Above The Post, Wildey, Update From 8/5/2017!!!!!
Wildey is open for business! I ordered a mag and it came on time and well made!
I haven’t bought ammo, but they have it too!
now, back to our post!
For those who don’t know, the people who make the Wildey have ceased activity. The website is still there, but emails bounce, the contact page gives you an error message and they don’t return calls when you leave a message at the phone number provided. It sucks, to say the least. They were the only ones who made Wildey ammo. They went belly up shortly after I got mine and when I tried to get more ammo in 2010, they were gone. That sucked to say the least. Every now and then I would search for Wildey ammo online. I found one website that makes only round at a time. Not sure what their deal is, but they didn’t return emails, found another that claimed to load it but they also didn’t return emails. Occasionally Gunbroker has some Wildey ammo for sale, it usually goes for $4+/round. Pass. I just didn’t feel like spending well over $200 for 50 rounds. I, and everybody else with a Wildey in .475 Wildey Mag were screwed.
Until now. I found this site last year and sent them an email. They didn’t respond for a long time and I didn’t really try all that hard. I just didn’t really trust some random Tripod website. The guy returned my email after a month or more saying he had forgotten about it but he was planning on reloading Wildey ammo starting soon and he would let me know as soon as he got a line on some brass.
I was still a little leery but figured it was worth a shot. I had his home address (to send him my ammo disclaimer which stated I could buy ammo, every online ammo place needs that), I also had his home phone number.
When he was ready he sent me the list of available ammo and I went with Hawk bullets, I almost went with the cheapest ammo in case I was going to lose my money, but it said, “Best for single shot, might not cycle the action”. So I went for 100 rounds of 300 grain Hawk Precision JSN/AND/FP/FB. (jacketed soft nose/auto nose design/ flat point/flat base).
It took a month and a half and I was starting to worry. They said there was a problem with the bullets, not the brass surprisingly enough.
But it came last week. 100 rounds, with the brass stamped “Wildey Magnum”, just like the stuff I got from Wildey, the only difference was flat nose instead of hollow point.
I went to the range today and it worked great. I had cleaned it last week so I had to readjust it to get it to cycle properly, but I had 10 rounds left of factory ammo so I know the problem wasn’t the ammo.
As soon as I got it adjusted properly, it worked fine. It fired all six rounds/mag with just an occasional stove-pipe, no more than once in 3 mags. That was pretty much how it worked when using Wildey ammo and the stove-pipe was probably from me limp-wristing it. I haven’t been to a range in a long time and I haven’t fired anything stronger than .45ACP in a real long time so I wasn’t used to the bigger gun. It goes BOOOM!
I heartily recommend them to anybody who has a .475 Wildey and is sick of it being a safe queen. The price is not bad, it’s about the same as .500 S&W, just over $2/round delivered. If you wanted ammo for less than $2/shot, you shouldn’t have bought a Wildey.
So for all you folks out there looking for .475 Wildey Magnum Ammo, I can say that American Custom Ammunition worked great for me.
Updated 3/2013: You should call them at the number on their site, they don’t answer emails very well but they answer the phone in the evening Florida time or they’ll call you back shortly. They will then get right on it and they’re still doing their thing 3/2013.
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They get the Veeshir Seal of Approval (shown below the fold).
doubleplusundead 
Ahhh, time to re-watch Death Wish 3 for the hundredth time. “They killed the giggler!”
I love that movie, but I’ll tell you, the Wildey is the last gun I’d choose if my life depended on it. Especially for some street rioting, you only have 6 shots/mag so you would need a lot of mags and it’s not the most reliable weapon. Martin Balsam has the right idea.
It stovepipes far more often than something reliable. Once in 18 shots is too many. I took a Sig too and that had absolutely no problems whatsoever and I put over 100 rounds through it.
Sure, after being hit by a .40S&W the cop isn’t going to say, “There’s not much left of him”, but if you run out of ammo or have your weapon jam, you’re screwed.
I’ve always read Desert Eagles have stovepiping issues, maybe that’s a quirk of larger semi-autos, or perhaps difficulties of using a gas system on handgun (ignoring AR/AK pistols). Revolvers are still king for big handgun cartridges, but then I’m always going to pick a wheelgun over an auto.
“They had no business doing that…none!”
I’d say a lot of the problem with large calibers stovepiping is limpwristing it.
You mess up the recoil that way and that affects the reload.
I noticed it with my buddy’s Desert Eagle, I never had a problem with it but then someone else was firing it and it kept jamming.
In a looting type situation, I’d have at least two guns on me. My 1911 and my CZ 75b. .45 for stopping power and 9mm for ammo capacity.
As far as stovepiping, I tend to agree with veeshir that it’s likely more user error than the gun. I’ve seen a couple people have the same issue shooting my 1911.
Hello, did you end up using all of the 100 rounds that you bought? Do you think the stovepipe problem was related to the gun or the ammo – or that the gun needed to be adjusted to work with the particular ammo load you were using?
The ammo is fine. The stovepipes were from me limp-wristing it. When I concentrated it didn’t haappen.
