Howdah Pistol

The Howdah Pistol is a term referring to several different types of 19th-century large-caliber multi-barrel handguns. They were developed by the British hunters in India for close range, last ditch, defense against tigers and other dangerous game. Many different English gun makers produced Howdah-style handguns.
A Howdah was the basket that hunters rode in on top of elephants in India. Tigers were known to climb up the elephant to reach the hunters in the Howdah. At such close range, a long barreled rifle was less than effective. The Howdah Pistol was perfect for such a close and dangerous scenario. They typically had two or four barrels, though three barreled models were also made. The double barrel models can be found in either the side-by-side or over and under configuration.
Howdah Pistols are massive, powerful, and delivered a hell of a wallop at both ends. However, it was believed that in a life and death situation, heavy recoil would not be noticed. Howdahs were also carried and used by British officers in many of England's colonial conflicts during the 19th century. At that time, revolvers were considered to be not very mechanically reliable and many British officers were less than impressed with the stopping power of the .36 caliber ball that the Colt Navy revolver fired. The heavy lead slugs fired by the Howdah Pistols were very powerful and considered to be just the thing for either a charging tiger or a charging native (remember it was the 19th century, a time of empire and imperial wars) at close range. Nowadays, Howdahs are very collectible.
The three examples shown on this page are by Alexander Henry, Lancaster, and Holland & Holland.
===Film===
Title 	Actor 	Character 	Note 	Date
The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle 	Harry Riebauer 	Inspector Jeff Mitchell	 	1963
The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle 	Stephan Schwartz 	Philip 	 	1963
The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle 	Walter Giller 	Lord Edgar Blackmoor 	 	1963
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb	 	 	on the walls of Gen. Ripper's office	1964
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly 	 	 	Seen in gun store 	1966
The Three Fat Men (Tri tolstyaka) 	Aleksey Batalov 	Tibul 	 	1966
Buck and the Preacher 	Sidney Poitier 	Buck 	 	1972
Almanzor's Rings (Koltsa Almanzora) 	Mikhail Kononov 	Zenziver 	Over and Under 	1978
Necronomicon 	Millie Perkins 	Lena 	. 	1993
The Ghost and the Darkness 	Michael Douglas 	Remington 	 	1996
The Ghost and the Darkness 	Val Kilmer 	Colonel Patterson 	 	1996
Sherlock Holmes 	Hans Matheson 	Lord Coward 	 	2009
The Duelist (Duelyant) 	Pyotr Fyodorov 	Pyotr Yakovlev 	Over and Under 	2016
The Duelist (Duelyant) 	 	 	Side by side, seen in gun store 	2016
Fatman 	Marianne Jean-Baptiste	Ruth 	 	2020
===Video Games===
Title 	Appears as 	Note 	Date
Pathologic 	"Sawn-Off Shotgun" 	Over and under w/ exposed hammers, depicted as a shotgun	2005
Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land 	"Lancaster" 	Lancaster 4-barreled 	2012
Assassin's Creed Syndicate 	"Lancaster 4 Barrel"	Lancaster 4-barreled 	2015
Battlefield 1 	"Howdah Pistol" 	Lancaster 4-barreled 	2016
Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades	 	Lancaster 4-barreled; added in 2024 	2016
Category:Gun
Category:Pistol