The Civil War News & Views Open Discussion Forum

Air Rifle...not Civil War, but why? *PIC*

A co-worker and friend shared his experience a week or so ago of his resent priviledge to test fire a reproduction 1790 Girandoni Air Rifle. The same rifle taken on the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1804. The California maker, a master gun smith, working with the Smithsonian made a weapon much more advanced than previously thought. It can hold and fire up to 10 .45 cal lead balls in a repeated fashion. It can fire up to about 40 rounds before the air pressure is depleted enough to lessen the velocity of the fired ball. The butt of the rifle is the air chamber, made in the fashion of modern air tanks, it can hold compressed air up to 1000 psi. This weapon was issued to units of the Austrian Army, but I according to my friend, the manufacturing process at the time was so difficult, that it could not be massed produced--- as it could be today.

Imagine a regiment in the Civil War, armed with smokeless, noiseless, .45 Cal. repeating rifles.

Check out the photos at...

http://myathenaeum.com/simpson/page260.html

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Air Rifle...not Civil War, but why? *PIC*
Re: Air Rifle...not Civil War, but why?
Re: Air Rifle...not Civil War, but why?
Me either, or is it eIther? *NM*
Re: Air Rifle...not Civil War, but why?
Re: Air Rifle...not Civil War, but why?
Re: Air Rifle...not Civil War, but why?
Re: Air Rifle...not Civil War, but why?
Re: Air Rifle...not Civil War, but why?
Re: Air Rifle...not Civil War, but why?
Re: Air Rifle...not Civil War, but why?
Re: Air Rifle...not Civil War, but why?
Re: Air Rifle...not Civil War, but why?
Re: Air Rifle...not Civil War, but why?