Jim C.

You make a great point about smoke from a BP gun obscuring the target. The first time I shot a BP double rifle, I was surprised how little I could see of the target - I was glad I wasn't shooting something that could hurt me.

However, if one were in a howdah (or other small enclosure), I would expect that the firing range of the 1st barrel would be a few feet and the 2nd barrel, the range would be inches if not contact. Smoke likely would not impact the outcome.

However, I don't want to have 1st hand experience to test my theory.

On effectiveness, a 480 gr harden, solid lead bullet at 920 fps should penetrate well and thus could be effective against most game.

However, no pistols (including 500 S&W) are anywhere as effective as a heavy caliber rifle or 12 ga shotgun. That said, in lieu of a pistol, I would rather have a Winchester 97 with slugs. I think that even I, in the face of a dangerous game attack, could operate the slide very quickly.

However, all that said, my thought of a howdah type pictol is is just fun, action shooting -- blowing up rocks, etc.