Wildey Magnum to be Rereleased

Pirate6134 · Feb 15, 2017

I have read that the subject pistol is to be again produced and sold. The .475 Wildey Magnum caliber does intrigue me since I already have a 454 Casull Freedom Arms revolver.
Their website at Wildeyguns.com indicates that they will be selling again soon but they give no definitive date.

Does anyone have any experience with these pistols?
What is your opinion of them and are they worth the expected high price - I have seen them on gun broker for about $2500.

Pirate6134 · Feb 15, 2017

Wildey Pistol Ballistics

For those who may be interested I have attached ballistic data for the Wildey Pistol

shottist · Feb 15, 2017

Wildey

Some years ago I owned Wildey .45 magnum. It was a pretty good single shot but had the endearing characteristic of ejecting the brass vertically and having the action then catch the falling case and insert in the chamber backwards. I kid you not!!! Other than that it was a reasonably accurate if overly large and expensive *** but appeared to be well made.Just didn't function very well. Would I consider another? Not!

BruceM · Feb 16, 2017

Back in the day when they were first released, a friend had two 8 3/8" guns in .45 Win. Mag. The guns balanced pretty well but had lousy, mushy DA triggers and were finicky about what they would shoot accurately. I seem to recall that handloads with 230 grain HP bullets over .44 magnum powders such as 2400 and H110/W296 yielded poor results but Blue Dot was better. To me with my lousy eyes (too many hours on a drawing board), the front sight seemed too narrow for the notch on the rear and therefore let too much light in on either side. Depth of notch & height of front ramp reminded me of S&W N-Frame revolvers though. I always thought if they would deal with the sights and gave the gun a really good SA trigger, it would be a great gun.

Bruce

robvious · Feb 16, 2017

a friend of my father tried to shoot a 44 auto mag one in IPSC when they first came out - late 70's??... malfunctioned so many times he got mad, cleared it.. showed the range officer... and chucked it into the woods... I was just a kid and asked my dad if I could go get it since he did not want it anymore... lol... it looked so cool to a 12 year old...

Watchdog · Feb 16, 2017

robvious said:
a friend of my father tried to shoot a 44 auto mag one in IPSC when they first came out - late 70's??... malfunctioned so many times he got mad, cleared it.. showed the range officer... and chucked it into the woods... I was just a kid and asked my dad if I could go get it since he did not want it anymore... lol... it looked so cool to a 12 year old...

And that didn't get him kicked out of the match and off the range?

ISCS Yoda · Feb 16, 2017

Which movie did Charles Bronson use one in? "Death Wish" the first or one of the follow ups? I always thought it was a cool gun although I never really pined to own one.

ladder13 · Feb 16, 2017

"Widey's here"

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS9BdSChngE[/ame]

DWalt · Feb 17, 2017

Wasn't DW3 the one where one of the characters had a machine gun, I think it was a Browning M1919 he brought back from the war? I always associate the Wildey with Bronson.

After the first one, the DW series turned into parodys and went downhill rapidly.

D.H. Callahan · Mar 21, 2017

Wildey is taking preorders from those who entered their name on the "VIP list". I was one of those people. The base pistol is $2750. That's just a pistol in a cardboard box. They want 50% down to start.

At that price, I'm going to pass. From a shooting standpoint, it does nothing a DE won't do, and the DE can be had in common calibers at less than half that price. From a collector standpoint, originals can be had for around that price, often with display cases and/or extra mags. The originals will hold more value. I can't justify $2750 just got "neat" factor. Besides, I'm a little weary of putting in an expensive pre-order for an experimental gun that hasn't been produced yet (anybody else remember the Merwin-Hulbert debacle?).

It might turn out to be the best in its class, with none of the problems the originals had. Who knows? I'm going to let a few other people take the plunge first.

