A different Khyber pass type

[RJW NZ]

...but strangely competent looking. Imagine .577 and 550(?) grains on the wrist, hoo ha!

lol, it'll probably still shoot 500 yards too.

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[Peter Laidler]

Not only that, but if the pisol grip is made from the Martini loading/loading cam lever, what happens when it recoils up and rearwards? The thing will unlock and open!!!!!!!!!!!!! Or is there some other mechanism in there somewhere. The ingenuity of it!

[Thunderbox]

IIRC its a copy of a fairly common type of "Howdah" pistol for shooting tigers that leap onto the back of one's elephant... The "real" ones were well made by the conventional Trade, and were retailed by normal gunsmiths in India.

The breech operating lever usually sits along the face of the pistol grip, so that you actually hold it closed as the the pistol is gripped.

I used to have one that was made out of a Greener 12G shotgun or something similar from the Birmingham Trade. Painful to shoot (and that was with 12G shotshells, not with whatever monster bullet it was supposed to fire!), but probably a lot less painful than being bitten by a Tiger!

[bigduke6]

The grip is seperate from the lever, much like the .22 martini action target rifles, with the work that has been done I guess they would of made a chamber adapter for it.

[paulseamus]

Googled "howdah pistols" most appear to be based upon shotguns, rather than Martini actions. Seemed to have been quite popular in Colonial India, just as explained by Thundebox.

Interestingly, their popularity has had a resurgence down here. Even though we have no Elephants or Tigers, they are coomonly used when making large bank withdrawals fom other peoples accounts.

Will need to let the local crims know that their sawn-off shotty is actually a Howdah Pistol.....

CheeRs

Paul

[breakeyp]

The first pictured martini pistol in this thread will be in .303 rifle caliber. I have yet to see Dara made Martini pistol in .450/,577.

All the ones shown in my two pictures are native made in .303 and .38 S&W. The various designs and markings are fascinating. Ban guns and they get made anyway---some people can't seem to figure that out.

[Thunderbox]

Given that most men on the NW Frontier have less body mass than the average western 10-year old, I wonder how they deal with a .303 calibre pistol...

[jmoore]

Given that most men on the NW Frontier have less body mass than the average western 10-year old, I wonder how they deal with a .303 calibre pistol...

Because, if the bores are anything like the ones I've seen (both Martini and tip-up type), the bullet has plenty of windage! The .303s seem to average about 9mm in bore/groove/what-have-you. The "rifling" is basically just spiral scratches- not very uniform in twist and maybe 0.001-0.002" deep. Just deep enough to look like something- but not always.

[Surpmil]

Well so much for not cutting rifles down into pistols eh? I wonder if our grandfathers had the cojones to fire a cut down SMLE; somehow I think they did...blast or no blast.

Enterprising chaps those Pathans. Not dismayed by complication either, but then we've largely lost our hand skills; not that we couldn't recover them if we had to.

[breakeyp]

During a visit to the Pattern Room, Mr. Woodend showed me a native made No.1 Mk1 that was a perfect copy in fit and finish as well as markings. The only false item was the small set screw on the rear sight leave was hand engraved (non functional). They were very happy to have obtained it at auction in Britain. Also very nice was a folding stock bolt action AK plastic and stamped steel derivative in 7mm Mauser!