Meriwether Lewis' air rifle

http://www.youtube.com ^ | February 1, 2011 | NFMCurator·

[NKP_Vet]

Lewis and Clark's secret weapon - a late 18th Century .46 cal. 20 shot repeating air rifle by Girandoni , as used bin the Napoleonic Wars. A Treasure Gun from the NRA National Firearms Museum.

[mylife]

It is inactivity that does them in.

[The Cajun]

Yup, that's it!
Looks like it's missing the thumb safety, mine has a thumb safety you would push in to fire or pull out to lock the trigger.

[JoeProBono]

My Benji

Benjamin® Trail Nitro - Piston™ All Weather .22 cal. Air Rifle.

[The Cajun]

Dang son!!!
Gun grabbers are gonna get you with that thing.
It looks mean, LOL.

[Adams]

Here's my..... Oh, nevermind.....

[chuckles]

ping

[Myrddin]

I grew up with the venerable Benjamin.

I did as well. I had a .22 cal model. I bagged many rabbits with that one. It was a great rifle until my bonehead brother-in-law over pumped it and destroyed it. It wasn't repairable nor replaceable. I was very bummed.

[Myrddin]

That looks like my old one. I just found new ones for sale. Click the pic:

[Nailbiter]

ping

[Eagles6]

http://www.beemans.net/images/Austrian%20airguns.htm

[gorush]

ping

[Hegemony Cricket]

mark for later

[Graybeard58]

18th Century .46 cal. 20 shot repeating air rifle by Girandoni

If you had one of those, in "mint" condition, you could take it to "Pawn Stars" and Rick would probably offer you as much as $100 for it!

[golf lover]

Absolutely fabulous read! We need more Lewis and Clarks and the men of the Corps of Discovery (Corpse according our super intelligent President) in our country for these difficult times. Navy seals are probably the closest we have. Certainly none of our politicians could measure up in any way. But, as our most respected women in the world Secretary of State would say, “What difference, at this point, does it make?

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Remember the accident before they left? While examining the airgun it fired and a ball passed through a woman’s hat, but didn’t hit the woman.

This airgun was bought with government funds (I believe) and when they got back this multi-shot air arms was sold at auction to the public. No one demanded they be destroyed.

[MrB]

Look up “precharged pneumatic airguns”.

They are available today, pretty cool, but a bit pricey.

[MrB]

I couldn’t believe how tough raccoons are...

I shot one 3 times, twice in the head, with a .177 at ~1000 fps (rated).

He ran off.

[ArrogantBustard]

I have one of those as well ... it’s just the thing for dispatching certain 4-legged furry annoyances.

[SparkyBass]

I have a very cool Gamo Hunter 220 that pumps specialty pellets up to 1350 fps!

[JoeProBono]