Shooting Lewis & Clark's Repeater

[Justin]

There have been a couple of posts made already about the Girandoni repeating air rifle carried by Lewis & Clark on their expedition across the US.

Some information here:
http://www.lewis-clark.org/content/content-channel.asp?ChannelID=300

In depth information from Dr. Beeman on Lewis & Clark's "Assault Rifle" here.

Thanks to Dr. Beeman's research, they have built an exact replica of the Girandoni repeating air rifle, and the US Army Heritage & Education Center has a short video documentary of the operation and firing of this weapon, which has a capacity of 22 rounds, and fires a .463 caliber ball at velocities equivalent to a .45 ACP.

Certainly shoots holes through the argument that "the 2nd Amendment is obsolete because there were no high-capacity rapid fire guns in the days when the Constitution was written."

 

[Matt King]

That's neat. Do you know if they have the original rifle that they carried on the expedition?

 

[Jim Watson]

Read the article. Beeman thinks he has THE rifle. Four repros made, no more in sight.

Strange, I recall seeing pictures that depicted it as a ball reservoir air gun, even identifying a patch on the ball.

 

[ArfinGreebly]

1,500 Strokes

In the documentary I watched, there was mention of 1,500 strokes on the charging pump to achieve the right pressure to adequately power the 20+ balls.

Holy crap.

For the thing to be tactically effective on any scale, it would have to be crew served.

Still, an air rifle with the hitting power of Marlin's Camp 45 carbine, and nearly three times the magazine capacity . . .

Wow.

 

[lgsracer]

Well it is not what Lewis & Clark carried but it is still neat:

http://www.americanairgunhunter.com/909.html

A better article here:

http://www.airgundepot.com/big-bore-article.html

 

[Jim Watson]

Arfin,

The Austrians had wagon mounted compressors, two men on a walking beam like a railroad handcart. They provided extra butt reservoirs so you didn't have to take time out from shooting at Napoleon's guys to put in 1500 strokes. (Apparently the story that Napoleon gave orders to hang any Austrian captured with a "silent" air rifle is legend.)

 

[mike101]

What's the side-hammer for?

 

[Kali Endgame]

What a fascinating read. Thanks for the link.

 

[Jim Watson]

The hammer on an air rifle - lots of modern ones have internal strikers - is to knock open the air valve. That lets you have a light consistent trigger pull instead of having to pull a trigger directly connected to the air valve and fight air pressure. I think some of the old Crossmans had valve triggers and the trigger pull varied by how much they were pumped. My Sheridan had a striker against a pop valve so it was always the same.