Cool air guns here,
http://www.topairgun.com/girandoni
Posted on 11/16/2013 11:37:27 PM PST by Reaganite Republican
“Whenever I hear someone say “well, assault weapons had not been invented when the constitution was written...”
I like to point out radio and TV and phones had not been invented so those should not have the same consideration as freedom of, “the press”. Reductio ad absurdum
That's amazing. 20 seconds to clean the barrel, load in the gunpowder, wadding, shot, aim, and fire.
I’ll see your Model 1873, and raise you a “horizontal shot tower”, a Spencer repeater.
Interesting side note - some Spencers made in 1865 included a magazine cut-off to prevent using the repeating mechanism.
The cut-off was designed by a Quaker, Edward Stabler, to prevent the gun from “spraying bullets”, and therefore making it less violent.
Quite right.
The Americans used the Charlevilles as models for their own long arms, notably the Model 1795, which, in various forms and contracts, served as the main US arm until it was replaced by the Model 1816.
The .69 caliber was probably preferred because a one ounce ball will mic out to be .69 caliber (16 gauge). It is easier to require militia to carry accouterments for a "one ounce ball", so it is a simpler standard to use, as well as permitting the men to carry more rounds of ammunition.
The governments of serveral nations tried to ban them long before that. Rifles were so accurate that a sniper could pick off an officer with no problem. This irritated the ruling class to no end. They even brought the clergy into it, the church saying that the reason rifles were so accurate was because demons hid in the rifling and rode the bullet out of the bore guiding it to its target. They proved their point by cutting crosses on silver bullets and shooting them at targets. Naturally the deformed silver bullets shot poorly, giving credence to the clergy's arguments, or so they claimed.
Before rifles, in the earliest days of firearms, the ruling class tried to get them banned from battle because it put the peasant(infantry) class on equal footing with knights, a peasant with a gun could bring down a knight when the job of the infantry was to act as targets for the knights of both sides of the battle. No fair killing the royalty.
The ruling class of today are still trying to ban firearms from the peasants(us)but we are still fighting them off, in this country at any rate.
I believe that more Henry repeaters were used than were Spencers, although the Spencer was first on the battle field, and the coffee grinder model was especially popular. The Spencer, IIRC, only held 7 rounds, loaded through the stock and the hammer had to be manually cocked for each shot. The Henry(the later models)had a tube under the barrel for loading and held about 15 rounds and the hammer was self cocking when the under lever was activated. The Spencer used a more powerful round but the .44 rimfire Henry was more popular with the troops. Both models were late getting into the war, mainly because the Union Quartermaster at that time thought that the troops would use up ammo wastefully and wouldn't approve them until Lincoln personally ordered him to accept the Spencer.
Well, the Revolution actually started in earnest in 1775. So, the sign is off a year in its timeline. It woul dhave been historically accurate if it said: 1776 - Declaration of Independence.
Yes, they predated, but some were pistols and others were rifles/muskets which saw only token military use due to expense and difficulty of maintenance. The Girondini was mentioned as an “assault” type weapon because there was some significant military use sparking international controversy, and the rifle’s magazine capacity was superior to prior and succeeding repeating rifles.
Here is a Youtube video about the Cookson flintlock:
Cookson volitional repeating flintlock
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs4vjq6sW40
***Winchester Lever Action***
Henry rifle carried more .44 rimfire rounds.
Did you know that the state of California originally wanted to ban Winchester lever action rifles in their assault rifle ban? Neal Knox spilled the beans on that one and so Cali removed the rifle on the “to be banned list”.
Now they will just ban the lead ammo.
“Believe Brown Bess fired a 75 cal. bullet. The French pattern Charlesville were 69 cal.”
“No recruit to be dismissed from drill until able to load and fire fifteen shots within three minutes and three quarters.” - attributed to Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin, styled Baron von Steuben, Hauptmann on staff of Friedrich der Grosse von Preussen, drillmaster and Inspector General of the Continental Army of the United States).
This equates to four rounds a minute.
The British Land Pattern firelock (”musket” was a known term in the 1770s, but “firelock” was the preferred term for individual arms issued to foot troops) - popularly known as Brown Bess - had a bore measuring a nominal 73 cal (0.73 inch) and fired a ball of 0.72 inch diameter.
The French model 1763 firelock had a bore of 69 cal (though many surviving AWI (American War of Independence) specimens measure 0.70 inch). This equates to a 14 gauge shotgun. It fired a ball of 0.627 inch diameter.
Early in AWI, the revolting American colonists armed themselves with British pattern muskets, either of actual British make, or produced in a number of colonies. Bore sizes ranged from 0.75 inch to 0.80 inch (see “Committee of Safety Muskets”).
