Airgun History: Where It All Began
Airgun History, where and how it all started. The airgun represents the oldest pressurized gas technology known to man. The bellows airgun is the oldest mechanical airgun known to exist and dates back to around 1580 and currently resides in the Livrustkammaren Museum in Stockholm, Sweden. The vast majority of historians acknowledge this period in time as the beginning of what we now consider to be the modern day airgun. During the 1600s people started hunting large game animals such as deer and wild boar with big-bore air rifles ranging from .30 caliber up to and including a .51 caliber rifle. These large caliber airguns were charged using a hand pump to fill an air chamber and produced velocities ranging from 650 to 1,000 FPS (200–300 m/s). These high powered air rifles were also adopted into military use around this time; the most well known example being the Girandoni Military Repeating Air Rifle.
The Kunitomo Airgun Circa 1820
In this early era of firearms, the air gun was recognized as having several distinct features giving it an advantage over the common, more readily available firearms of that time. Some of these unique advantages included the ability to be used in damp, humid and rainy conditions, unlike matchlock muskets which could not be fired in the rain airguns. Air rifles also had the unique advantage that they could be fired with more rapid succession than the slow to load muzzle-loading weapons. Other advantages of the airguns were the facts that there was a significant reduction in report compared to firearms of the same caliber, a complete void of the firearm muzzle flash and no smoke. This gave the air rifle shooter a big advantage when trying to keep their position hidden from either enemy forces or wild game.
Airguns And Military Adoption
The Girandoni Airgun
Some armies starting training and equipping their soldiers with these high-powered airguns giving them a measurable advantage over their opposing forces. In fact, both France and Austria along with many other countries had entire air rifle sniper divisions. One such model of airgun was the Austrian 1770 named Winbuchse [meaning ‘wind rifle’ in German]. This airgun was developed approximately in 1768-1769 by a watchmaker, mechanic, gunsmith named Bartholomaus Girandoni and is commonly called the Girandoni Air Rifle. This airgun was around 48inches in length and weighed around 10lbs which happened to be roughly the same length and weight of traditional muskets of that time. The club-shaped removable air reservoir doubled as the gun’s stock. The Windbüchse was loaded via a long tube shaped magazine which could hold up to 22 .51cal lead balls. A practiced shooter was able to fire through the entire magazine in well under 1min. Fully capable of penetrating a 1inch thick wood board at around 250ft this airgun was no slouch when it came to power. This amount of power is roughly consistent with that seen by some of today’s more commonly carried hand-guns such as the 9mm and .45cal ACP pistols.
Airgun Usage Starts To Gain Traction
Around 1820, a Japanese inventor named Kunitomo Ikkansai invented multiple manufacturing processes for firearm production, and he also developed an airgun after carefully studying Western information which he acquired from the Dutch in Dejima.
The Airgun history of the renowned explorers Lewis and Clark as they carried an airgun on their famous expedition in 1804. This air gun could hold 22 .46 cal round balls via a cylindrical magazine which was positioned on the side of the barrel. The stock of the airgun also functioned as the air chamber and had an operating pressure of 800 psi. This air rifle was said to be capable of firing 22 targeted shots in 1min and had a rifled barrel bore of 0.452 in (11.5 mm) and a grooved diameter 0.462 in (11.7 mm).
W.F. Markham Co. was one of the first successful mass-production commercial companies of airguns. The Challenger was marketed in 1888 and was their first mass-produced model airgun. The next model they produced was called the Chicago followed by the model King airgun. The Chicago model could be purchased via the Sears, Roebuck catalog and cost around $0.73. In 1928 the company changed it’s name to King Mfg. Co. and remained so until the company was bought out by the Daisy airgun company.
Airgun History: Airgun Shooting Moves Indoors
Throughout the 1890s competitive target-shooting matches using air rifles were popularly held events in Birmingham England. These events were held in public domain, and shooting teams where sponsored by local pubs. Prizes, such as a leg of lamb for the winning team, were provided by the losing team. By 1899 the sport of competitive air rifle shooting had grown so large that a National Smallbore Rifle Association was founded. During this time, in excess of 4,000 air rifle clubs and associations existed across Great Britain, many of them located in Birmingham. Also around this time, due to the airgun’s ability to fire a shot without a significant report, airguns became associated with poaching [illegal game hunting].
Learn More About Airguns:
WHAT IS AN AIRGUN
HOW AIRGUNS ARE POWERED
WHY BUY AN AIRGUN
Follow Us On FACEBOOK
Recent Post Comments