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Girardoni Air Rifle
Girardoni System Austrian Repeating Air Rifle, Circa 1795, believed to have been taken on the Lewis and Clark Expedition
Type	Air rifle
Place of origin	Holy Roman Empire
Service history
In service	1780-1815
Used by	Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire, United States
Production history
Designer	Bartholomäus Girardoni
Designed	1779 or 1780
Specifications
Mass	4.5 kg (9.9 lb)
Length	120 cm (3.9 ft)
Caliber	.46
Feed system	20 round vertical hopper
Sights	Iron

The Girardoni Air Rifle was an airgun designed by Tyrolian inventor Bartholomäus Girardoni circa 1779. The weapon was also known as the Windbüchse ("wind rifle" in German). One of the rifle's more famous associations is its purported use on the Lewis and Clark Expedition to explore and map the western part of North America in the early 1800s.

History and use

The Girardoni air rifle was in service with the Austrian army from 1780 to around 1815. The advantages of a high rate of fire, no smoke from propellants, and low muzzle report granted it initial acceptance, but it was eventually removed from service for several reasons. While the detachable air reservoir was capable of around 30 shots it took nearly 1500 strokes of a hand pump to fill those reservoirs. Later, a wagon-mounted pump was provided. The reservoirs themselves, made from hammered sheet iron held together with rivets and sealed by brazing, proved very difficult to manufacture using the techniques of the period and were always in short supply.

In addition, the weapon was very delicate and a small break could make it inoperable. Finally, it was very different from any other weapon of the time and any soldier using it needed to be highly trained.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition used the rifle in the demonstrations that they performed for nearly every Native American tribe they encountered on the expedition.

The Girandoni Repeating Air Rifle

Presented here is information which finally develops a fairly clear picture of the features and history of the Girandoni military repeating air rifle. This information has become especially interesting and relevant because so much of it is new. The operation and special features of this gun, even its shortcomings, may be even more important to us than its fabled firepower.

After inventing an ingenious, but unreliable and unsafe, multiple feed system for powder burning firearms in the very late 1700s, Bartholomäus Girandoni (also spelled Girandony, Girardoni, etc.) of Vienna (originally from Ampesso in the Southern Tyrolean Alps) very successfully adapted the system to large bore airguns. Most of the following details are from the presentation of the design and details of this gun recently published by the British gun researchers Geoffrey Baker and Colin Currie (2002, 2006) and the physical research of Ernie Cowan and Rick Keller, both combined with research and analysis by Robert Beeman.

The Girandoni system was adopted, in great secrecy, as the Austrian military repeating air rifle (Hummelberger and Scharer, 1964/65). It has been recorded that the system was invented in 1779 or 1780, but deliveries of these guns to the Austrian army did not begin until between 1787 and 1791. Hoff’s (1977) classic reference on antique airguns and Hummelberger and Scharer (1964/65) indicate that about 1500 Girandoni military airguns were produced and that finally they were retired from service to Olmütz in Bohemia in 1815. Specimens with suggested, but unsupported, dates as early as 1797, and similar versions, but more advanced than the military models, are known from Joseph Lowenz and Joseph Contriner in Vienna. Hoff indicates that other Viennese gunmakers started making most of their copies of the Girandoni system well after the Austrian Army had given up all interest in such guns in 1815. Samuel Staudenmayer also began to make standard and advanced versions of these guns in his London shop from about 1800 to 1823. An example of an early Staudenmayer made Girandoni is in the famous Nunnemacher collection, (item N551),

Design and capabilities

The rifle was 4 ft (1.2 m) long and weighed 10 lbs (4.5 kg), about the same basic size and weight as other muskets of the time. It fired a .46 caliber ball (caliber is contested, original sources such as Dolleczek describe the caliber as 13mm) and it had a tubular, gravity-fed magazine with a capacity of 20 balls. This gravity operated design was such that the rifle had to be pointed upwards in order to drop each ball into the breech block. Unlike its contemporary, muzzle-loading muskets, which required the rifleman to stand up to reload with powder and ball, the shooter could reload a ball from the magazine by holding the rifle vertically while lying on his back and operating the ball delivery mechanism. The rifleman then could roll back into position to fire, allowing the rifleman to keep a "low profile". Contemporary regulations of 1788 required that each rifleman, in addition to the rifle itself, be equipped with three compressed air reservoirs (two spare and one attached to the rifle), cleaning stick, hand pump, lead ladle, and 100 lead balls, 1 in the chamber, 19 in the magazine built into the rifle and the remaining 80 in four tin tubes. Equipment not carried attached to the rifle was held in a special leather knapsack. It was also necessary to keep the leather gaskets of the reservoir moist in order to maintain a good seal and prevent leakage.

The air reservoir was in the club-shaped butt. With a full air reservoir, the Girardoni air rifle had the capacity to shoot 30 shots at useful pressure. These balls were effective to approximately 150 yards on a full load. The power declined as the air reservoir was emptied.

Importance

The Girardoni air rifle was an important first. It was the first repeating rifle of any kind to see military service. It was one of the first uses of a tubular magazine. And, although it saw service for only 35 years, it predated and was more advanced in design and mechanical technology than the Henry rifle which arrived fifty years later.

See also

• Weapons of the Austro-Hungarian Empire

Footnotes

1. Wier, S.K. (2005). "The Firearms of the Lewis and Clark Expedition" (PDF). p. 12. Retrieved March 12, 2013.
2. Girardoni air rifle as used by Lewis and Clark. A National Firearms Museum Treasure Gun. at YouTube
3. Samuel Staudenmayer, Gunsmith, Cockspur Street, London. By Shaun Brown, Page 90 to 93
4. Air Rifle Review
5. The Rudolph J. Nunnemacher Collection of Projectle Arms by John Metschl Milwaukee Public Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
6. The Beeman article on Girardoni Air Rifles in the sources section and an article in the German gun magazine Visier (issue 1/2007, page 141) claim the caliber was actually .463" (11.75 mm).
7. Die Entwicklung der Handfeuerwaffen im österreichischen Heere, 1896, Anton Dolleczek
8. A letter detailing regulations, "Signed, Vienna, 24th January 1788"; reproduced in Baker, G; Currie, C. The Austrian Army Repeating Air Rifle 2nd Ed., 2007.
9. Military writer August Haller claimed in an 1891 treatise Die österreichische Militär-Repetier-Windbüchse that the first ten shots would be effective to about 150 paces, the next ten shots up to 120-125 paces, the next ten out to 100 paces, and then the remaining air pressure in the reservoir would be too low.

Sources

• Beeman's History on Austrian Large Bore Airguns
• I Benemeriti Di Cortina D’Ampezzo
• Die Windbüchse
• (original 1780 example)
• Girardoni Air Rifle as used by Lewis and Clark at the National Firearms Museum

• Air guns
• Italian inventions