Magnum Caliber Semi-Auto Handguns Wildey

    After firing approximately 2,000 rounds through my 8" barreled 45 Win Mag pistol S/N 1109, here are my conclusions. The grip is very wide and square and it makes you feel like you are hanging on to a 2x4. After firing 100 or so rounds, the gun would actually open up a wound on my hand where the corner of the grip repeatedly pounded the web of my hand. The trigger pull was also very poor. The double action loaded up terribly and produced light primer strikes most of the time. The single action trigger pull weight was fine, but the overtravel was substantial. This extreme overtravel condition made it very difficult to shoot the gun accurately off-hand. Accuracy was decent, not as good as a Desert Eagle or 44 AutoMag, but much better than your typical 1911 pistol. The gas system must be tuned exactly to the correct "click" or the gun will jam. The gas port must be adjusted so the slide gets blasted all the way back, but too hard, too fast, and the gun will jam. This is one gun where you pick a single load to shoot and leave it at that. Also, as different people hold the gun differently, you will need to make slight gas adjustments for each person. Also, though it never occurred when I shot the gun, others who did, experienced the heel type magazine release dropping the magazine on the ground with every shot they fired. The gun also tended to eject the brass straight into my forehead unless I shot the gun left-handed. This is a one man, one load, type of gun. In order to scope the weapon, you must drill and tap the aluminum barrel rib and screw on the mount. The instructions and drawings that come from Wildey are incorrect and you are basically on your own to figure out where exactly to punch the holes. You will also need to go to a specialty hardware/fastener shop to get the correct screws, since the ones that come with the mount are incorrect. Also, the rib on the gun is not exactly parallel to the barrel bore, so if you place the scope mount "centered up" on the rib, the scope will be cocked to the point you are unable to sight it in without running out of adjustment on the scope. With the scope in place, the gun does tend to function a bit more reliably and it looks rather cool. The external quality of the machine work on the Wildey is very nice and the gun looks outstanding, but down inside, the machine work is rather poor. In 1995 I spanked a 250-pound hog with the gun using the 260-grain Speer bullet backed by a large dose of H110. Hit slightly behind the shoulder at about 65 yards the hog ran about 40 yards and fell over.