Final thoughts and one more gun…
It was great to see the usual suspects, and chat over/around coffee, munchies etc. in the press room, on the floor and at various off-site locations! 🙂
Not as big as Houston, but the second largest Annual Meeting. And, as I’ve said before, this one was MUCH more relaxed. I think that was a good thing!
So, on to the gun. I ran into Phil Schreier on the floor and he asked if I’d seen the museum gun. “Nope.” says I. He smiled and said go to booth 457 and tell Mike Carrik I said for you to get a brief.
So I trot my happy little butt over that way, and lo and behold…
Anybody recognize it?
It’s an original Girardoni Air Rifle!!!
The lockwork is interesting in that it does NOT strike a primer, but hits the equivalent of a Schraeder valve (like the valve stem on your tire), to fire the gun.
And the 22 round magazine (closed)
The 22 round magazine (open) 
A complete, correct copy of the one remaining ‘tool kit’ from an Austrian museum. Note the four tubes, they are the ORIGINAL speed loaders!!! L0( And the long tube in the foreground, is the ‘pump’ to pump up the air reservoir.
And here is Phil’s great presentation on it!
Thanks to Mike Carrick for his brief on it, and letting me get up close and get the photos!
Just the rifle for a drama llama safari ya know ! LOL
Didn’t Lewis and Clark have one along on their expedition?
Rapid firing, quiet and just as lethal as the muzzle loaders of the day from my reading.
A most interesting piece.
IIRC, they did NOT have one. They had two.
There is one on the wall under glass in the museum at the back of Huntington’s in Oroville, CA (Huntington, as in RCBS). When I worked there, I asked (the late) Buzz Huntington about that rifle, and according to him it was with Lewis and Clark. That place has history to the rafters. Lots of photos tucked away in the museum of men like George Nonte and Bill Jordan and many others who wrote the books I read growing up. There is a photo of John Amber (Gun Digest editor) seated at the underground shooting tube (100yds.) where it was my job to sight in customer rifles. Good times.
That is most cool. Thanks for sharing this. Did you touch it? Don’t tell if you did.
No, I didn’t touch it. Here is a virtual tour of the store.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD_hoD8aKLo
The museum starts at 2:43. If memory serves, the Girardoni is in the third row on the left, number six from the top. Hard to tell in the picture. The bottom shelf is handguns all the way around. On the back wall at the far right is a gold-plated Model 94 in 30-30 that belonged to Al Capone.
My deepest regret is that I offered more than once to Buzz to volunteer my time and video equipment to record he and/or his brother Fred going through the collection. He agreed it was a great idea, but sadly it never got done.
I can’t help but wonder why this gun wasn’t massed produced? Rapid fire power, the stealth it could bring, and doing way with having to carry powder seems like a weapon the military would benefit. Especially in close combat, and many of the Civil War battles were just that. I believe we missed an opportunity by not mass producing his weapon.
I imagine pumping up the rifle takes a considerable time, and considerable effort. Which would inhibit their use.
Hey Old NFO;
That was a cool presentation and NRAAAM was a blast, I am looking forward to Dallas. On a slightly different note, it was really cool that they posted pics of your first issued rifle, Lol. Seriously though, if I hadn’t zinged you with it, Murphy, Aaron or a myriad of other characters would have.
Got it in one, having been to the L&C Nat’l. Park.
FD- Yep! 🙂
LL/Kermit- Kermit is correct, they had at least two. 🙂 one being shot, snd one standing by.
Fargo- I know nozzink…
CP- They did, for the Austrian army.
Sam- Excellent point. And that’s cheating… LOL
Bob- Yeah, yeah… 🙂
IIRC, there was a pretty fair amount of hand work involved in building a Girandoni, mass production wasn’t exactly a standard process back then. And again, IIRC, they were used by Austrian snipers against Napoleon who issued standing orders that anyone captured with one was executed on site. Not exactly conducive to extended military use.
Thank you for making that historical information comment. I saw that in the 1970’s Daisy air rifle instruction or catalog, I just remember being impressed that air guns are that old. Very cool.