Period air guns

[WyomingWhitetail]

I realize this is a little outside of this forums focus, but I figure a lot of things would be shared between the air rifles and the firearms of the period. I've recently became interested in air guns from the muzzleloader period. I've looked a little at the girandoni air rifle like Lewis and Clark carried. I've found a few other examples online but seems very hard to come by information on these. Anybody here ever seen any or worked on any or know where to find more information on them ?

 

[cyten]

I would look at some airgun forums

 

[ohio ramrod]

I had the opportunity to fire one once at an Eastern many years ago. It was an enjoyable experience.

 

[Greg_E]

You will not find a Girandani on the airgun forums, and if you find a functional one with all the accessories, it's going to be a lot of money. I'm not aware of anyone making a replica either, it would be really neat to have. I'd have to look back in time, but I think the early 1900s are going to be the best you can find.

 

[1BadDart]

I've been a member of several air gun forums for a few years and have never seen anything mentioned about air rifles from the 1800's. I'd hazard a guess that there weren't produced in large numbers (compared to ML's) and probably not many survived.

 

[TFoley]

Girandoni air rifle replicas HAVE been made - Youtube has a few articles on them if you look. Here in UK we have a couple of father and son New Yorkers' guns for sale. Name escapes me right now, though, might be Burch or Lurch?

If there is any interest I can look 'em up.

Edit - date from 1868, so outside the scope of this forum. There is also an English rifle from the late 1700's, but it's English........

 

[WyomingWhitetail]

It does seem the air guns of this period were rare due to cost compared to firearms. It seems they may have been even rarer in America. I've found a few online examples of English and German guns but nothing really about them in America. I did find a few examples of what are known as bellows guns. They are pretty cool and date clear back to the 15 or 16 hundreds.

 

[WyomingWhitetail]

Let me be clear I'm not looking to buy one. I could never afford it. I just would like to learn more about there history, design, construction etc.

 

[morehops52]

Austrian troops (ski patrol?) used repeating air rifles to repel Napoleon's army. That would have been just past 1800 I believe.

 

[TFoley]

Austrian troops (ski patrol?) used repeating air rifles to repel Napoleon's army. That would have been just past 1800 I believe.

Ol' Nap issued an edict that they were to be executed on capture, too. That was a measure of the fear engendered by an almost silent shot coming out of nowhere.

 

[andy52]

Meriwether Lewis impressed a bunch of Natives with the one he had.

 

[TFoley]

Meriwether Lewis impressed a bunch of Natives with the one he had.

That's more than likely because he never let on that the one such gun was ALL he had. Old Ma Lewis didn't raise no halfwits.