Magnum Pistol

"Oh… my… GOD."

- Rochelle

"Niiice!"

- Nick

The Magnum is a powerful handgun in Left 4 Dead 2. It has an eight bullet magazine and deals a lot more damage. However, it cannot be dual-wielded like the regular P220 Pistol can. The Magnum is modeled after a Desert Eagle. This weapon does more damage than regular pistols, able to achieve a one hit kill almost anywhere on a common infected, as well as being able to penetrate several common infected in one shot. It can also blow limbs off common infected, which the P220 Pistol cannot do. The Magnum appears to typically be found where an extra Pistol would be waiting,though it is more rare.

Tactics

 * When using the Magnum, aim for the body to compensate for its huge recoil.
 * The Magnum can be used as both a close range weapon to quickly kill Infected and a long-range weapon to pick off Infected at a distance.
 * The Magnum has superior perforation against Common Infected, making it easy to take out many rushing Infected in lines with a few well-placed shots. Also being able to blow off limbs and various holes throughout a Common Infected's body.
 * If you have an Assault Rifle or Submachine Gun, the Magnum could make a good compliment to your primary weapon, useful for shooting back Infected when overwhelmed and picking off idle Infected to save ammunition.
 * Generally, shotgunners do not need to carry the magnum. Their primary weapons already do high damage, and they could easily run out of ammo using only these low capacity weapons. But they might want it for effective long distance shooting.
 * This weapon is essentially a hand-held Sniper Rifle. As such, it is quite possible to go through large portions of a map without ever firing a round from your primary weapon. This is very useful for saving ammunition, especially with automatic weapons.
 * While increased damage is always good against infected, it is much worse against team mates. The magnum will do much more friendly fire damage than normal pistols, so watch your fire.

Pros

 * Extremely powerful for a sidearm. Killing Common Infected in one shot.
 * Complements the Shotgun. As the Desert Eagle can be used well for long distance shots.
 * 80 damage per bullet and infinite ammo.
 * Useful against hordes as its penetration is high.
 * Overall good accuracy.
 * Better than the pistol when incapacitated.

Cons

 * Firing speed lacks.
 * Only 8 bullets per magazine.
 * Not the best at close range.
 * On the harder Difficultys such like Advanced and Expert the Magnum will need 2 shots to take out a normal Infected

Trivia

 * Even though the magnum is modeled in the .50 AE caliber, the 8 round magazine is only used in the .44 magnum variant. Still however, it is indeed a .50 AE (action express) caliber sidearm.
 * Due to the size and power of this gun, it could be considered by some to be a Tier 2 pistol.
 * In the game the magnum is named "Magnum Pistol".
 * When shooting the Magnum Pistol without crouching, your hand will have ridiculous recoil.
 * Similar to the P220 Pistols, the Magnum has no walking animation.
 * According to the text on the Magnum's side, the Magnum is produced by "1337 Weapon Industries (yOgi) PWN." and is made in Shyville. This is derived from Internet culture, as 1337 stands for "leet", a type of Internet language, and "pwn" is a variant of "own", a slang term which generally implies domination over another individual.
 * Both the left and right side of the Magnum are identical, down to the grease stains, while the P220 Pistol has slightly different left and right sides.
 * While incapacitated, the Magnum's accuracy and rate of fire is the same as if you are not incapacitated and standing still. Holding crouch while incapacitated will result in unbelievable accuracy.
 * Interesting note: When switching to the Magnum, your character will pull it out and pull back the slide as if they had just put in a new magazine after firing all 8 shots. What this would really do in reality is eject an unspent bullet.
 * On Nick's survivor page on L4D.com, the bottom picture has him holding the basic P220 pistol. However, one of the picture's captions says that it is a Magnum.
 * On Realism mode, the Magnum can still kill Common Infected in one shot regardless of where it hits.