I know Gaines is an air rifle fan. watched a show where a guy shot a large buck in Africa. with an airgun. the barrel was huge. always thought air guns could be useful for rodents, snakes, small birds. never occurred that they could be used for big game. are air guns a legitimate weapon? how far could one shoot with deathly results seems the noise level is so low, could continue hunting in same area. just wondering. maybe others wonder too
Were they using one of those .50 things that seem to be all over YouTube? The Hunting Gallery at The Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds has a fair few air rifles, I think starting in the C18th. Not sure what the intended game was but the things have been around longer than one might think. Print Engraving entitled 'AIR: Improved Air Guns', dated 1796. - Royal Armouries collections Etc. Sure there was a Victorian triple air/shot/rifle combo too, but can't find my pictures.
Thought I remembered reading of one used during the Napoleonic period. Looked it up and I even remembered the Austrian part right. Girandoni air rifle - Wikipedia Didn't remember reading about the Lewis and Clark expedition having one though.
I backed up an idiot hunting razorbacks with a bow a few years ago. I had a pump gun with deer slugs. I got five, he wounded one.
Lewis and Clark took a fancy Italian air gun on their trip across the continent in 1804/06. It seemed inevitable to them that their powder would get wet, used up, stolen, something, thus the air rifle. It was capable of killing big game or a man, and was used successfully during the trip. .
I've SEEN the air rifle Lewis used. I was treated to a tour of the Pentagon in 2011 thanks to an Army Major friend, and just outside the office door of some high falutin' official is a corridor of museum quality Army memorabilia. The first cabinet inside the doors leading into the hallway held the Air rifle. Having read the complete set of the Corps of Discovery Expedition journals when I first saw it I just stopped and stared. Wayne said, Know what you're looking at ? I asked him, Is that is that .... and he grinned. I have a Gamo .177 caliber air rifle and it will/has taken down a Beaver at 20 yards. Using a high velocity pellet it has a report like a .22. Small squirrels or rabbits but nothing bigger.
unsure of the calibre. but they were hunting in a blind, close to a watering hole. buck ran about 40 yards before dropping. unsure what the pros would be for a large hunting air rifle, other than noise and cheap ammo.
not really a gun anyone would want to carry in the bush. quiet though. recalling a fantasy series, where the hero carried a 'needle gun' which shot tiny slivers from an air pistol...it will come to me. great series.
Poppy, I indeed got into airgun collecting for a bit over 10 years. I was in the match rifle end of airguns, shooting about an 8-grain pellet about 575 fps. Not for big game Given that a 22 LR shots a 36-40 grain bullet about 1300 fps. the Girandoni mentioned with Lewis and Clark was .45 caliber, if my memory still works, and shot round balls as did the 1860 Colt percussion Army revolver and I am guessing the Girandoni probably shot at about 600-650 fps. It was used as a game gun for food. airguns of the period were used in warfare, a bit stronger than the Girandoni. They had an air chamber in the lower stock that was pumped up. Cannot imagine shooting then pumping it back up. Maintaining enough air pressure, given the materials of the day is impressive. But keep in mind both sides lined up and shot at each other until one prevailed!! Girandoni air rifle - Wikipedia. I bought about 115 airguns, almost all out of Europe and most off Egun.de. Germans and their neighbors wanted the latest technology, compressed air from tanks, carbon fiber stocks, the ultimate in precision, an easy $2500 a pop. I wanted spring air guns, fire blue, walnut, hand built but the obsolete match rifles. I could but them far cheaper there than in the US or Canada and as I was beginning to worry about leaving them to Jeannie I got an offer for the lot, 67 remaining, and they buyer drove 1500 miles to pick them up guns. I kept one and had two inbounds from Europe that later arrived, I will leave one to my daughter and sell the others. Lots of people hunt small and not so small game with them but if I still hunted I would use a firearm of appropriate ability. Gaines
surprised at the history of air guns. a lot of it. I was a bb gun kidlet. shot a few dragonfly's off the pond.