Girandoni Air Rifle

[besilarius]

http://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/the-girandoni-air-rifle/#comments

A fascinating might have been wonder weapon.  Practically silent magazine rifle in 1780s.  The Austrian emperor Joseph II believed in it, and paid for it's production, but like the mitrelluse, it was a secret.  The troops got it as they were leaving for campaign, never well trained in it, and with the soldered air flask just too fragile.
There's an old chestnut that Napoleon ordered any jager using one to be shot on sight.  Never happened.

It stacks up there with the Ferguson Rifle as a lost opportunity.

[Shelldrake]

Interesting article - thanks. The idea of having the compressed air bottle nestled up to my cheek doesn't really appeal to me. Catastrophic failure equals no head!

Another interesting tidbit. The 500 fps velocity of the Girandoni means that this air rifle would not be considered to be a firearm by Canadian authorities and would fall into the same category as a Daisy BB gun!

[bayonetbrant]

Another interesting tidbit. The 500 fps velocity of the Girandoni means that this air rifle would not be considered to be a firearm by Canadian authorities and would fall into the same category as a Daisy BB gun!

you'll shoot your eye out with that thing, kid

[besilarius]

Did a little digging on this.  Apparently a full air flask had power for thirty shots.  It was rated at 10 out to 120 yards, 10 out to 100 yards, and 10 out to 80 yards.
For the Turkish war, the rifles were given to grenadiers, each Austrian regiment had two companies of grenadiers.  Usually, these were merged into composite battalions of 4 -6 companies.  It seems to me that using the Girandoni as a skirmishing rifle ignored it's rate of fire. 
It could, with experience, fire up to six rounds per minute of aimed fire.  If just firing into a mass, you could easily get off ten a minute.  Suppose you were fighting an opponent using linear tactics, like the Prussians under Frederick the Great.  Attacking with a battalion of troops armed with these weapons, it seems possible that the thin line of a battalion could be blown away by concentrated fire.  If you developed tactics to have each attacking  battalion be, say two companies abreast, the first two companies could fire, use up their air flasks, and then retire to recharge.  The next two companies could either finish the enemy battalion, or move through the gap to take the flanking battalions in enfillade, or engage the enemy second line.

"In Austria, everything is critical, but nothing is serious."  Field Marshal Freiherr Radetzky, at the beginning of the Italian War.

[LongBlade]

I remember having a discussion on this a few years back.

Two other things worth noting. IIRC the Corps of Discovery (Lewis and Clark) carried a few of these with them to help impress the natives that they weren't as helpless as they might first appear. Also, the reason they didn't catch on (you'd think something with that rate of fire would be like a machine gun compared to the traditional muzzle loaders of the day) is that the air flasks were actually fairly fragile. It didn't take much abuse to mis-align them and make them unusable. Military commanders decided the average soldier couldn't care for them consistently enough to keep them in reliable condition.

[Shelldrake]

Beeman has a nice collection of airguns past and present. Although the Girandoni air rifle was the only one to see military service there are actually a number of interesting models produced by other gunsmiths. Check out the Haas airgun circa 1655.

http://www.beemans.net/collection.htm

[Centurion40]

So were these rifles deadly??!!  I'm having a hard time imagining an air rifle being anything other than a nuisance on the battlefield.

[LongBlade]

So were these rifles deadly??!!  I'm having a hard time imagining an air rifle being anything other than a nuisance on the battlefield.

My dad has a Beeman in .177 caliber. It's a great squirrel rifle and I've even managed to kill a skunk with it. Might have been a lucky shot, but still, it went down. I haven't looked into it myself, but I do believe my dad told me they come in more powerful versions, but the one he has is a perfect squirrel gun so he didn't want anything more.

[Centurion40]

 :o  Damn!

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

If I remember from being 12, air rifles are mostly .177 cal, some are .22 . They will finish small animals, like under 10 lbs, mostly birds. You would have to be very lucky to do serious damage to any big animal.

[Shelldrake]

So were these rifles deadly??!!  I'm having a hard time imagining an air rifle being anything other than a nuisance on the battlefield.

Consider that these antique air rifles were moving a .40 to .58 calibre chunk of lead at 500 fps or better. This will penetrate a 1" board at 100 paces, about the same as a modern 9mm pistol round, which will definitely ruin your day. Also consider that slings, which typically can develop up to 100 fps with a 100 g rock or lead bullet, were pretty effective weapons of war in ancient times.

Check out this modern .50 calibre monster, which shoots 200-225 grain slugs!

http://www.pyramydair.com/article/_50_Caliber_Dragon_Slayer_Air_Rifle_December_2007/45

[LongBlade]

If I remember from being 12, air rifles are mostly .177 cal, some are .22 . They will finish small animals, like under 10 lbs, mostly birds. You would have to be very lucky to do serious damage to any big animal.

Yeah, I caught it from behind and I think the shot came from the side, under the ribs, and took out the right innards. I popped it a few times in the skull to be sure it was finished off, but it looked like they all bounced.

[Longdan]

If you ever get attacked by an angry six pack of 2 litre bargain colas that Dragon Slayer will do just fine.

[LongBlade]

If you ever get attacked by an angry six pack of 2 litre bargain colas that Dragon Slayer will do just fine.

Thank you. I was really worried it wasn't up to the task.

[MIGMaster]

I have a .22 pellet rifle and the thing will blast a hole through a aluminum pot cover at approximately 40 feet. I've used it to persuade racoons to leave my yard.