The .475 Wildey Magnum is a large semiautomatic pistol cartridge designed for big game hunting in the Wildey pistol.
History The .475 Wildey Magnum was designed to be a hunting round. Cases are formed from .284 Winchester brass with the neck cut down and widened to take a .475-inch bullet, and the length is the same as the .45 Winchester Magnum. Velocity at 100 yards is equivalent to the muzzle velocity of the .44 Magnum.
Popular media While not being very common, the .475 Wildey Magnum is most famous for its appearance in Death Wish 3, where the Wildey (chambered for this cartridge) was a signature weapon of Paul Kersey, a character portrayed by Charles Bronson (using his own personal Wildey firearm) in the Death Wish film series.
It also made an appearance in the Firefly episode "The Train Job" during the Unification Day scuffle.
Additional Wildey calibers In the late 1980s, Wildey, Inc. produced three additional calibers using necked-down versions of the .475 Wildey Magnum brass casing originally designed in 1983 to achieve higher velocities and muzzle energies.Guns America, Wildey Survivor .45 Winchester Magnum, Retrieved Jan. 14, 2016. First was the .357 Wildey Magnum (also known as the .357 Peterbuilt) which used a .357 Magnum bullet. Second was the .41 Wildey Magnum (also known as the 10mm Wildey Magnum) which used a .41 Magnum bullet. Last was the .44 Wildey Magnum (also known as the 11mm Wildey Magnum) which used a .44 Magnum bullet.AMT Guns, The World's Most Powerful Rifles & Handguns by Robert Adam (1991), Retrieved Jan. 12, 2016. All calibers were eventually discontinued.
The .45 Wildey Magnum was introduced by Wildey F.A., Inc. in 1997, which is also a necked-down version of the .475 Wildey Magnum using a .45 ACP bullet. It was discontinued in 2011 when overall production ceased.The American Handgunner, Web Blast: The .44 Automag by John Taffin, February 2008 , Retrieved Jan. 12, 2016.
Listed below are the ballistic performances of each produced cartridge as fired from a 10-inch (254mm) barrel. The information on the .45 Wildey Magnum is from a 12-inch (305mm) barrel. Bullet types were not provided.Wildey Guns, Ballistics for the Wildey Pistols , Retrieved Jan. 12, 2016.
CaliberBullet weightVelocityEnergy.357 Wildey Magnum125 gr (8.1 g)2,300 ft/s (701 m/s)1,468 ft·lbf (1,989 J).357 Wildey Magnum158 gr (10.2 g)2,060 ft/s (638 m/s)1,489 ft·lbf (2,018 J).41 Wildey Magnum200 gr (13 g)1,842 ft/s (561 m/s)1,507 ft·lbf (2,042 J).41 Wildey Magnum220 gr (14.25 g)1,733 ft/s (528 m/s)1,467 ft·lbf (1,988 J).44 Wildey Magnum200 gr (13 g)1,980 ft/s (603 m/s)1,741 ft·lbf (2,359 J).44 Wildey Magnum240 gr (15.5 g)1,747 ft/s (532 m/s)1,626 ft·lbf (2,203 J).45 Wildey Magnum230 gr (14.9 g)1,730 ft/s (527 m/s)1,485 ft·lbf (2,013 J)
See also List of handgun cartridges .45 ACP .45 GAP .44 Magnum .45 Super 10 mm caliber 11 mm caliber Shooting sports Table of handgun and rifle cartridges
References
External links https://www.usafirearmscorp.com/ homepage of the manufacturer