Girandoni air rifle as used by Lewis and Clark

[Team Sergeant]

Girandoni air rifle as used by Lewis and Clark

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pqFyKh-rUI

I'm a former weapons sergeant and I never heard of such a rifle!!! (OK so there is some cool stuff on youtube!)

[Ret10Echo]

Had a buddy point me to some of the high caliber air rifles some time back. Nice to revist that.

Like these guys (Link)

(Wounded Warrior Project supporter)

[Badger52]

Yep, they are cool beans. One of the scavenger-type shows awhile back featured one somebody found by accident. (HH6: "Come down here, you gotta see this!")

Can you imagine a little Girl Scout or 4H'er tryin to run that thing off-hand in a church basement?

[PSM]

Originally Posted by Team Sergeant

Girandoni air rifle as used by Lewis and Clark

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pqFyKh-rUI

I'm a former weapons sergeant and I never heard of such a rifle!!! (OK so there is some cool stuff on youtube!)

You might get a chance to play with one: Bill Harsey post.

Pat

[alelks]

Originally Posted by Team Sergeant

Girandoni air rifle as used by Lewis and Clark

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pqFyKh-rUI

I'm a former weapons sergeant and I never heard of such a rifle!!! (OK so there is some cool stuff on youtube!)

Same here. I had no idea. I first saw it on one of the gun debate forums I think. They were discussing the need for weapons that had high capacity magazines. I guess this debunks the myth that they weren't used or needed by our forefathers.

[MR2]

They have a working one at the NRA museum in Wash DC. The place looks like Charlton Hestons' playroom.

[twistedsquid]

Great post. I was unaware air rifles existed so long ago. I'm curious as to how the air chamber was sealed and charged. Moreover, how much more ammo could be carried now that powder wasn't required?

[Tippy]

I saw a display of this rifle a few years ago. The owner told how a friend had borrowed his original with plans to make a reproduction. A while later the friend called him to come and look at the disassembled rifle. Inspection revealed a jury rigged replacement spring that very much met the description of an incident described in the original Lewis and Clark journal. The owner can only provide provenance back to the 1930's, and he can not prove that his rifle is the Lewis and Clark rifle.
No where in the journals is a reason provided for taking the air rifle on the expedition. The owner of the rifle believes that the rifle was used to demonstrate to the indians a "magic" rifle that could fire unlimited shots on semi automatic, in order to intimidate the Indians from attacking the isolated small expedition. Anyone remember how many were on the Lewis and Clark expedition?
If I remember the owner has written an article several years ago about his rifle, in the American Rifleman Journal (NRA).
The owner told me that the detachable butt was the resouvior for the compressed air, and that a hand crank device was provided to fill the butt. He said that the Austrians (inventors)carried many prepumped butts, so that all they had to do was switch from an empty butt, to a full one in order to keep firing.
Interesting that the projectile weighed approx. 180 grains and the velocity was about 900+ fps, which is approx. same as the .40 S&W pistol cartridge of recent popularity.
Several trees were used to demonstrate the rifle's capabilities, I wonder if any very old trees may still retain some of those projectiles?
Semper Fidelis,
Tippy

[MK262MOD1]

Gun Digest from the early 90s had a great article on this rifle. I will have to look up the year. I still have them all in a box somewhere. I could try to PDF it if anyone is interested. I was shooting ISU air rifle in Germany at the time and remember thinking how cool that article was...

[Pete]

From the Adventure Challenge thread - post # 124.

http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/...ifle%22&page=9

[SF_BHT]

Originally Posted by Tippy

I saw a display of this rifle a few years ago. The owner told how a friend had borrowed his original with plans to make a reproduction. A while later the friend called him to come and look at the disassembled rifle. Inspection revealed a jury rigged replacement spring that very much met the description of an incident described in the original Lewis and Clark journal. The owner can only provide provenance back to the 1930's, and he can not prove that his rifle is the Lewis and Clark rifle.
No where in the journals is a reason provided for taking the air rifle on the expedition. The owner of the rifle believes that the rifle was used to demonstrate to the indians a "magic" rifle that could fire unlimited shots on semi automatic, in order to intimidate the Indians from attacking the isolated small expedition. Anyone remember how many were on the Lewis and Clark expedition?
If I remember the owner has written an article several years ago about his rifle, in the American Rifleman Journal (NRA).
The owner told me that the detachable butt was the resouvior for the compressed air, and that a hand crank device was provided to fill the butt. He said that the Austrians (inventors)carried many prepumped butts, so that all they had to do was switch from an empty butt, to a full one in order to keep firing.
Interesting that the projectile weighed approx. 180 grains and the velocity was about 900+ fps, which is approx. same as the .40 S&W pistol cartridge of recent popularity.
Several trees were used to demonstrate the rifle's capabilities, I wonder if any very old trees may still retain some of those projectiles?
Semper Fidelis,
Tippy

Hello Tippy

Please post your intro as is required by the board rules and the welcome email that you received in 2008. Do not post again until you have done this.

[miclo18d]

Originally Posted by alelks

Same here. I had no idea. I first saw it on one of the gun debate forums I think. They were discussing the need for weapons that had high capacity magazines. I guess this debunks the myth that they weren't used or needed by our forefathers.

I would also mention that it would seem that L&C believed in the term that "An armed society is a polite society." As they used the superior high capacity weapon as a deterrent to being mauraded by the lawless (read: those that do not follow our laws).