Howdah Pistol

[Shadow1848]

Here's something- the Howdah pistol.

http://www.hallowellco.com/tipping-+-Lawdon-Howdah-right-sm.jpg

http://www.hallowellco.com/double-barrel-howdah-pistol-sm.jpg

In appearance it's virtually identical to a sawed-off side-by-side double barrel shotgun, but in reality it's nothing like it. This big-bore (example above is chambered in the .577 Snider rifle round) double pistol was designed as a hunter's backup in the days of the British empire. There are many variants, this one in particular being the breech-loading, cartridge firing, rifled barrel version, commonplace by the 1890s.

This mod wouldn't be tough to create- there's already an animation for a breech-loading sawed off shotgun, and someone has already modded that so it fires one barrel at a time rather than both at the same time. .577 Snider certainly doesn't exist in New Vegas, but it could be chambered in .50 MG for simplicity's sake (.50 BMG is also not very far off from the size of .577 Snider). I'm recommending that is does about 105 damage, above the .50BMG revolver mod but below the Anti-Materiel Rifle. The only truly new thing that's needed is a model. Reply below if anyone's up to the challenge. I think this big bore hunter's companion once used for taking down tigers could find new life as a wasteland wanderer's Deathclaw slayer.

Edited February 27, 2015 by Shadow1848

[TheBlob2]

we could use millenia's toz-66 as a base. although its almost impossible to get his permission, he's very picky about who he lets use his stuff

Edited February 27, 2015 by TheBlob2

[Shadow1848]

we could use millenia's toz-66 as a base. although its almost impossible to get his permission, he's very picky about who he lets use his stuff

I'd say it's worth a shot. If not we can just use the sawed-off shotgun and go from there. It has to be bigger than a shotgun for starters, especially has to be bigger than a 20 gauge if we're going to say reasonably that it chambers .50.

Edited February 27, 2015 by Shadow1848

[madmongo]

Howdah pistols may have large caliber size barrels, but they fired round musket balls. The pistols themselves are much smaller than a double-barrel shotgun (even a very short sawed off shotgun), and even though it fires a .50 cal round ball, that packs nowhere near the same amount of energy as a modern .50 cal bullet or even a 20 gauge shell. Damage-wise, they are probably equivalent to a .357 pistol at best, and probably more like the 9mm for your typical howdah. Yeah, they fired a big hunk of lead, but the short barrel and the round shape of the bullet and the relatively small powder load meant that it didn't have a huge amount of force behidn it.

 

The older flintlock versions were usually smooth bore, and couldn't hit the broad side of a barn beyond about 25 yards or so. Later percussion cap models were sometimes rifled and were a bit more accurate. Their intent was usually to be used at close range, though, like when a tiger is jumping up on your cart. They weren't just for hunters. They were also used for personal protection, and not just against animals.

 

Damage should be much, much smaller than what you suggested. If you are doing a smooth bore flintlock, the weapon spread will be horrible. If you are doing a more modern rifled version, the weapon spread will be about equal to a typical low-quality pistol.

 

There's a flintlock pistol here:

http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/49079/?

 

If the author will let you use the assets, what you want to do is basically make a copy of it, flip it so that the flintlock is on the other side, then mush the two together so that there's only one stock and hand grip. That's all a howdah pistol is, two (or more) regular flintlock pistols shoved together.

 

Most howdah pistols had two barrels, but I've seen some with three or even four barrels.

 

Early howdah pistols were all muzzle loaded. Later ones were sometimes breach loaders and often were break-action, which means you could probably use the shotgun animation for reloading.

 

The flintlock versions were prone to accidentally firing both barrels if you didn't keep the weapon clean (the sparks from one flint going off would ignite powder residue on the surface of the weapon, often igniting the other pan and making that barrel fire as well).

[TheBlob2]

There's a flintlock pistol here:

http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/49079/?

 

that pistol is very low quality i think my eye teared a little from how ugly it is, i dont think OP would want that. if you dont want the toz-66 because its too small, we could always make it bigger

[madmongo]

If you want it to be at all realistic, take the toz-66 with the sawed off stock and the sawed off barrel, and make it SMALLER. Not bigger.

