. when i decide which one i want, the shop will let me test shoot it if i buy from them. its going to be difficult to tell what kind of reliability i can expect out of it from only putting a mag or two down range.
…which is another strike against it. Glocks are a well known quantity and there is a wealth of knowledge about them and how to make them work. Glock’s CS is also pretty good if you end up with a problem that a simple armorer level fix can’t solve.
I can’t say the same thing for the BE.
The reviews ive read were good, but i was hoping mabey someone here would have some personal experience with one.
My personal experience with them is very limited. What experience I have with them has been fine.
The more important question is this:
Why do you want a pistol? If you are buying a pistol because you want something cool to shoot, there are a plethora of good choices out there and I’d say the BE would probably be just fine.
If, however, you are a relatively new shooter who has little or no formal training and you’re looking for a weapon for serious social purposes the factors you use to choose a weapon should be much different.
An example: I see a lot of guys who buy X or Y because not many people have them. For a collector gun or a range toy, that’s pretty cool. For a weapon meant for serious social purposes, however, “not many people have them” means that it’s harder to find holsters, magazines, sights, and other necessary support equipment for them. What options you do find will often come at a premium. If you are Paris Hilton that might not be a problem for you…but if you’re an ordinary joe odds are that you have far less money than ambition, so getting the most value out of your dollar is important.
Another area of concern is training. If you’re intending to use this weapon for serious social purposes (self defense) and you’re limited on resources it would behoove you to select a weapon that maximizes the limited training budget you’re likely to have. The BE is a DA/SA pistol. While DA/SA guns can be learned and lots of people use them effectively, it remains true that a fair number of shooters struggle with the transition from DA to SA. Personally it’s never bothered me much, but I’ve spent entire days working with students who couldn’t seem to master the transition. After hours of instruction and no progress I’ve handed them a pistol with a consistent trigger pull from shot to shot and viola! They start consistently putting bullets where they are needed. My advice to these individuals was to sell their DA/SA guns and buy themselves something like a Glock or an M&P because it obviously worked better for them.
If you have minimal budget and time to dedicate to training, a weapon with a consistent trigger pull from shot to shot will maximize the benefit of whatever training time you can get.
As a range toy, either weapon will work. As a defensive tool, however, you are probably going to be significantly better off with the Glock 19 or an M&P than the BE.
