NFM Treasure Gun - Girandoni Air Rifle as Used by Lewis and Clark
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 31 ม.ค. 2011
- nramuseum.com 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. See more at NRAmuseum.com. Narrated by Phil Schreier.
Lewis and Clark explored the west wielding the BB gun from Hell. That is a level of awesome that is seldom matched.
That is truly unbelievable. I never knew that they had any technology like that back then.
dang if i was a soldier during this time period, hand me one of these not a musket
"Peace through superior firepower," couldn't be more fitting for today! We can truly learn a lot from history.
That is pretty cool :) Would never have guessed they had powerful air rifles back then.
wow impressive how they made such a weapon so long ago
One of the fun things I think in these videos is that they can be revisited and I can get a refresher. I remember reading about this gun 40 years ago and it is great to see Phil holding it. We will probably all be dead and Phil will be reaching out and telling our great grandchildren about this timeless rifle. The leather condition is magnificent. I wonder if that part of the rifle is a restoration considering what it was exposed to in the expedition.
+hoodoo2001 i believe that he said this wasn't the rifle that lewis and clark used if i heard him right, but one like it.
+hoodoo2001 It has been pointed out to me, that this is a Girandoni, not the actual Lewis and Clark Girandoni. Guess I heard what I wanted to hear.
Don't we always
This rifle was (as you said) repeatedly mentioned in "Undaunted Courage," and it was fascinating to learn of how L & C used this as a "magic" tool to impress the natives. I was dying to know what it looked like, and how it worked. Thanks so much for doing just that with this excellent video!
I must visit your museum before I die...history, guns, and America. It doesn't get any better than that!
Could you imagine filling a cast iron flask with 800 psi of air and after banging around in a keel boat for months, putting it next to your noggin?
Yeah, no kidding.
Glad there were no mishaps with it, history might have been significantly rewritten.
Amazing technology for the time~~Peace through strength way back then !
"The perception of peace through superior firepower"
PATTON LAUGHED But technically it was superior AIR power...
Give a Yee to the Haw
YEEEEEEEHAAWW
And....WW2 had... Victory Through Air Power.
It kinda holds for U.S, doesn't it?
big stick
For anyone who loves history of this great country, I encourage you to follow the route of Lewis & Clark. We just completed that journey with so many museums and history on their expedition. It was amazing. We saw some beautiful country as well.
Nice
A very good presentation, but one correction at the very end of the presentation. The expedition ended at the mouth of the Columbia River, not the headwaters of the Potomac. There is a small park near Warrenton (Astoria) Oregon where the expedition spent the winter. It is gray, cold, and wet all winter there. It is difficult to imagine their misery living in the type of housing they had.
Ambrose describes it very well in "Undaunted Courage." Good book; I'm currently reading it for the third time.
The voyage did not END on the Columbia River. From the Columbia River they turned around and returned home. The voyage was not over until they reached Washington D.C which is on the Potomac River. Over 8,000 miles ROUND TRIP.
Ann Marie Fritz said what I was going to say. Think about the aspect of returning to Washington after traveling as far as they did.
@michaelatw86 , It was the biggest, most important land acquisition in modern history. Foundational in the growth of the wealth, power and influence of the United States toward, imperfectly, keeping the peace in the western hemisphere for c 200 years.
@Commenter Five ..yep, it was. But the new biggest acquisition is still yet to come. Greenland!
I'm in "awe and amazement" at this thing also, never heard of it or anything even close to an air rifle in 1800. Why does it have a hammer?
I think the butt screwed off exposing a long rod which was housed in a cavity under the barrel. This rod had a small piston in a brass cylinder inside the but. The surface area of the piston was very small enabling the pumper to force high pressure air in. The other end was on the ground. The real mystery is how they managed to stop the air getting past the valve. I think they used a stag-horn seal. An ingenious invention for its time.
It gives the line "Don't tread on me" a whole new meaning.
I will treasure my air rifle forever now that I have in my attic
Nice video however the expedition actually started before St. Louis. Lewis started near Pittsburgh on the Ohio River with supplies and sailed toward St. Louis where Clark then joined. The first day diary entry calls out Brunot Island where this rifle was demonstrated which is in fact on the Ohio River just north of Pittsburgh. NRG has a natural gas generating station there now only accessible by water or walking across a railroad bridge. Sorry for the slight rant, Pittsburgh guy here and we never get our due on this historical event.
That was an amazing bit of learning. I love the way this guy tells the story. Thanks for posting the video!
Lewis essentially lets down the ramp and demonstrates the plasma pistol.
I didn't even know about this rifle. At first I thought this was going to be an air soft rifle, in which I would love to see a replica air soft Girandoni. Very cool video.
one of the most amazing times in our history...
The best historical airgun information ever! And one of the most interesting historical events of the American History. Simply amazing.
Wonderful presentation, Mr. Schreier. Thank you, NRA National Firearms Museum, and thank you Mike Carrick (ph?) of Oregon for loaning your beautiful rifle to NNFM.
This took someone with a lot of imagination to design and put those thoughts into action. I am sure that it was a pain to charge the air chamber, but a repeating rifle in those days would have been a real breakthrough. At least 30 rounds before losing velocity would have been amazing and I would say given the period, still amazing to this day. Think what the designer could have done with todays tools!
This was an outstanding video. Thank you. With the effectiveness of this air rifle, it's a wonder they weren't more widely used. I would imagine there were some problems with the tanks integrity, and individual cost, however with a repeating rifle like this you could really cause a lot of damage. Anyway, very interesting and entertaining.
