Someone Talk Me Out of a Howdah

[Enfield58]

Enfield, I sure enjoyed the REAL story of the Howdah's origin!

Just great!!!

Best regards, Skychief.

Thanks. Every gun has a story behind it.

 

[FishDFly]

Okay, the Howdah, is on the want list, just slipped down a couple of numbers.

 

[Enfield58]

Okay, the Howdah, is on the want list, just slipped down a couple of numbers.

What did it for you?
Was it the pistol porn on this thread?
Was it Hickok 45's videos?
Was it the video of the actual tiger attack?
Was it the REAL story behind the Howdah?
Was it shades of the "Mad Max" holster?
Was it the desire to join the exclusive Howdah pistol club?
Did your wife or SWMBO talk you into it?

 

[FishDFly]

What did it for you? Reading.
Was it the pistol porn on this thread? No
Was it Hickok 45's videos? No, I do not watch videos.
Was it the video of the actual tiger attack? No, I do not watch videos
Was it the REAL story behind the Howdah? No.
Was it shades of the "Mad Max" holster? Huh?
Was it the desire to join the exclusive Howdah pistol club? No.
Did your wife or SWMBO talk you into it? I have not idea what SWMBO means

The main reason, is the it does not seem to balance well.

 

[Freedom]

One thing to keep in mind if you ever load shot....the ramrod hole in the stock is bored all the way to the locks.

If 1 piece of shot falls down that hole while you are loading it can block your sear! So your hammer will not engage your trigger completely, (or not at all), when you cock your hammers. I even read of a broken sear from this.

With just a little practice, I was able to knock down my shotgun popper at 100yards with my 20 Howdah and .60cal RBs. One barrel was lots easier to make the hit with. It is quite a reach to the front trigger for me and much harder to break the shot cleanly.

I use heavy 12oz skirting leather wads behind a 60cal RB and a 45-70 case full of 3fff all held in place by a very thin cardboard wad.
The recovered leather wads show that they form a really nice cup and seal around the ball. So I doubt the ball ever touches the barrel. Patched RB's don't shoot as well as the heavy leather wads even out of my smoothy rifle.

 

[Enfield58]

One thing to keep in mind if you ever load shot....the ramrod hole in the stock is bored all the way to the locks.

If 1 piece of shot falls down that hole while you are loading it can block your sear! So your hammer will not engage your trigger completely, (or not at all), when you cock your hammers. I even read of a broken sear from this.

With just a little practice, I was able to knock down my shotgun popper at 100yards with my 20 Howdah and .60cal RBs. One barrel was lots easier to make the hit with. It is quite a reach to the front trigger for me and much harder to break the shot cleanly.

I use heavy 12oz skirting leather wads behind a 60cal RB and a 45-70 case full of 3fff all held in place by a very thin cardboard wad.
The recovered leather wads show that they form a really nice cup and seal around the ball. So I doubt the ball ever touches the barrel. Patched RB's don't shoot as well as the heavy leather wads even out of my smoothy rifle.

Just to clarify; are you saying that you do not use a cloth patch at all? Just the leather wad behind the ball with a card wad in front?

 

[BlackHillsBob]

get one, load it as i do my precussion pistol. its a 45. i use 20 grains of real black. 3 60thousnads thick wads. 2 round balls unpatched on top of that then a patched round ball on top of that. hits good at 15 yards. its in my old pickup along side of me when i go to town or travel the county roads. remember a side lock isnt a loaded gun until you put the primer on the nipple which takes just seconds. a howda who be better than mine but again mine for one shot would be better than any of my colt ssa.

 

[Freedom]

Just to clarify; are you saying that you do not use a cloth patch at all? Just the leather wad behind the ball with a card wad in front?

Yes sir... just the heavy skirting leather.

 

[Enfield58]

Yes sir... just the heavy skirting leather.

Wow. That is amazing!

 

[Freedom]

For fun I bought a Forester slug mould. The bullets were tumbling withing just a few feet of the bore. So I glued wool blanket strips (cut off from a capote I made) into the hollow base of the slugs to "drag stabilize" them. These were lots of fun as you could see them in flight to about 200 yards. And it did not matter how much angle you shot them at...200 yards was the max they would fly.!..lol

 

[Freedom]

Wow. That is amazing!

I do dip the leather wads in neet's foot oil. I think 5/8" was the punch that made a perfect leather wad for the Howdah.

 

[Enfield58]

I do dip the leather wads in neet's foot oil. I think 5/8" was the punch that made a perfect leather wad for the Howdah.

You said 12 Oz. skirting leather. Can you give me an idea of how thick that is?