I approve of this post in all possible ways.
I figured you would like the seal of approval.
I’m hoping to win the Minion of the Month Award
[…] For those of you having trouble finding ammo, Veeshir has you covered. […]
hi, i know this post is a year old but i’m so glad i found it! hopefully american custom is still in business as i too have been looking for wildey ammo on and off for several years now. i actually have one of the earliest models of the gun from the late 70’s and i would love to talk to someone that is familiar with wildey’s in general…
Lots of people find this post and click through, often 3 or 4 a day,
I finally emailed American Custom last week to find out if they were selling any ammo.
I haven’t heard back.
They have their phone number on the website, when I called that number they answered right away, I’m leery of doing that just for information, I don’t want them thinking I’m trying to get a bonus or anything. I might call them anyway just to know if I need to post a “nevermind”.
I will say that the first time I emailed them it took over a month to get a response, but then it took only as long as I got my stuff together to get everything set up and they were good on getting me the ammo I ordered in a timely manner. It took a couple weeks longer than I expected, but they said they had a problem with the bullets.
I doubt they’d stop, buying the dies isn’t cheap and there’s definitely a market.
Your is from the 70s? That’s awesome, mine is from 2008, Does yours look different from mine above?
The quality on mine is good but the finish isn’t as smooth as I expected, you can see some machining marks on it.
It works great though. I don’t fire it that much cuz the ammo’s so expensive, but then, right now that describes pretty much everything but .380.
everything looks about the same except for the finish on (my father’s, actually, not mine) is more of a matte finish. also the trigger guard is a slightly different design. i could send some pics if you would like.
the fact is, it could very well be one of the first but i’ve never been able to confirm. i tried getting in touch with the company a few years back but no one responded.
there is what looks to be a serial number stamped on it with 3 letters and 001. the 3 letters happen to be my grandfathers initials. i know for a fact that my grandfather knew Wildey Moore and was an original investor in the company so the serial number might be more of a ‘celebratory’ type thing.
my grandfather passed on, leaving it to my dad and i would really love to find some ammo for it before it’s completely obsolete!
i’d also love to find someone that is very familiar with the wildey’s since I really only know what’s available on the internet and we all know what that’s worth lol.
oh yeah, and the fact that getting your hands on ANY ammo these days (besides shells) is just short of a miracle,,,doesn’t help either
That serial number is awesome. Mine is over 5,000.
I wonder if they made a bunch for the original investors with their initials and 001 so it’s one of the first, or maybe he got the first one and they made the serial numbers in order with the initials, so another guy got his initials with the number 002 and so on.
Either way, that’s a cool serial number for any gun.
They offered a matte finish or polished, I chose the polished. They also had a choice on trigger guards, I chose “square” but they also have a round one. Maybe that’s the difference.
I’d call American Custom to get a quick response, I know it’s scary sending money to some random website, but they worked okay for me. $200 is a bunch of money, but I figured it was worth the gamble to get some ammo so I could shoot it again. I don’t want a “safe queen”.
They didn’t want to make fewer than 100 rounds so that’s how many I ordered. I wish I had bought more, because that would mean I spent the money a year ago instead of now.
I don’t know how much I know about them, I know some. I’ve put a bunch of rounds through it and taken it apart a bunch of times.
The website linked at the top still works even though they don’t respond to inquiries.
It has their manual/pamphlet on PDF they sent out with mine and answers a bunch of FAQs you might have.
It helps for disassembly but it’s useless for part numbers as they don’t make them anymore.
They also explain the adjustable gas system. It’s important for getting it to work right.
I’d love to see a picture of yours, the original so to speak. My email is my name, all lowercase, at the hotmail place.
They went out of business at least once or twice before I got mine so yours is at least two iterations before mine.
That’s why I’m hoping they’ll be back, they did it before. Especially since every time someone showed Death Wish III they used to get orders.
Just read your post about the Wildey .475 ammo.
My buddy Bob has a mess of that loaded ammo, a bunch of brass, a bunch of Barnes bullets and a set of Lyman dies for the .475 Wildey.
His channel is GlockerBob on youtube. His email is glockerbob@gmail.com.
He sold his pistol and has been hanging on to that ammo stuff but he said he would be willing to sell it or trade.
He says to get in touch with him.
I hope you guys can come to a mutual agreement.
TJ
I have 150 loaded 265gr,21.0gr blue dot…127 loaded 300gr,19.0gr blue dot,23 prepped cases,24 300gr bullets ,Hawk, 17 265gr bullets Hawk,Lyman dies, plus taped crimp….make offer, I am cleaning house…I don`t have gun and retired..I ran out of powder other wise I would have loaded the rest….that’s a total of 300 rounds…make me a offer??? I live in Wisconsin
To update my first posting….I found powder and finished loading the rest of ammo….I now have 200 265gr/21.0 gr blue dot , and 200 300gr/19.0gr blue dot loaded….in case anyone interested??
I wish I could.
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uh, what does Dita Von Teese have to do with availability of Wildey ammunition? just askin’
Dita Von Teese goes with just about anything.