 

A weapon like the OP describes would do almost as much damage to the person shooting it as it would to the person or object they are shooting at. A weapon that small with so little mass to absorb the recoil would kick harder than an FEV infected super-mutatant mule.

 

If you don't care about realisim, then do whatever you want. There's no shortage of silly weapons on the nexus.

[Shadow1848]

Howdah pistols may have large caliber size barrels, but they fired round musket balls. The pistols themselves are much smaller than a double-barrel shotgun (even a very short sawed off shotgun), and even though it fires a .50 cal round ball, that packs nowhere near the same amount of energy as a modern .50 cal bullet or even a 20 gauge shell. Damage-wise, they are probably equivalent to a .357 pistol at best, and probably more like the 9mm for your typical howdah. Yeah, they fired a big hunk of lead, but the short barrel and the round shape of the bullet and the relatively small powder load meant that it didn't have a huge amount of force behidn it.

 

The older flintlock versions were usually smooth bore, and couldn't hit the broad side of a barn beyond about 25 yards or so. Later percussion cap models were sometimes rifled and were a bit more accurate. Their intent was usually to be used at close range, though, like when a tiger is jumping up on your cart. They weren't just for hunters. They were also used for personal protection, and not just against animals.

 

Damage should be much, much smaller than what you suggested. If you are doing a smooth bore flintlock, the weapon spread will be horrible. If you are doing a more modern rifled version, the weapon spread will be about equal to a typical low-quality pistol.

 

There's a flintlock pistol here:

http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/49079/?

 

If the author will let you use the assets, what you want to do is basically make a copy of it, flip it so that the flintlock is on the other side, then mush the two together so that there's only one stock and hand grip. That's all a howdah pistol is, two (or more) regular flintlock pistols shoved together.

 

Most howdah pistols had two barrels, but I've seen some with three or even four barrels.

 

Early howdah pistols were all muzzle loaded. Later ones were sometimes breach loaders and often were break-action, which means you could probably use the shotgun animation for reloading.

 

The flintlock versions were prone to accidentally firing both barrels if you didn't keep the weapon clean (the sparks from one flint going off would ignite powder residue on the surface of the weapon, often igniting the other pan and making that barrel fire as well).

Thank you for the enlightenment on the use of Howdahs for protection in the wilderness, it was something I forgot to include in my original post, but that was their primary purpose outside of being a hunter's backup.

Early Howdahs were muzzle-loading powder, wad and musket ball firing pistols. However, later on, cartridge versions were introduced and became common place.

http://www.19thcenturyweapons.com/907/hand/pix/howdahopen.jpg

An open, cartridge-firing Howdah chambered in a pinfire round, likely 12mm or 15mm.

http://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/7/71/577_howdah_pistol.jpg/601px-577_howdah_pistol.jpg

An example of an accurate reproduction from the 2009 Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes movie, likely chambered in .577. I have yet to find any cartridge reproductions civilians can buy, but that one fits the bill.

.577 Snider might not have the same ballistics as .50 BMG, but it's still a mean round and is capable of a lot of damage. I'm recommending ours use .50 MG for simplicity's sake, though we could reduce the damage to something like 85 or 90. I'm also aware there were many versions with up to 4 barrels, but double-barrel was the most common and would also be the easiest to create in New Vegas. As far as range and accuracy goes, Howdahs tend to have medium length (6 inch is common) barrels, so it wouldn't be incredible, but they were rifled and cartridge version would probably have a decent range and accuracy.

EDIT: You're definitely right about kick, and Howdahs were known for being mean-ass guns to fire. This was the British Empire and if you broke your wrist, it was your damn fault. They were also, however, all steel and wood, making them very, very heavy, reducing the recoil, and if you knew what you were doing they weren't impossible to tame. Because why make a gun if you can't use it? It might have to be a little smaller, but it could probably be about the same size.

Edited February 28, 2015 by Shadow1848