Check out the below video with regard to the amazing Girandoni air rifle (ca 1779), carried by Lewis & Clark’s Corps of Discovery (1803 to 1806). This rifle could (with 1,500 pumps creating 800 psi) shoot up to forty consecutive .46 caliber round balls before loss of muzzle velocity and pressure. The tubular magazine held 22 balls.
Additionally, an excellent book on their journey is Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose.
BZ
Irony of ironies, I was at the NRA museum and took a picture of that exact rifle today! I’m going to link to you for the excellent video 🙂 Thanks BZ!
Fascinating…truly it is.
Btw, I love you Avatar. The Day the Earth Stood Still, right?
Saw this a couple of days ago at MadOgre.com. Lewis and Clark were smart people!
NFO: toDAY?? How weird is that??
Leticia: yes indeed, I am Gort.
WSF: were they ever; I had no idea that rifle existed and/or was carried on their journey!
BZ
LOVED “Undaunted Courage”.
Should be required reading.
Trivia question for those who have read the book…
By the end of the journey, the favorite meat of the team was… what?
Greybeard: elk, beaver, probably buffalo, maybe even some of their own dogs?
BZ
Dog, BZ.
Which was odd, because they took a Newfoundland along with them for the trip.
I wonder if they fed him his brothers/sisters?
I haven’t a CLUE about guns but that’s a beautiful rifle, isn’t it!?
I love the fact that they don’t know how it got to America….
Well hauling gunpowder thousands of miles meant it would run out sooner or later. Lead can be recovered from game and recast in a hand mould over a fire… an air rifle like that actually is preferable as it only requires you and lead.
Thanks for the tip! Very impressive!
Thanks AJ, good insight about the gunpowder.
BZ