The Goose
NES Member
I hit the range with my new (to me) Perdersoli Howdah Hunter 20 gauge double barrel smoothbore. Shot a .610 ball over 50 grains of 3F black powder with a lubed .010 patch. Man, this gun is just plain fun. The distance was about 35 feet. I fired 14 shots. The first one did not even hit the cardboard. The second one was high center above the orange. Then one slightly left off orange and one below. Finally I figured out where to aim and fired 10 more. Remember, smoothbore with no rear sight. You can distinctly see where the left and right barrel hit. Lots of smoke and noise. Boom! Manageable recoil. If I was actually loading for tiger I would probably go with 100 grains, but for punching paper the load was fine. If you do not know what a Howdah pistol is scroll down under the photos.
A Howdah is the basket on an elephants back that people ride in. In 19th century India a popular pastime was hunting tigers from a Howdah. Occasionally the enraged tiger would leap up onto the elephants back and into the Howdah. Although my personal thought is "yay tiger" I am sure it was very unpleasant for the occupants of the Howdah. The British developed the short, heavy caliber Howdah pistol as a last ditch back up gun. They were usually smoothbores without sights that fired a large roundball (20 gauge = .61 caliber) over a very heavy powder charge. Not particularly accurate, but devastating at bad breath range. Additionally since British officers were required to supply their own sidearms some carried this pistol as their duty weapon. Being a smoothbore it could be loaded with a solid ball, buck and ball or buckshot. When percussion revolvers were in their infancy and were viewed as somewhat unreliable and finicky, the Howdah pistol offered two very fast and reliable shots that could stop a man in his tracks. A desirable feature when facing a man with a sharp, pointy object (or a tiger). As the transition from muzzle loader to metalic cartridge evolved the Howdah pistol still maintained it's limited popularity by being chambered in large caliber rounds like the .577. This reproduction pictured is fairly close to what they looked like.
A Howdah is the basket on an elephants back that people ride in. In 19th century India a popular pastime was hunting tigers from a Howdah. Occasionally the enraged tiger would leap up onto the elephants back and into the Howdah. Although my personal thought is "yay tiger" I am sure it was very unpleasant for the occupants of the Howdah. The British developed the short, heavy caliber Howdah pistol as a last ditch back up gun. They were usually smoothbores without sights that fired a large roundball (20 gauge = .61 caliber) over a very heavy powder charge. Not particularly accurate, but devastating at bad breath range. Additionally since British officers were required to supply their own sidearms some carried this pistol as their duty weapon. Being a smoothbore it could be loaded with a solid ball, buck and ball or buckshot. When percussion revolvers were in their infancy and were viewed as somewhat unreliable and finicky, the Howdah pistol offered two very fast and reliable shots that could stop a man in his tracks. A desirable feature when facing a man with a sharp, pointy object (or a tiger). As the transition from muzzle loader to metalic cartridge evolved the Howdah pistol still maintained it's limited popularity by being chambered in large caliber rounds like the .577. This reproduction pictured is fairly close to what they looked like.