 

[Freedom]

1 oz = 1/64 of an inch...so 8oz is 1/8". I just posted some of the testing results that were shared with me on the subject here.. https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/leather-wads.113507/

 

[rodwha]

get one, load it as i do my precussion pistol. its a 45. i use 20 grains of real black. 3 60thousnads thick wads. 2 round balls unpatched on top of that then a patched round ball on top of that. hits good at 15 yards. its in my old pickup along side of me when i go to town or travel the county roads. remember a side lock isnt a loaded gun until you put the primer on the nipple which takes just seconds. a howda who be better than mine but again mine for one shot would be better than any of my colt ssa.

20 grns of what I suppose is something along the lines of standard Goex pushing 3 balls is likely quite anemic. You might want to check penetration on some sort of medium to see what you get. Maybe it’s better than one might suppose, but 20 grns pushing a single ball isn’t something I’d feel all warm and cozy about.

 

[Enfield58]

I shot the Howdah today but didn't put too many rounds through it. Since I already had some pre-measured round made for my LeMat shotgun barrel I decided to try them in the Howdah.

I used a plastic shot wad with bore butter smeared around it. The charge was 50 grains of fffg.

The load used six of the 00 buck pellets for a 3/4 ounce load. That's what the LeMat could probably safely tolerate.

Besides, the revolver really barks with that shotgun load.

I was going to add three more pellets to make a full ounce but the maximum the plastic wad would hold is 6.

My first shots were at a 25 yard target. Out of both barrels, only one pellet hit the target.

I shot two rounds at a 10 yard target. The photo shows the result of both barrels.

The plastic wads penetrated the target at the 4 o'clock position.

Does anyone beside me notice that the pellets form a star pattern?

I'll try to get out in the next few days and try some #4 shot at 10 yards.

I still don't have any regrets about getting this hog leg. I can't wait to shot round balls out of this thing.

 

[rodwha]

I shot the Howdah today but didn't put too many rounds through it. Since I already had some pre-measured round made for my LeMat shotgun barrel I decided to try them in the Howdah.

I used a plastic shot wad with bore butter smeared around it. The charge was 50 grains of fffg.

The load used six of the 00 buck pellets for a 3/4 ounce load. That's what the LeMat could probably safely tolerate.

Besides, the revolver really barks with that shotgun load.

I was going to add three more pellets to make a full ounce but the maximum the plastic wad would hold is 6.

My first shots were at a 25 yard target. Out of both barrels, only one pellet hit the target.

I shot two rounds at a 10 yard target. The photo shows the result of both barrels.

The plastic wads penetrated the target at the 4 o'clock position.

Does anyone beside me notice that the pellets form a star pattern?

I'll try to get out in the next few days and try some #4 shot at 10 yards.

I still don't have any regrets about getting this hog leg. I can't wait to shot round balls out of this thing.

View attachment 5650

I’m a bit curious how each barrel patterned alone. Where the pellets spread out or is one side one barrel?

 

[Enfield58]

I’m a bit curious how each barrel patterned alone. Where the pellets spread out or is one side one barrel?

If I understand your question correctly; the pellets were spread out in a similar manner from each barrel.

The pellets did not impact one side for one barrel and the other side for the other barrel if that's what you are getting at.

I was going to try to load the pistol with the traditional shotgun (fiber) wads but forgot where I put them.

I'm not a shotgun person. So the reason that I used the plastic wads instead of traditional was because they were cheaper and easier to load.

With that said, are the traditional wads any improvement over the plastic wad or vice versa?

 

[AZbpBurner]

If I were to get a Howdah, it would have to be .60 cal (20 gauge) with longer barrels than pictured.

I already have a .60 cal flintlock pistol with 9" barrel, built for me by Thomas Knight. For better use with shot loads, I'd consider a minimum of 12" barrel to be more effective.

 

[Rat]

If I understand your question correctly; the pellets were spread out in a similar manner from each barrel.

The pellets did not impact one side for one barrel and the other side for the other barrel if that's what you are getting at.

I was going to try to load the pistol with the traditional shotgun (fiber) wads but forgot where I put them.

I'm not a shotgun person. So the reason that I used the plastic wads instead of traditional was because they were cheaper and easier to load.

With that said, are the traditional wads any improvement over the plastic wad or vice versa?

An easy way to avoid the plastic is with some grocery bag paper, make a paper tube to fit your bore, fill it with however much shot you want, then glue the end shut. Then just pour in your powder, put in however many over powder wads you want, and ram the paper shot-cartridge down. Actually, you can have your over powder wad(s) in the cartridge/paper tube with the shot, to eliminate loading them over the powder in a separate step. Just pour powder, ram down cartridge. Paper bag is also cheaper than plastic wads...the grocery store gives them away. Well, you do have to buy the glue.

 

[Freedom]

It's pretty easy to make the paper-bag cartridge too robust... and end up slugging. Sure a lot of fun to play with though!