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| Talk about fun! Here is a mid 19th century double barrel pistol. The flat topped percussion locks are known as "bar locks" because of the shape. The locks are rust blued. |
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| Here's a view from the bottom. The triggerguard is brass. |
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| Here is the left side. The locks are held to each other via a screw that is accessible from the left side. |
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| Here a view from the top. The barrels are generally .62 cal smoothbore which is 20ga in shotgun terms. Like all double barreled guns, it has a hooked breech. |
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| Here is a shot comparing our reproduction to one of the original 1850's howdah pistols that are in our research collection. |
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| In case you were wondering why the "Howdah" type pistols were developed, it has to do with bog game hunting on the Indian subcontinent. The box a hunter rides in on the back of an elephant is called a howdah. When you shoot at tigers, it annoys them and they will sometimes counterattack, jumping right into the howdah and ruining your day. A back up weapon like a pistol is desirable and a two shot pistol is even more desirable. Watch this tiger to see how an angry tiger can jump into your lap faster than you can reload your muzzleloading era hunting rifle. If the image doesn't work in your browser, click on it. To see an original howdah pistol and an original .75 caliber big game rifle from our reference collection, click here. |
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