| Jericho 941/Baby Eagle | |
|---|---|
 Jericho 941F with a frame mounted safety and no decocker. | |
| Type | Semi-automatic pistol |
| Place of origin |  Israel
|
| Service history | |
| Used by | Israel, RENEA |
| Production history | |
| Manufacturer | IMI |
| Produced | 1990- |
| Specifications | |
| Weight | |
| Length | |
| Barrel length | |
| | |
| Cartridge | 9 mm, .40 S&W, .41 AE, .45 ACP |
| Action | Short recoil |
| Feed system | Magazine:
|
The Jericho 941 is a double action, high capacity pistol developed by Israeli Military Industries, and introduced in 1990. It was known for a time as the Uzi Eagle, when it was imported and sold by O. F. Mossberg & Sons. The current incarnation is imported to the United States by Magnum Research, Inc. and is sold under the trademark Baby Eagle, a reference to the magnum Desert Eagle, also made by IMI and sold by Magnum Research.
Contents |
Design
Its design is based on the CZ-75 pistol produced by Česká zbrojovka (CZ) of the Czech Republic. The pistol is assembled and finished in Israel from parts from Italy's Tanfoglio. Compared to the CZ pistol the 941 is rather heavier, with a shallower slide that can be harder to pull for some shooters. Unlike the Czech CZ-75 or Tanfoglio TZ-75, the Baby Eagle features a slide-mounted safety/decocker. There is also a polymer framed version available.
Variants
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. A later compact version, the Jericho 945, was chambered in .45 ACP or 9 mm. IMI eventually dropped the "Jericho" name in the American marketplace, and renamed the line of pistols "Baby Eagle", to capitalize on the cosmetic resemblance to IMI's more popular and well known Desert Eagle pistol line. Like its namesake, Baby Eagle pistols also feature polygonal rifling. Due to increased manufacturing cost, IMI switched to conventional land and groove rifling in 2005 for Baby Eagle pistols. For 2007 IMI has switched back to polygonal rifling. The Desert Eagle retains polygonal rifling. The Jericho 941 is issued in current service throughout the Israeli Security Forces. The current production Baby Eagle lineup includes full size, semi-compact and compact models with both steel and polymer frames.
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 IMI 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, IMI 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 IMI 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 limited 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.
References
The Jericho 941 is bounty hunter Spike Spiegel's handgun of choice in the hit anime Cowboy Bebop.
External links
- Official Baby Eagle page from Magnum Research, Inc.
- TAFFIN TESTS THE .41 ACTION EXPRESS
- Description of the .41 AE
- Description of the 9 mm AE
- Description of the .40 S&W
- Description of the .357 Sig
