gary reeder
Charlie, thanks but it really isn't a big deal
Wednesday, March 10, 2021, 21:52

Lee Jurras was the first person I knew to put out a Howdah pistol back in the mid to late 70s. They were full custom Contenders in 6 cartridges that Lee developed. Lee was a good friend back then and sent me 2 of the prototypes. I hunted with the 375 Jurras

but for some reason I didn't hunt with the 460 Jurras. Not really sure what I did with it.

Anyway after Lee came down with cancer he knew he only had a short time to live. He called and asked me to meet him at John Linebaugh's seminar, which I did. We sat and talked on and off for 3 days and the main thing was he was afraid people would forget him after he was gone. He asked me to bring a couple of his special series back. The Howdah was one of them. His TC tool was another. He said he sold about 65 of his TC takedown tool so we added a few other features to it and brought it back and built 65 of them.
The Howdah was the main thing Lee wanted us to bring back, so we did. We planned on building 100 of them. I think we ended up with 80 or so. Still have a few in case someone wants one down the road. It was built on the TC just like the originals and in several calibers. It had the name Howdah on the barrel in gold.

He asked us to build a Lee Jurras Memorial revolver and we did that, building 25 of them.

We got the prototype 475 Linebaugh revolver to him just a couple of weeks before he died. That was his baby.

Even in his weakened state he took it out and shot it.

So the name Howdah was not my inspiration, nor was it Lee's. It was first named in Africa and in India by lion and tiger hunters on the backs of an elephant.
So nobody stole it from me, or from Lee. Besides that our Howdah revolvers are still being made and in a lot larger calibers than most of the new versions of the Howdah. So thanks again Charlie. Now go have another beer.