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Finally, anyone know what accuracy can be expected? As extreme close range weapons, were they even regulated at all? Maybe one of our Alaskan members could comment. I know there have been one to maybe three brought to the Alaskan big bore shoots held each year.

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I have a Pedersoli muzzleloading Howdah in .58 cal. It is pretty accurate once you install proper front sight. For some (probably legal) reasons Pedersoli suggests using 35 grains in this pistol. The barrels are pretty much the same as barrels for the Kodiak .58 cal. I know as I have both and the Kodiak is rated up to 110 grains (100 with a conical). My favourite loads for the Pedersoli howdah is 50 or 60 grains and a 270 grain lead ball. A conical REAL shoots well too, but there is a bit too much recoil. However if I was using this a backup for a charging buffalo or tiger I would put hardened lead REALs and 120 grains of powder in each bore. The recoil would be the least of my worries.

With 35 grains and a 270 grain round ball one gets 480-500 fps - not much, and ridiculously steep trajectory for which the factory sight is designed. When I load 50-60 grains I'm getting 1200fps.

Anyway, coming back to accuracy, once I raised the bead front sight by about 3 mm (120 thou) and I shoot right barrel then left at a 25m target I have two holes in the 10 points ring almost touching. At 50m I can hit a paper plate with every shot and the trajectory is almost flat.I could do much better if the front sight wasn't a shotgun style bead that is pretty imprecise at 50m. I'm waiting for a ghost tang sight to come from Italy (it takes months to order anything directly from the factory) and I'll be replacing the bead with a thin post and smaller bead. Then I'll be testing it at 100m. I expect the accuracy to be in the region of "minute of deer" at the distance.

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