In fact, Lewis and Clark took a .46-caliber Girandoni air rifle capable of 22 shots at a time on their famous expedition. Below, we’ve rounded up the best air rifles right now. When choosing the ...

The state of the art was the Girandoni air rifle, invented around 1779 for Austrian army sharpshooters. Lewis and Clark would carry a Girandoni on their famous expedition, during the Jefferson ...

One particular item they took along was at least one air rifle, which Lewis often demonstrated to Native Americans. Before the trip, Lewis wrote that shortly after leaving Pittsburgh by river in ...

It was used by the Austrian army as a sniper rifle. Powered by compressed air, its bullet his as hard as the modern Colt .45ACP cartridge. John Paul Jarvis, The Girandoni Air Rifle: Deadly Under ...

Chiaventone. Around 1780 a Tyrolean gunsmith named Bartolomeo Girandoni developed a rugged air rifle that was soon adopted by the Austrian military. The .46 caliber rifle had a muzzle velocity of ...

Regarding semi-auto firearms: In 1777, the Belton Gun fired 16 or 20 [balls], in 16, 10, or five seconds. In 1779, Girandoni produced an air rifle that shot 30 times in succession. These guns were ...