Thank you, Jim for your glowing response!
I really loved the howdah pistol Michael Douglass carried in the "Ghost and the Darkness" also. I can see how this would have been a good lion defense.
I had read that the British military did have some kind of large bore pistol that was used "brutally" in India. Possibly against people who went amok.
I am eager to get this in my hands. I realized that this, being about .70 caliber fired a huge bullet, perhaps some kind of buckshot. The barrels are about the size of a 12 ga shotgun.
With a healthy charge of black powder, it would cause serious damage to a lion. But the recoil would be substantial. Not something you would shoot often with "full-house" loads for fun!
But this is one of the neat things about muzzle loaders. It is easy to load them lighter for practice.
I am quite curious about the "straight rifling." There is no twist. Neither the seller nor I have ever seen anything like this. Any ideas?
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