Lewis and Clark and a Mysterious Air Rifle

The Bullet:In

Once upon a time, a peculiar gun worked its way westward on a journey of exploration and discovery. It didn’t kill a single person, but still proved its worth in safeguarding and hunting for its owners.

But enough euphemism and allusion - The owners were Lewis and Clark, and the rifle was a Girandoni Air Rifle.

Yes, you heard that right. The Lewis and Clark Expedition, fielded in 1804 at the request of president Thomas Jefferson, was armed with an air rifle originally designed in the late 1500s.

The entire 22-ball magazine could be emptied in under a minute. Just - tilt, squeeze, cock, aim, fire, and repeat. By many accounts, the rifle was accurate out to 100 yards. Compared to the muskets of the time, this sort of smokeless, long-range rapid fire must have been pretty astounding. The Austrian military made use of the Girandoni air rifles for a few decades, and for a while past that in the hands of their sharpshooters. The soldiers enjoyed being able to reload by simply tilting the rifle up from a prone position, rather than having to stand up themselves.

Twenty-three years later, Meriweather Lewis would pick one up in Pittsburgh. The rifles were supposedly kept in storage by the Austrian military until 1806, but at least one made its way across the Atlantic in time for a purchase on American soil. As far as survival rifles of the time could go, a field-ready kit that contained everything down to the bullet mold seemed like a reasonable choice.

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