"Peace through Superior Firepower" - I like it!
Love the gun! The music made this 50 times more epic.
Absolutely wonderful exhibit.
That's an awesome little bit of history. Thanks for posting this video.
RB, the "lost wax casting" method (which has been in use ~5000 years) can easily produce hollow cones. It is routinely used for MUCH more complex shapes. NOTE: Other sources (see: beemans[dot]net/Austrian airguns[dot]htm) confirm your theory that the original iron air tank (at least as used by the Austrian Army) was made of riveted sheets of iron. It's possible, though, that L & C's gun was equipped w/one made of cast iron (Girandoni designed the system - LOTS of people built these things).
Same as a modern pcp rifle.
A very interesting note on history , I am sure most, including my self, were unaware of. Thank you for the presentation.
I didn't know air rifles were this old I assumed they came out in the early 1900s.
Fantastic mini lecture.
It may be a mystery how the Girandoni air rifle ended up here, but it's a fortuitous thing for our people that it did.
I’ve always wondered about this air rifle. Many thanks for the history lesson.
Just recently read entries of Lewis and Clark Expedition. Thank you for new information. Pretty ingenius.
Grateful for the insight. Gun nuts like myself are gonna love this facet of the Lewis and Clark story that seems to be overlooked by historians.
Sam Yang Big Bore 44 air powered rifle. 3000 psi 45 cal at 700 feet per second. Only 3 shots before you notice reduced power. AWESOME VIDEO!!! THANK YOU!!!
Great story and a great story teller. I hope you continue doing so.
Thanks and keep up the good work.
Been to the museum on several occasions and never noted this weapon. What a great story and important piece of American history. Live just down the road on Rt 50, will have to check it out next time I am there. So.... learned something new today :-)
A truly magnificent and historic firearm. Great presentation.
Very cool, well done segment
Excellent presentation.
Great show, thank you
Megga Grats on an American History type video going into trending! Hope it drives a lot of visitors to the museum. Well presented Phil!
I read the title thinking "Holy crap they had AIRSOFT back then, WTF?" I'm glad I was proven wrong and even amazed that we had weapons of war like that EVER! I've always liked uniquely designed or abnormal weapons and this is no exception.
This was a great presentation.
Great and fascinating story expertly told.
The "why" I love airguns...
my high school history teacher talked about one of these, and I thought he was full of it... until now... very interesting piece!
Lewis and Clark Expedition + Girandoni Air Rifle diplomacy = Success!
Absolutely wonderful lecture....great piece of info.
More substance there than you will find on 99% of youtube...
Good presentation. I'm very much "into" the Lewis & Clark adventure - currently reading Ambrose's book for the third time and I've been to several L&C sites along the lower Missouri. This goes far in explaining just why they were able to make the trip with the loss of just one man. To appendicitis.
Super outstanding video & presentation!
great presentation.
Very interesting piece of history. Thanks for sharing!
I love the history told in this video. Being a great fan of the "Antique Road Show" and given the history of this gun what would be the value of such a rare gun such as this?
Very interesting. Thank you for uploading this video.
Outstanding thank you! One of the best books I’ve read was Undaunted Courage by AS.
very nice detail....
Wow! Awesome video!
If there was ever a man meant to have a job as curator, he's that man..
This was actually surprisingly interesting video. Well done.
This is such an awesome video, I love American History! Such an interesting time in history, Looking forward to more videos :)
Im a senior in high school and my history teacher did not talk about any of this with lewis and clark... I wish this guy was my teacher.
Wow! Amazing. I have never heard of this rifle.
very informational, nice and easily understandable too, I really enjoyed this video, thanks for uploading.
i remember reading about this rifle when i was a kid!!!! very cool, thanks for the video. I subbed.
I am diggin' the music!
listened only to half of it but your voice was very comfortable to listen to anyway!
Very interesting, I have never heard of this "air rifle" before.
Thanx for that bit of important history to go with!
800 psi - wow!! Good job on the commentary - thanks for posting!
Loved this video!
Very innovative for the time. Thanks for sharing.
Great movie, thanks.
Outstanding explanation and commentary.
Excellent, thank you.
Such an amazing piece of history, and that someone designed and constructed it without modern-day machining tools.
Excellent video. I did not know this gun existed.
Great video
Excellent!
Cool video. Nice info.
so it was like one of the earliest semi automatic guns and it was like a high powered airsoft gun
This is so awesome
Great narration, pleasant learning voice.
saw it in Springfield, MO
this was awesome youve got a new subscriber right here
It's curious, given the advantage have that many rounds available, that the rifle is not better known or was used more widely even later. Having a 20 round repeater in general use at say, the Alamo, even the Civil War (Aside from the Henry repeating rifle) would have been a game changer. Surprising a more updated version was in wider use in those later eras. Wonder why?....
this should be a show
@Seaprimate You can recharge it in the field if you have the pump with you and have time to charge it, which took 1,500 strokes to achieve the max of 800psi.
Aweseome! I wish he would have demonstrated it
Awesome insight!
great video =) thank you
This really was an informative and interesting video. Kudos to the NFM and (Dr.?) Phil.
I saw that at the NRA headquarters when I was there this summer!!
Very cool!
I love it, we need to make more air rifles like this to fight zombies with stealth lol
That rifle takes 1500 strokes of a hand pump to put 800 psi into the tank in the stock. It will then fire up to 40 times before running out of air pressure. The tube magazine holds the round balls which can be fed quickly into the chamber and "fired" consecutively.
Im australian and i found the video very interesting very good work NFMCurator