Posted April 18, 2016 4:00 pm by Comments

By Robert Farago

Howdah pistol (courtesy hallowelico.com)

Underneath our post Palm Beach Zoo Tiger Kills Keeper: It Should Have Been a Defensive Gun Use, TTAG commentators theorized what pistol they’d carry as a zookeeper working around tigers. A couple of clued-in pistoleros recommended the Howdah pistol, a firearm about which I knew nothing. So I surfed the web for the 411 on the Howdah, of which I’ll share with you. Let’s start with a particularly well-written entry at wikipedia.org . . .

The howdah pistol was a large-calibre handgun, often with two or four barrels, used in India and Africa from the beginning of the nineteenth century, and into the early twentieth century, during the period of British Colonial rule. It was typically intended for defence against tigers, lions, and other dangerous animals that might be encountered in remote areas. Multi-barreled breech-loading designs were later favoured over the original muzzle-loading designs for Howdah pistols, because they offered faster reloading than was possible with contemporary revolvers, which had to be loaded and unloaded through a gate in the side of the frame.

(courtesy hollwelico.com)” width=”700″ …Read the Rest

Source:: Truth About Guns

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.