The wind is blowing through the trees that morning. In the distance you hear peacocks while the sun beats down on your ivory colored suit. It feels warm, typical for the tropics, you feel the sweat buildup on the brim of your pith helmet. It happens faster than you could ever imagine. Like a flash of orange and golden light shooting up through the bush. That snarl and growl sends chills deep down to your soul as you ready your double rifle. You raise the 450/400  in anticipation, you don’t even remember aiming let alone firing both barrels. He’s climbing up the elephant now. In a split second you make a decision, he’s too close to reload. You drop your rifle, draw your secondary gun and fire into the mass of orange claws and teeth that will soon overtake you. After you fire, the smoke clears and a tiger lays half way in your basket. You take a breath and reload.

Put yourself in the shoes of a sportsman in the far reaches of the colonies in the late 19th century. India was the crown jewel of the empire. Hunting tigers from elephants was considered by most to be the pinnacle of sport in India. Tigers would be driven towards the shooters sitting on top of trained elephants operated by elephant handlers. The concept was a simple but a very dangerous one. Reports of them literally crawling on top of elephants to get to the hunter were not uncommon.

This was the time of black powder express cartridges in large bore double rifles. With only two shots before needing to reload a backup gun is always a solid choice. Tigers move quickly and if not hit correctly can still be a very big problem before they expire. The natural choice would be to arm oneself with a pistol of some sort, they are shorter, easier to maneuver and work well in close quarters.

The howdah pistol became a staple overnight for such pursuits. Named after the basket one sits inside on top of the elephant, the howdah started off in muzzleloading form as simply smaller handheld  versions of the double barrel percussion long guns. As cartridge firearms became more prevalent the howdah pistols evolved with the rifles. By the late 19th century these pistols were the popular back up for sportsmen traveling abroad in the vast reaches of the empire.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, why not just get a revolver? A revolver has a higher capacity, potentially faster to reload and is typically a bit lighter in weight. The answer? Penetration power. Let’s take the most prevalent revolver cartridge of the day, the .455 Webley which was the standard issue sidearm across the empire. The .455 Webley loading of the day was launching a 265gr bullet around 700fps. Why so anemic by today’s standards? The answer is this is what they could achieve at the time with the propellants available. This is also what the limit was pressure wise for most revolver designs.

Think to yourself, is this a loading you want to stop a tiger with? Probably not.

Now compare that to a Howdah in .577 which fires a 480gr bullet at 800fps. The reality is that with blackpowder you cannot get the power needed from conventional revolvers. The most popular designs for Howdah pistols were typically sxs break actions with various opening mechanisms. Jones rotary underlevers, side and top levers were all made. The most interesting designs were even 4 barrel variants. While they came in a variety of chamberings, the .577 seemed to be quite popular as well as various .450 cartridges.

Are these guns practical? For the era they were used, yes. In today’s world, modern big bore revolvers have taken the place of double barrel howdahs. But where is the fun in practicality? The fun part of howdahs is they are so unique on their own and are time capsules to a golden age of hunting most of us only dream about.

Like most Americans who love hunting in Africa, I was introduced to the howdah in the most captivating way, The Ghost in the Darkness. This 90s film adaptation of the Man Eaters of Tsavo book by Col John Patterson is incredible. Col John Patterson was an engineer in the British Army building a bridge in Uganda for the railway when maneaters halted construction due to their terror. In the movie, Col Patterson(played by Val Kilmer) is assisted in his hunt by a fictional professional hunter named Remington(played by Michael Douglas) where they pursue the man eating lions of Tsavo believed to be the ghosts of dead witch doctors. What could make the plot even better? I’ll tell you. They gave Remington one of the coolest Howdah pistols, an over/under percussion variant with a folding bayonet. Honestly, this gun alone should make you want to watch the movie. 

If you are still reading this far and your next google search is to find a Howdah pistol for sale, then you are in good company. It is the perfect gun for those of us born 100 years too late and are forced to live in the modern era.

Bradley Johnson