Howdah Pistol

[Jim McDougall]

Hi Bill,
Its great to see you here! and what an absolutely gorgeous 'howdah'!!!
Thank you for all the colorful detail as well, I feel like I'm on a safari just in reading your post. I can't help thinking how perfect this pistol fits in your museum, as I recall the howdah pistol carried by Michael Douglas in "The Ghost and the Darkness" and the Tsavo lion you have.

I've heard of these fantastic guns, but never really have seen one. It seems if I understand correctly that some of the earlier examples were made from cut down rifles, but Purdey was producing a large smoothbore double barrel 'howdah' gun (about 16 guage) in the early part of 19th c.

I always think of the tiger hunts in the Raj, with the large carraige type howdahs, with pith helmeted hunters and rifles bristling atop huge elephants.
It seems quite logical to have a powerful pistol with two barrels if you are aboard one of these and suddenly have your prey, the tiger, join you in these cramped quarters! No time for a misfire!

It seems that some British officers carried these with them on campaign occasionally, and cannot resist thinking of Dirty Harry describing his .44 Magnum, 'the most powerful handgun in the world' to the unfortunate criminal he has in his sights, uttering the memorable lines, "...youve got to ask yourself one question, do I feel lucky?"

Thank you so much for the adventure, and sharing this beautiful example here.

All the best,
Jim

[Bill M]

Thank you, Jim for your glowing response!

I really loved the howdah pistol Michael Douglass carried in the "Ghost and the Darkness" also. I can see how this would have been a good lion defense.

I had read that the British military did have some kind of large bore pistol that was used "brutally" in India. Possibly against people who went amok.

I am eager to get this in my hands. I realized that this, being about .70 caliber fired a huge bullet, perhaps some kind of buckshot. The barrels are about the size of a 12 ga shotgun.

With a healthy charge of black powder, it would cause serious damage to a lion. But the recoil would be substantial. Not something you would shoot often with "full-house" loads for fun!

But this is one of the neat things about muzzle loaders. It is easy to load them lighter for practice.

I am quite curious about the "straight rifling." There is no twist. Neither the seller nor I have ever seen anything like this. Any ideas?

[Pukka Bundook]

Hi Bill,

Nice looking pistol!
Will be interesting to see the proof marks when you have it.
The rifling doesn't look worn out!
Straight grooved barrels were at one time made for shot of a specific size, but this one is different, so can not say for sure the reason behind it.
Possibly the idea was to load easier, with less friction, but just guessing.
It looks French or Belgian, (stock shape and trigger-guard) and a nice solid gun!
I have an atricele somewhere on firing these. It's an old Guns & ammo publication.
Seems you don't get the nasty snap you get with a full-house .44 mag, but it does climb, though easy to control with one hand.

We will await a range report!

All the best,

Richard.

[Jim McDougall]

Hi Bill and Richard,
I can see how excited you must be to get this piece Bill, I'm right with ya! I keep thinking of your 'museum' there and it really must be a fantastic place for adventures. I recall my den when I would retreat coming home from the chaos of work, heading straight there and my wife would always say, "where are you headed tonight?" and I would say Africa, India, Central Asia or whatever the mood was. It is truly the passion that drives all of us in our collecting and study of these fantastic historical weapons.

Great observations Richard! Its really exciting to see the incredible posts here on firearms, and the interest and expertise on them that has apparantly been latent for so long. I'm glad that this expanded scope has brought this area forward and very much look forward to learning more these and on all these fields of collecting arms and armour.

On the straight rifling, again I emphasize I am a complete novice at firearms, but just a thought. Since these guns were for firing at extremely close range, could it be that rifling would not be needed for trajectory, and would just propel the load straight?
Actually I didn't think that shotguns were rifled as they were firing shot that was controlled by the 'choke' or pattern of the buckshot which depended on the barrel length. Since this is what seems to me essentially a sawed off shotgun, I thought it would be smoothbore.

I've always thought sawed off shotguns were pretty formidable weapons, and most of my interest came from studying the gunfighters of the 'wild west'.The the 'coach guns' carried by the 'shotgun' rider who was sort of the western version of the gunner on WWII bombers come to mind.

Bill, I know what you mean on the black powder firing. I had a most interesting singular experience firing an old black powder musket, and the dynamics were pretty impressive. Even more stunning was that myself, completely alien to guns, actually hit my target!!!

All the best,
Jim

[fernando]

Hi Bill, welcome to this part of the world .
It is only natural that we tend to think that the sense of rifling is that of causing a determined rotation in the bullet, to avoid air resistence and therefore promote projectile direction 'straightness', which is an undeniable fact. Such rifling is grooved in the different barrels with a diverse rotary 'pass', depending on the distinct models and respective patents.
But it seems as there is another version/option called 'straight rifling', which is a rather different thing and serves a somehow opposite purpose, mainly uded in shot guns, i think relative to avoid the wad (and the lead) to freely (randomly?) spin, causing the dispersion of the shot pellets charge, when wanted otherwise.
As rifling is a term intrinsecal to the spinning efect, one (i) thend to think it would be more correct to call this version straight grooving ... but i am wandering .
Just try and draw what is usefull, from all i said ... and with some reserve . Others can put this more technicaly, of course.
Fernando

[Bill M]

I met with an expert on older guns today. I asked him about the "straight rifling." He informed me of something that was so obvious I should have seen it from the start.

It was to prevent or at least postpone fouling. Has nothing to do with trajectory or bullet rotation.

I wonder if rifled guns fouled less than smoothbores? I bet they did.


Richard,

So good to see you on this forum! From your posts on British Militaria, you have a LOT to contribute!

Thanks for your information. Would love to see the article on Howdah pistols.


Fernando,

Good to be here. I may be getting the Jaziel(?) Afghan rifle down down a little oiling.


Jim,

Yeah, I do feel like "tonight I am going to Africa." The Tsavo lion is in our bedroom. Though he is frozen in mid-leap, sometimes I catch a glimpse of him from the corner of my eye and he seems to be watching.

Sometimes Anne and I go around our house holding only one candle. Total darkness otherwise. I suggest doing this. You can see things by candlelight that are not there with room lighting.


I also have my eye on a store near me that sells powder, percussion caps, bullets and supplies. I WILL be working with an expert in old guns before firig it. He has some other people who want to go to the range.

He has suggested that I really do not want full power loads in the howdah pistol, or the Snider because it will hurt!

[fernando]

Originally Posted by Bill Marsh

... It was to prevent or at least postpone fouling. Has nothing to do with trajectory or bullet rotation ...

Is that (only) so ?

I know my english isn't the best, but i am certain that the writings i spotted when i browsed for straight rifling ( i knew quite well about 'normal' rifling), meant something otherwise; passages like:

The straight rifling keeps the wad from spinning which keeps the pattern consistent from shot to shot.

or:

... The imperfections cause a twisting or turning of the wad as it travels along the barrel and unequal pressure leads to an uneven dispersion of the shot as it leaves the barrel and consequently the mirrored pattern and uneven dispersion on the target.
One way which was proposed to overcome this problem was to provide a new barrel in which straight lands were provided to ensure that the wad travelled down the barrel without twisting. Such a method will prevent the turning of the shot as it leaves the barrel and consequently the mirrored pattern and uneven dispersion on the target.

or even a picture of a gun with one barrel smooth and the other straight rifled, would never make me think that the intention of such system was to prevent barrel fouling.

I guess straight rifling nowadays serves purposes different than those applied in antique weaponry.
Visibly i have been reading the wrong material .

Fernando