Many of us today think we have cornered the market on large bore pistols designed for the ultimate in self-defense or emergency backup while hunting dangerous game. If you think that’s true, you don’t know howdah.
The concept
The word “howdah” comes from the Hindi word “houdah” and Arabic “hawdaj” which means something on the order of a “bed carried by a camel” or elephant, or some other creature. In short, if you have ever seen the platform built atop an elephant, then you have seen a howdah. It’s from these platforms that European and American big game hunters and adventurers saw the Indian subcontinent and parts of Africa, often taking to them for hunting safaris for tigers in the high grass.
THIS
If you have seen this video, you can appreciate the ability of a tiger to levitate out of tall grass to the top of an elephant
Well it only took this happening a few times back in the 1800s for safari hunters to seek out some big medicine for emergency events such as this. The ideal gun for a backup piece on tigers or other dangerous game back then was a large bore flintlock (muzzle loading) pistol. When we say large bore, we are talking about shotgun sizes such as 16 and 20 gauge, crammed with a large (think 600 grain) ball or slug over a max charge of black powder.
In concept, these were either purpose-built short-barreled shotguns or just really big handguns with smoothbore barrels, depending on how you wanted to look at it.
Improvements
As time went by, pistols using percussion ignition replaced flintlocks by the 1840s and by the 1880s, you saw breechloading cartridge guns that used the same mantra of huge bores as a talisman against things that go bump in the night.
The British, catering both to officers deployed in the extensive colonial empire, and gentlemen hunters traveling for sport abroad, took the lead in modern howdah pistol development. Three gunmakers: Lancaster, Braendlin Armoury and Holland and Holland, among a host of smaller ones, began cranking out large-bore typically multi-barreled pistols in 2, 3 and 4 barrel variants chambered in large (.38 caliber and above) rounds.
These giant derringers/AOW shotguns were typically hinge-break designs with auto-ejectors and single action triggers with very low pull weight (think 2-3 pounds). This allowed the guns to be carried loaded, but ready to fire at the cock of a hammer with a high-caliber follow up shot just a hammer/trigger pull away.
Typical length ran 10-12 inches long and weight 2.5-3 pounds. All in all, about the size of today’s S&W 500 series, Ruger Super Redhawks or Desert Eagle pistols.
According to the consignor’s research, this pistol serial number 7659 was sold to Royal Navy Captain A. Moore in April 1885. Arthur William Moore joined the Royal Navy in 1860, was the commander of HMS Orion during the Egyptian War of 1882, and was present at the occupation of Ismailia and Battle of Tel el Kebir. He became Rear Admiral in 1899 and Commander in Chief, Cape of Good Hope and West Coast of Africa Station from 1902-04. He retired in 1912.
Read the rest in my column at Firearms Talk
