A little history for you!

[H Wally]

Did anyone here know that an air gun was one of the first european projectile weapons to travel across the North American continent and reach the west coast?

Furthermore, did you know you could hunt a bear with it?

I present to you the Girandoni style air rifle. Possibly carried by Lewis and Clark as well as issued to European troops. Not a blackpowder gun, but certainly deserves a place here more than the air rifle forum!

http://www.beemans.net/Austrian%20airguns.htm

note that this gun is magazine fed - no need for ram rods

 

[catnthehatt]

Did anyone here know that an air gun was one of the first european projectile weapons to travel across the North American continent and reach the west coast?

Furthermore, did you know you could hunt a bear with it?

I present to you the Girandoni style air rifle. Possibly carried by Lewis and Clark as well as issued to European troops. Not a blackpowder gun, but certainly deserves a place here more than the air rifle forum!

http://www.beemans.net/Austrian airguns.htm

note that this gun is magazine fed - no need for ram rods

I had read that Lewis and Clarke had some air guns with them when the went across, not sure if they looked exactly like the one pictured however.
Cat

 

[H Wally]

I had read that Lewis and Clarke had some air guns with them when the went across, not sure if they looked exactly like the one pictured however.
Cat

Haha - they probably were different - I think their air gun was a muzzle loader only for one thing. Remember reading somewhere in the diaries that he had to use a ramrod. Still, rather interesting.

Anyone want to cast their vote on if these would be welcome on a BP trail walk

 

[catnthehatt]

Haha - they probably were different - I think their air gun was a muzzle loader only for one thing. Remember reading somewhere in the diaries that he had to use a ramrod. Still, rather interesting.

Anyone want to cast their vote on if these would be welcome on a BP trail walk

I'm not allowed to use my original Remington Box lock with damascus barrels in the shogun matches, so i doubt if many woild allowed a repater air rifle , MAYBE if it were a muzzle loader, if it were original.....
Cat

 

[dingus]

Intresting! you wouldnt have to worry about getting your powder wet i guess
Do they pump the chamber up for each shot or does it hold enough presure to fire a few shots?
I had a compressed air powdered Spear gun in Australia the thing was Ex would shoot its spear right thru a shark or grouper more than 1 ft thick.
Was the best spear gun i ever seen made in spain.

 

[H Wally]

Intresting! you wouldnt have to worry about getting your powder wet i guess
Do they pump the chamber up for each shot or does it hold enough presure to fire a few shots?

From what I've read it takes up to 1500 pumps to get the tanks to max pressure, but at that point they can shoot maybe 20 rds? could very well be far more.

They did note that the tanks seem quite well built and can hold a charge for several weeks with no measurable decrease in pressure, so that would certainly have benefits.

 

[BrotherRockeye]

that is absolutely crazy...I want one!

 

[trevj]

That's probably the fifth or so Airgun that Beeman has attributed as to being the "THE!!" Lewis and Clark airgun. Coincidently, all while he owned them. Good marketing.

Personally, I am more inclined towards 'the' one having been one of the ball reservoir models built local to the area that the expedition started out. Since the records were never clear on what exactly, and built by whom, it'll remain a guessing game.

There are a couple different guys around that have built Girandoni's. If you want a copy, there is a book available that details the building of a version of one. Neat rigs, and far more complex in the firing mech that they look like at first.

As originally put into service, they were supposed to be supported by a crew served pump some ways to the rear, but could be pumped with a hand pump.

Neat rigs. Cool to see what could be done with relatively so little, when the makers had some hand skills and ingenuity onside.

Cheers
Trev

 

[John Spartan]

Interesting! Any idea what the effective range was for this and similar air guns?

 

[Yeti]

I have read that they were used in serveral Napoleonic battles by the Austrians and that Napolean found them so distasful and dishonorable a way to fight that a bounty was offered on air riflemen.

 

[achtanelion]

The reservoirs were formed of rolled brass or iron. To seal them, they would place lead inside and heat the reservoir up until the lead melted and roll it around so there would be lead in all the cracks.

J

 

[tacfoley]

'The' Lewis and Clark air rifle shown is most probably the actual one. In the journal the blackmsmith was noted as having had to make a trigger spring out of some spare metal that he had to hand, and this gun shows the exact repaired piece as described.

Anyhow, I'm inevitably reminded about the comment for a motoring journalist a few years ago at Selsey Walsh Hillclimb. Viewing the collection of ultra-rare ERA sports cars, he commented - 'What a grand sight it is to see so many of these beautiful cars doing what they were made for! Thirty-eight were built, of which forty-eight have survived.'

tac

 

[vagrantviking]

One of the Sherlock Holmes stories features an attempt on his life my a sniper with an air rifle. Fun little story.

I remember reading the Lewis and Clarke diaries and they mention shooting a number of animals with the air gun so it must have packed a pretty good punch.