Pedersoli Howdah

Accuracy?

Well now, I’m not quite sure if it matters. While British officers were known to take their howdah pistols into battle at times, distances even then would be measured in feet. Since this gun is simply made for fun, I’d say the same applies. Could you use it for home defense or some such? Well, of course, just like you could use a club or a spear in a pinch, but there are better tools to rely on. The howdah is heavy, awkward to hold in one hand and the manual of arms to load it is a bit fussy.

The “break-open” takes two hands and firm grips and I found a strike on my thigh helped to break it open expeditiously. You need to extract the empties, re-load each barrel, close it down (two hands again), make sure the safety is off, try to aim the beast — I used my off-hand on the fore-stock — then remember to pull two different triggers. Repeat as needed. Give me a Charter Arms .38 any day if things were serious.

But — and this is the big one — it’s absolutely nearly as much fun as law allows, plus it raises eyes to high heaven when people see it. “What the bajesus is that thing!?” they say. “It’s a howdah pistol,” you say smiling. “A what?” they say, eyebrows raised. Then the game is afoot. It’s fun, trust me.

Out of curiosity more than any sense of practical use, I bag-rested the howdah at 15 yards. Using Black Hills factory .45 Colt cowboy loads that were handy, recoil was virtually zero. Even heavy 300-grain hunting loads barely caused a stir.

The right barrel, aimed at the target’s center, sent three of the rounds into a nice, 1″ group about 6″ high and centered, then tossed two into the bull area but just to the right a couple of inches. Oddly enough, the left barrel also hit about 6″ high, but the group was a nicely rounded 3.5″ and about 3″ to the left. The bead sight does make things a bit guessy but I strove to be consistent.

I repeated the drill several times and it always worked out the same. The right barrel would shoot a few into a group, then randomly toss a couple into another spot. The left sent them into the same area all the time. But who cares? I predict if Sir Reginald fired it, he’d pronounce it “Bloody fine, but don’t you have one in a serious caliber, lad?”

Make this in .45-70 and possibly better sights just for the helluvit and you might have just invented a new fun gun, especially if the barrels can be regulated a bit tighter.