Desert Eagle

The Desert Eagle is a large caliber gas-operated semi-automatic pistol. It appears in Resident Evil 2 and 5.

Resident Evil 2
It appears in Leon and Hunk's game in Resident Evil 2. Referred to as the Magnum in game, and chambered with the large caliber .50 Action Express round, the Desert Eagle is among the most powerful weapons in the game, capable of killing many enemies such as Zombies and Lickers with a single shot. It also appears in Resident Evil:Apocalypse and Resident Evil:Extinction as L.J.s preferred weapon. The only differences are that L.J.'s are gold and are chambered for the .44 Magnum cartridge.

On top of it's already considerable damage capability, Leon can also upgrade his Desert Eagle using the magnum parts (a custom 10 inch barrel) located in the weapons locker of Birkin's laboratory, allowing for one-shot kills of even some of the toughest B.O.W.s such as enhanced Lickers.

Comparisons to Claire's Arsenal
The Desert Eagle has a longer range than the roughly analogous Grenade Launcher, with a single shot usually causing more damage than any of the three kinds of grenade rounds. The magnum pays for this however with enormous recoil (making it much slower to fire than the Grenade Launcher) a small magazine size (8 rounds) and exceedingly limited ammunition supplies.

Hunk's Magnum
The regular Magnum also appears in Hunk's kit, where he carries only one spare magazine on top of the gun's initial load (16 rounds in total).

Resident Evil 5
The Desert Eagle (L. Hawk) returns in Resident Evil 5, only now it is classified as a Magnum.

The L. Hawk is available after completing Chapter 5-3. It can be purchased for 5,000 Gold.

The L. Hawk can also be found during your first encounter with Wesker. It can be found up stairs in a sarcophogus along with two jewels. You will need help from Sheva to move the lid.

Fully upgraded this weapon does an incredible 3000 damage capable of killing Majini in a single shot, even if they have armor, then pass on through to to kill another. Easily one of the most powerful weapons in the game (the S&W 500 being the most), it can rain down godlike destruction if you have it with infinite ammo, which can be purchased in Bonus Features after you beat the game for 15,000 points.

Trivia
Tokyo Marui, a high end airsoft manufacturer, released two separate Desert Eagles as part of their BioHazard line. The first featured a black and silver two-tone design, while the other was completely silver, and came with a pre-installed 10-inch barrel. Both featured pseudo-wood ergonomic grips with "Leon" engraved on the left grip panel.