Reasons for small bore MLers

[coloradoclyde]

Most were killed with two of my .45s and they died real quick (some in their tracks). Sometimes the ball exited; sometimes it didn't. Regardless, the wounds were all very impressive for "just" a .45. Also I simply like the .45; it's easy to feed, shoot and is accurate.

:thumbsup:

 

[Lonegun1894]

Anyone who still believes that you need bigger than .50 caliber to kill anything in North America, please turn to pages 37 & 38 of the June Muzzle Blasts.

And you may want to read up on the Louis and Clark Expedition, and specifically the performance of their various weapons. Or other accounts, and there's plenty of them, that detail what calibers were preferred for what purposes and why. Sometimes it isn't enough to kill something, or inflict a mortal wound, but it may matter just how quickly the fatal injury causes the fatality. Do you want the deer to fall before it crosses into the next county, or the grizzly to go down before or after it kills you? You get the idea.

 

[coloradoclyde]

I recall reading that Lewis and Clark's most prized and useful weapon was their Girardoni air rifle in .46 caliber..... :hmm: :haha:

 

[BrownBear]

Seems to me there was a lot of whooping and hollering and tree climbing after volley fire with several 54 calibers failed to toast a grizzly.

Dang, if any man jack among them had a 50 cal they'd have only needed one shot! :bull:

 

[cynthialee]

Seems to me there was a lot of whooping and hollering and tree climbing after volley fire with several 54 calibers failed to toast a grizzly.

Dang, if any man jack among them had a 50 cal they'd have only needed one shot! :bull:

:rotf:


I suspect that when those men went into volley fire mode they went into soldier mentality and they failed to aim properly and instead did what they were trained to do in a volley fire...they fired in the general direction.

 

[Lonegun1894]

Seems to me there was a lot of whooping and hollering and tree climbing after volley fire with several 54 calibers failed to toast a grizzly.

Dang, if any man jack among them had a 50 cal they'd have only needed one shot! :bull:

And this is the part I was thinking of. Thank you, Brown Bear!

 

[Lonegun1894]

I recall reading that Lewis and Clark's most prized and useful weapon was their Girardoni air rifle in .46 caliber..... :hmm: :haha:

That was more due to being cheap-er on lead and also being "magic" to the natives. It was a propaganda piece more than anything. If it hadn't been, the whole crew would have been armed with them instead of .54 rifles.

 

[Britsmoothy]

I recall reading that Lewis and Cylark's most prized and useful weapon was their Girardoni air rifle in .46 caliber..... :hmm: :haha: [



That was more due to being cheap-er on lead and also being "magic" to the natives. It was a propaganda piece more than anything. If it hadn't been, the whole crew would have been armed with them instead of .54 rifles.

Is that just your opinion?

B.

 

[coloradoclyde]

The Austrian military used it for 35 years......Sounds like more than just a propaganda piece to me...... :hmm:

 

[Gene L]

I recall reading that Lewis and Clark's most prized and useful weapon was their Girardoni air rifle in .46 caliber..... :hmm: :haha:

That was more due to being cheap-er on lead and also being "magic" to the natives. It was a propaganda piece more than anything. If it hadn't been, the whole crew would have been armed with them instead of .54 rifles.

I read where it took 1000 pumps to fill up the thing. Took a whole squad to charge it up. It was a PR thing, though.

 

[coloradoclyde]

A thousand pumps on Sunday, Shoot all week.....It was the first repeating rifle of the era....and would not be rivaled until Henry came along more than half a century later.....

 

[Britsmoothy]

I recall reading that Lewis and Clark's most prized and useful weapon was their Girardoni air rifle in .46 caliber..... :hmm: :haha:

That was more due to being cheap-er on lead and also being "magic" to the natives. It was a propaganda piece more than anything. If it hadn't been, the whole crew would have been armed with them instead of .54 rifles.

I read where it took 1000 pumps to fill up the thing. Took a whole squad to charge it up. It was a PR thing, though.

Good pulmonary exercise then, most need some exercise today.
It's the way forward :thumbsup:

 

[Lonegun1894]

I say this with all due respect, so please no one get offended...

Unless someone can explain to me why all the references I have read seem to make it sound like it was mostly used as a demonstration piece to impress the natives than anything else, and also, if the air rifle was so great, why they equipped the rest of their men with standard flint locks instead of the great air rifle, then I maintain my belief that the air rifle was nothing but a neat toy, although a useful one, and the standard MLs were what the expedition relied on for their survival. Don't get me wrong, it was and is an amazing piece of craftsmanship and history, but if it is so great, well, regardless, I'm not trading in my flint locks for air rifles. Are you?

 

[Britsmoothy]

I say this with all due respect, so please no one get offended...

Unless someone can explain to me why all the references I have read seem to make it sound like it was mostly used as a demonstration piece to impress the natives than anything else, and also, if the air rifle was so great, why they equipped the rest of their men with standard flint locks instead of the great air rifle, then I maintain my belief that the air rifle was nothing but a neat toy, although a useful one, and the standard MLs were what the expedition relied on for their survival. Don't get me wrong, it was and is an amazing piece of craftsmanship and history, but if it is so great, well, regardless, I'm not trading in my flint locks for air rifles. Are you?

:hatsoff:

 

[Vaino]

Air rifles don't make noise and arouse angry Injuns....it would enable the expedition to still eat in hostile territory. Whoever thought of using the airgun for that purpose was a genius and besides that, air is free and doesn't have to be packed......Fred

 

[Eric Krewson]

I read "Undaunted Courage" in which it appears that the primary purpose of the air gun was to impress any new bands of indians they met with it's superior firepower. Shooting 30 rounds at a whack probably convinced a lot of would be hostile indians that they may be facing a losing proposition if they attacked.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Air rifles don't make noise and arouse angry Injuns....it would enable the expedition to still eat in hostile territory. Whoever thought of using the airgun for that purpose was a genius and besides that, air is free and doesn't have to be packed......Fred

Yes Of Course! Because of those factors, it was the ideal backup rifle, and thus it explains why they took several with them, as you can't rely on a single airgun as your only option to feed the whole party in hostile country and/or when out of powder...a single airgun could break or the guy carrying the only airgun might not get a shot at game, or get jumped by a bear and that lone airgun would be lost...pure genius :grin: ...

WAIT...WHAT? They Only Carried ONE?

LD

 

[coloradoclyde]

I read "Undaunted Courage" in which it appears that the primary purpose of the air gun was to impress any new bands of indians they met with it's superior firepower. Shooting 30 rounds at a whack probably convinced a lot of would be hostile indians that they may be facing a losing proposition if they attacked.

Indeed!...So we can call it a psychological weapon... :thumbsup:

Many of the Indian tribes had already seen white men and their single shot guns...some may have even had some guns that were traded by the French..

Imagine the psychological terror they could have instilled with a flame thrower... :shocked2:

 

[BrownBear]

Imagine the psychological terror they could have instilled with a flame thrower...

Heck, imagine the terror they could have inspired with an iPad! :rotf:

 

[coloradoclyde]

Touché ..... :haha: