.475 Wildey Magnum

The .475 Wildey Magnum is a semi-automatic 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 opened to take a .475" 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 in the Death Wish film series.

Additional Wildey calibers

In the late 1980's, Wildey, Inc. produced three additional calibers using necked down versions of the .475 Wildey Magnum brass casing originally designed in 1983 in order to achieve higher velocities and muzzle energies. 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 10 mm Wildey Magnum) which used a .41 Magnum bullet. Last was the .44 Wildey Magnum (also known as the 11 mm Wildey Magnum) which used a .44 Magnum bullet. All calibers were eventually discontinued.