The Girandoni air rifle is an air gun designed by Italian inventor Bartolomeo Girandoni circa 1779. The weapon was also known as the Windbüchse ("wind rifle" in German). One of the rifle's more famous associations is its use on the Lewis and Clark Expedition to explore and map the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.

The Girardoni (also spelled Girandoni) air rifle was a very advanced design adopted in 1780 by the Austrian Army. While the standard arm of the day was a single-shot flintlock, the Girardoni offered a massive firepower advantage to the men who carried it.

But around 1780 an enterprising Tyrolean gunsmith named Bartolomeo Girandoni developed a rugged new model air rifle that was soon adopted by the Austrian military. Produced in .46-caliber, the Girandoni was a quantum leap forward in weapons technology. The rifle was four feet long and weighed 10 pounds.

2019年9月27日 · The son of Bartolomaes Girardoni was killed when an experimental repeating rifle he fired blew up and took off his arm. That, probably more than anything, got Girardoni’s attention turned toward air rifles. And in 1780 his perfected air rifle repeater was selected by the Austrian army for limited use. Girandoni or Girardoni?

This 22-shot repeating air rifle is an original Girardoni military pattern rifle of the type used on the Lewis & Clark Expedition. It is a butt reservoir piece with a bore size of .462 caliber. Similar pieces were supplied by Bartolomeo Girardoni to the Austrian army circa 1780.

Join us as we explore the fascinating history and mechanics of the Girardoni air rifle, a groundbreaking weapon used by the Austrian army from 1780 to 1815. Known for its high rate of fire,...

2022年12月12日 · How did a strange European rifle that used compressed air to fire rounds with lethal accuracy find its way into the Lewis and Clark expedition? “The Girardoni was the first repeating rifle to see regular military service and the first to employ a tubular magazine. It featured a magazine of 22 shots and had an effective range of 125 yards.”

The Austrian Army ordered 1,500 air rifles of the Girardoni design between 1787 and 1806, when the weapon was withdrawn from the Austrian arsenal. Meanwhile, the Girardoni rifle was copied by manufacturers of weapons for wealthy sportsmen, and some of those guns might have been brought to the United States.

2015年5月12日 · Designed in Italy and made in Austria, it’s a mystery how the Girardoni air rifle ended up with Lewis and Clark. The display of rapid-repeating fire was unlike anything the indigenous people had...

The Girardoni air rifle was a 22-shot, magazine-fed, nearly silent .46 caliber repeating rifle adopted in 1780 by the Austrian Army. Thomas Jefferson purchased two of these rifles, which he sent west with Lewis and Clark.