Posted on 09/24/2006 8:15:58 AM PDT by tomzz
When Thomas Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark out on their famous journey, he took extraordinary steps to provide for their safety. He provided them with a blank check backed by the United States government to purchase any ship they might figure they needed on the west coast, assuming they felt such a need, and he provided them with the ultimate small arm of the time. It appears as if this ultimate small arm might have been a major factor in the expedition not having been annihilated by Indians. Not that tribes were wiped out with the weapon, nonetheless it was demonstrated to them and they were given to understand that there was no limit to the number of shots the thing could fire and that all of the expedition people had them.
Air rifles are normally thought of as single shot, very small caliber weapons to shoot starlings and rats with; if that's your whole exposure to air rifles, this one might shock you:
The Lewis and Clark air-powered assault rifle.
Thought for a moment that someone took the article from the Oct. 2006 issue of the NRA's "American Rifleman" and posted it as their own, but now I see that this was the researcher's pre-publication draft.
marker bump
fyi
I was reading about that in "Undaunted Courage". He accidentally shot a woman with it.
The woman could tell her kids she had the privilege of being shot with the world's single most valuable small arm.
Very cool. Thanks!
430 Grains is excessive for North America. Dumb questions, what sort of velocity would you get with a 220 grain bullet, and would I be right in guessing that something like that would not be much less noisy than a 308??
Wow!!!
Am a Lewis and Clark nut &c.&c., and this page is awesome. How in the *hell* do I save a webpage for offline viewing to include all the photos?
On FireFox at least, on the top menu line of the browser, click FILE and then SAVE AS and specify a file name a directory. The browser generates an htm file along with a directory of the same name containing images and/or other support files.
One thing to note, in the black powder age, a rifle could only be fired a few times before gunking up to the point of needing a cleaning patch run through it, making the idea of a repeating rifle problematical at best. An air arm clearly had no such limitation.
Interesting!
pimg...
So why didn't we buy one of these for our trip?
Air rifle ballistics are considerably different than those of modern firearms. With airguns you are effectively limited to about 1400 fps for a maximum velocity and for practical purposes closer to 1000 fps. This is due to the expansion rate of compressed air. With big bores like the one above you probably couldn't even get close to that 1000 fps figure without dumping your entire charge of air on a single shot. The way they make up for it is by using heavy projectiles. This gives the kinetic energy and momentum necessary for hunting large game.
The .308 would probably be about 150 fps faster and get a few more shots per charge. Both rifles would have a report similar to a 45 ACP.
I ordered a .25 caliber air pistol kit from Dennis Quackenbush, (the guy that makes these rifles), a couple years ago and he's a great guy to talk to. He actually charges very reasonable prices for completely handmade airguns, (last I checked they were around $700), but if you ever order one, be prepared to wait. He has something like a 3 year waiting list for his big bores.
from the article:
"For one example:
Private Whitehouse noted in his expedition journal entry of August 30, 1804 when Captain Lewis demonstrated his airgun to the Yankton Sioux in the Calumet Bluff area along the Missouri River, apparently on the Nebraska side:
"Captain Lewis took his Air Gun and shot her off, and by the Interpreter told them there was medicine in her, and that she could do very great execution. They all stood amazed at the curiosity; Captain Lewis discharged the Air Gun several times, and the Indians ran hastily to see the holes that the Balls had made which was discharged from it. at finding the balls had entered the Tree, they shouted a loud at the sight and the Execution that was done suprized them exceedingly."
[authors comment] The Indians would not have been able to comprehend the gun shooting again and again and again without reloading - and without flash or smoke.. This would have been terrifying for the "execution" that it might do!.
And repeated dmonstration throughout the 'Discovery Journey', which was remarkably peaceful, give credence to the "peace through supior firepower' school of thought.
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