Video/history lesson of the most important rifle ever made (?)

Dummy me I never knew about this rifle.. Charged at 3000 PSI, a REPEATING, accurate, rifled barrel airgun, that can punch through a 1" pine board at 100 yards with it's .46 caliber round ! The video talks about the Lewis and Clark expedition and the importance of the rifle to their success.
Girandoni air rifle as used by Lewis and Clark. A National Firearms Museum Treasure Gun.
youtu.be...

a reply to: 727Sky

I've heard a fair bit about this from a friend, and it's bloody amazing. I keep forgetting to do more looking in to it, so thanks for the vid and reminder!

ETA: great vid btw, this was linked from the YT sidebar too:



It's a shocker that these did not catch on

Wow! Great find! * for you! As a self proclaimed gunsmith and antique enthusiast I thought Id seen it all. Back to the books with me!
a reply to: 727Sky

a reply to: 727Sky


They were assumed all killed by Indians by the time they arrived in Saint Louis.

They had their most closest call with Lakota on the Arkansas River in Nebraska section. Guns were drawn...Bows drawn...but the chief shouted let them pass. The next day they arrived in Saint Louis to amazement.

Had their been a fight, USA history would be much different.

a reply to: skalla

It's a shocker that these did not catch on

Not quite.

They were effectively banned from use. They were relatively quiet and there was no smoke to give away the shooters position.

In those days of massed troop deployment, they were seen as a devils weapon to be used only by those inflicting terror. It scared the crap out of anyone who did not have one. The other problem for its day, was the rapid fire that was once again seen as absolutely shocking. They were faster to shoot than say a lever action AND you could keep your point of aim in some circumstances. One soldier could fire very rapidly while the opponent was using muzzle loaders and such like.

That is why they did not catch on and why most were actually destroyed.

P

in ww2 they used some air rifles as well, but instead of a gravity fed they used a spring... pretty deadly.

a reply to: skalla

A common theme amongst most of the early repeating designs was their difficulty and high cost to produce. Two more examples are the Kalthoff and Lorenzoni repeaters from the mid 1600s, which could be thought of as primitive lever action rifles that were about 200 years ahead of their time.

a reply to: pheonix358

a reply to: vor78

Thanks for the further info, most interesting