Air gun of Lewis and Clark
 

I heard these boys used an air rifle on their trip x country...anyone know what size they used? From what I hear, it was used to shoot bear,elk etc..had to be quite large..and how come nowdays this isn't an option other than a .177 or a .22?..Could a 50cal air rifle be on the market soon?

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. Holds 800 lbs of compressed air and 1500 strokes to load...impressive.

Weren't these the ones with the "ball" air chamber on the bottom of them?

GoodOlBoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pqFyKh-rUI
I found this information and is quite an outfit..I am suprised I never heard more about them or they never took off to be marketed today...a nice looking outfit

It was always my understanding they carried the English air rifle with the ball chambers on them. See the only two pics I could find below. Must have been my mistake.

GoodOlBoy

I am not sure what they took with them however, it impressed me that they had air guns way back then of that size shot..Now I wonder just what they did use or maybe they had more than one option?..I have only seen for sale the .177 or 22..where could you buy something like a 44 or 45 today?..or even a 50cal?.

Wow, just did a google search and came up with this, all I can say is I'm impressed as I to thought like skeeter that air rifles were .177 or .22 nowadays. http://www.quackenbushairguns.com/