Model52guy · Mar 21, 2017

I have a Wildey in the rare 45 wildey mag caliber. The barrel extension. On mine has a crack so I called and talked to them. They said they weren't going to produce the 45 Wildey mag for a while. They planned to start with 45 Winchester mag and then add the 475 WM next. I ordered a barrel assembly for a 45 Winchester mag so at least I can shoot it.

colt_saa · Mar 21, 2017

I first met Wildey Moore almost two decades ago. Nice man with some revolutionary ideas

I have shot many Wildey firearms and currently own 10" Wildeys in 45 Winchester Magnum and 475 Wildey Magnum

I have had no trouble getting mine to shoot accurately. It is often necessary to spend a little time with the adjustable gas system to tailor the pistol to the ammunition. Once it is dialed in, it is awesome

The Double Action on both of mine is spectacualr, but they have had plenty of years to break in

There was a time when Colt was planning on offering the Wildey pistols under the Colt name

Hopefully the new Company will be able to get the ball rolling even though the NEW Wildey has been "Coming Soon" for a few years now.

robvious · Mar 22, 2017

Watchdog said:
And that didn't get him kicked out of the match and off the range?

sorry for the slow reply... no he was not asked to leave... this was just a monthly local club event... back in the beginning of the sport... the fear of lawyers had not ruined the sport yet... custom grips and a trigger job was "high tech"... the gun was cleared and made safe... when he threw the thing in a safe direction it was just a chunk of metal... no different than a dirt clod... which I was throwing because I was 12 and bored since they would not let me shoot yet... the range was set in an old quarry... sorry if there was a false sense of terror about what happened... it was just a bad day with a faulty gun...

BEEMER1 · Apr 22, 2017

I have owned three of the Colt/Wildey's and still have two of them, all with Colt Archive letters. There were only 15 of them made and only 13 went to Colt.

Here is a picture of the "1 of 100" Colt /Wildey I own.

BEEMER1 · Jul 15, 2017

The New Wildey Company started shipping guns on Thursday. That puts them 2 1/2 months late on their 8 to 12 week delivery promise.

I have one on order and I got an email that mine should be shipping soon. I"m not holding my breath.

nicky4968 · Jul 15, 2017

Will it beat my Krag?

D.H. Callahan · Oct 4, 2017

BEEMER1 said:
The New Wildey Company started shipping guns on Thursday. That puts them 2 1/2 months late on their 8 to 12 week delivery promise.

I have one on order and I got an email that mine should be shipping soon. I"m not holding my breath.

I hope we'll get a full review with shooting impressions.

BEEMER1 · Jan 20, 2018

Just a follow up.

My new Wildey did arrive in August. It came in a nice hard case and looked good. The fit and finish inside and out are outstanding in my opinion. It has a 12" barrel and came in 475 Wildey Magnum.

I purchased a box of factory ammo to try it with to take out one variable. I had no functioning problems but it took a while to get the gas regulator set. It worked fine at 13 'clicks' open. At 12" I was expecting 10 or 11.

The trigger is very spongy which is common for Wildeys and my accuracy was poor because of it. I was shooting off hand and with the bad trigger and such a large heavy gun, it was probably my fault. I will try a rest next time to check accuracy.

I chronographed the last three shots. 230 grain at 1689, 1765, and 1745 fps. 1550+ ft-lbs at about 10 ft.

Pictures:

D.H. Callahan · Jan 20, 2018

Thanks for the follow up, BEEMER. I've been thinking about one of these. At $2700, I decided to let some other people get them and see if they have problems like the old ones did. They apparently started shipping them in early 2017, but, if people got them, they are being silent. I suppose that's a good thing. If they were problematic, we'd probably know about it.

I hate to hear about the trigger. I also wish they'd matched the rear profile of the slide to the frame rails.

If they turn out to be reliable, i may still order one. I like the idea of the adjustable gas system, and it has that "retro" style to it.

Please keep us posted on any problems and quirks you find with it.

BEEMER1 · Jan 20, 2018

I got to be friends with the guy who was helping Wildey Moore sell the business. He helped the new owner for over 2 years and acted as the front man for the new company without pay.

When it got down to starting production and assembly the new pistols the owner told him he could not pay him to keep working. The new owner also distanced himself from Wildey Moore. He is running the business like a hobby. He does all the assembly and testing himself and it sounds like he has a part time office girl and that is it. The parts are all outsourced.

They are doing no advertising and have shut down the Facebook. I have seen no reviews, either professional or "You Tube" stuff. It has turned out to be a strange deal.

The original front man is really upset about it and wishes he had found a different owner.

Wildey Magnum to be Rereleased

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