The Continental Army re-armed with used French muskets, sold to the fledgling US at first via shady methods, then openly after France declared war on Britain in 1778. Eventually, some 100,000 were delivered. Originally made at various French arsenals (including Charleville, Tulle, and St Etienne), many were marked “Charleville” and this was the moniker that stuck, on the US east coast.
Lighter and easier to maintain than the British pattern, the French muskets were copied closely when US armories at Springfield and Harpers Ferry began manufacture in the 1790s. Various design details (bore size, lock shapes, barrel bands and springs) were retained in every US musket made until the 1840s.
Large numbers of flint-fired muskets (chiefly US 1816 pattern) were converted to percussion ignition, going on to serve in the American Civil War. All were originally smoothbore, but some were rifled before seeing action in the later conflict. So it’s technically inaccurate to call them “assault rifles.” Rifled or not, they were deadly inside musket range (about 75m).
“... The .69 caliber was probably preferred because a one ounce ball will mic out to be .69 caliber (16 gauge). ...”
16 gauge corresponds to a bore size of 0.662 inch. 0.69 inch corresponds to a bore size of 14 gauge.
Modern users (often reenactors) load French pattern muskets with various ball diameters, usually 0.68 inch or smaller.
An undersize ball was essential to sustained fire.
Continental Army ordnance regulations specified a ball diameter of 0.627 inch for French pattern muskets: plenty of “windage” - empty space - to enhance ease of loading even if the musket bore became fouled after several firings. Specified charge weight was 187 grains of powder: enough to prime the pan, while reserving enough for the main charge to give the loose-fit ball a pretty healthy initial velocity.
“I believe that more Henry repeaters were used than were Spencers, although the Spencer was first on the battle field, and the coffee grinder model was especially popular. The Spencer, IIRC, only held 7 rounds, loaded through the stock and the hammer had to be manually cocked for each shot. The Henry(the later models)had a tube under the barrel for loading and held about 15 rounds and the hammer was self cocking when the under lever was activated. The Spencer used a more powerful round but the .44 rimfire Henry was more popular with the troops. Both models were late getting into the war, mainly because the Union Quartermaster at that time thought that the troops would use up ammo wastefully and wouldn’t approve them until Lincoln personally ordered him to accept the Spencer.”
The popularity of any “coffee mill” arms remains an open question: US Ordnance records indicate a few Sharps carbines were so modified and field trials may have occurred in 1863-64; after that, no mention can be found. Documented, verified specimens are now so rare that collectors are routinely admonished to suspect fakery.
The Spencer rifle or carbine could not have accommodated the coffee mill device, since any interior spaces of the buttstock that might have been used for the mill had already been filled with the magazine tube and other feed system parts.
The Spencer repeater was in actuality made in larger numbers (114,000; over 107,000 purchased by US government) and used longer (through much of the Indian Wars) than the Henry (14,000 made, 1,900 purchased by US government). It was arguably stronger and less damage-prone: important attributes when we’re talking about field use by troops.
But the Henry rifle captured the popular imagination more fully. It might be called the first “assault rifle”: large capacity (15 rds), less powerful cartridge (44 Henry rimfire Flat: 216 gr bullet, propelling charge 25 gr) than any standard military arm of its day, less even than any fired by the Spencer.
The Henry revolutionized American arms manufacture and use, spawning a long line of descendants: Winchester 1866, 1873, 1876 are but slightly different. The 73 remained in Winchester’s product line until 1919, and replicas of all have been built by overseas gunmakers for decades (original rimfire chamberings have been dropped in favor of somewhat more modern centerfire rounds). Winchester (now a subsidiary of Browning, itself a subsidiary of FNH) recently announced new 73s.
The Henry and descendants - 73 especially - also revolutionized American ammunition production. The 44 Henry Flat and most chamberings for the 76 are no longer made, but every cartridge made for the 73 is still being loaded today. The 22 Short and Long need no introduction: for many decades, Winchester stamped every rimfire round it produced with the letter H in honor of B. Tyler Henry. But the centerfire rounds - 44-40, 38-40, and 32-20 - began life loaded with black powder, made the jump to nitro powder, and have been granted a new lease on life by the sport of cowboy action shooting; all three are uncannily accurate, feed reliably, and perform respectably on any and all targets.
AWESOME PIC!
The first “Assault Gun” was the Sturmgeshutz III, a turretless fully tracked AFV with an armored superstructure and a short barreled 75MM gun and built on the Mark III and IV tank chassis. They were initially assigned to infantry formations as fire support and were part of the artillery arm rather than the Panzer troops. (their crews wore gray rather than black uniforms) Later in the war, the improved Sturmgeshutz IV and other similar designs were pressed into service in the Anti-tank role as tank killers, which they performed superbly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturmgesch%C3%BCtz_IV
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