Forgotten Weapons: You are right that these things are effective. In the early seventies, my father was director of a research establishment in the Northern Home Counties. It was remote, but adjoined a shooting estate that would release hundreds of hand-reared pheasants every year. Many of which settled in the laboratory grounds and were never shot. Over time, the pheasant population grew to plague levels and they started to interfere with work: dancing noisily on laboratory roofs during the lekking season, setting off intruder alarms, leaving unwelcome deposits on cars and delivered parcels: general nuisance. The security guards reported to my father: "there's a bloke in Whitwell, deals with this sort of thing. Only, he works at night and doesn't want the day staff to see his face or his methods, but he's prepared to meet you. He wants to keep half the pheasants and about thirty quid should do it." One Friday evening, once all the laboratory staff had gone home and only security guards and my father were present, an elderly gentleman in a cloth cap appeared at the security gate, with an armful of hessian sacks and a ball-reservoir airgun. (I think it must have been a smaller gauge than the one at RIA and quite possibly rifled, but otherwise the same.) By moonlight, the gentleman made his way around the complex, executing roosting pheasants with deadly accuracy and what must have been excellent night vision for his age. Sacks were filled and security guards and my father had pheasants to distribute amongst loved ones and paying customers. He came back the next Friday for a repeat performance, though there was less moonlight and fewer pheasants, so the bountiful harvest was smaller. The nuisance was erased. This is how I and my older brothers acquired a taste for roast pheasant, pheasant sandwiches, pheasant casserole...
There was a member of my shooting club who had a prosthetic right arm and only the index and middle fingers remaining on his left hand. This was due to the air reservoir exploding on his Pritchard air rifle. He still shot (to his credit and determination), holding the forend of his shotgun with the prosthetic hand. It was very unfortunate. - Before the accident, he was a watchmaker. They think the reservoir exploded because of oil residue "dieseling" when critical pressure was reached.
To think, add one more pressure chamber and you basically have a Super Soaker. It would have gotten banned when little Lord Fauntelroy filled it with lamp oil, attached a lot wick at the end of the barrel, then leaped around pretending to be John Carson of Venus.
Fun fact: Nerf darts are .50 cal. I think it'd be great, hilarious publicity to find an appropriate ramrod and a foam dart. Of course, this being a proper gun, that might be a bit of a tall order. Plus, I'm sure the video would get flagged because reasons. Still, this boy can dream...?
Though it would be interesting in theory. I doubt that a nerf dart will stand up to either the pressure the gun puts on it or the speed it would shoot due to it being significantly lighter than a 50 caliber ball
Closest you'll get nowadays are High Pressure Air (HPA) Blasters Made outside the control of Toy companies like Hasbro. They're usually custom-made and capable of fairly high Muzzle Velocities.
@@Bob5mith kinda proves my point, it will only fo so fast before it destroys the nerf dart. And it really wouldn't be fun if you cant fire it with a full load.
I would love a big brand making a 4 bore precharged air gun. You can have 100 caliber in smoothbore if I am not mistaken. I don't like where current PCP rifles went aesthetically, I much prefer the old wood stock, classic hunting style rifles.
i like mine its break barrel has dovetail mount and a semi pistol grip, looks a little competition rifley because of the cheek pad but its a lot more reserved than the ones that are far more removed from actual firearm design
These are fantastic things and it's always a pleasure to see one. I suspect it's a nightmare inside, though. The other thing that made Lewis & Clarke's Giardoni great was that they used it as gentle gunboat diplomacy with the Indian tribes they met; they'd have some trade and pleasantries and in the course of mutual showing off of cool shit, would demonstrate the rifle, being careful never to let it run dry. The Indians knew about firearms, but had never met such a thing as a repeater, and a relatively quiet one at that, and, lo and behold, anyone who might have been thinking about mugging them tended to re-consider.
@@harrickvharrick3957 They had nothing but time back in the day. Time enough to run the diligence again and again on the positions of pyramids relative to astronomical events and time enough to spend hours upon hours hand tooling stuff we can do in minutes. Imo, we take things too quickly, if we in the modern era slowed down we could work wonders.
@@diehounderdoggenalt I agree with you. Wholeheartedly. Would only the world population take time.. Time to just look around, and time to think. They wouldn't have to fly hallways across the world to get somewhere speedily, somewhere where a things stand they don't spend the time required to look at things, the time it would take for things to think in the time out would take for them to (be able to) ponder over things. They would be amazed, and we'd be able to become a more friendly type for (mother) nature, we'd be able to tread a tiny bit more lightly
Wet leather washers will create a servicable seal. Thats what they used. And they would have been in good stead had they had to fight with them. Assuming they also had the powder burners of the day, the goradoni had about a 20 shot capacity magazing and i think they could get over one mag out of a cylinder. Each gun would come with 3 cylinders and three tubes for loading the mag. So one guy could drop 20 shots off accompanied by regular muzzleloaders then the second man so equipped could drop 20 shots while the first guy reloads. And so on. It wasnt a magic boomstick by any means but it was nearly so.
Not altogether that complex mechanically: the most complicated part would probably getting the proper seals and tight tolerances to make this at all efficient. Required a fair amount of personal hand fitting though so not the most suited to mass production in addition to the significant loss in power and range that powder weapons have. In their niche and designed uses though, airguns have had a long life of usefulness!
That was actually the _Girardoni_ air rifle, not the Pritchard air rifle--though FW also an excellent video on the Girardoni as well (albeit not presented by Ian).
Another advantage to expeditions, your powder can't get wet in this thing. If you get caught in the rain and your powder gets a little moist, you can still use this to hunt and for self-defense while waiting for your powder to dry.
MarsOz Sort of, that you can use it in the rain. This was more of an expansion on that idea, before I got to that part of the video, after he appears to have mentioned the main benefits of this kind of rifle.
Look up Sam Yang airguns. Not a reproduction, but very nice lines on them, look like modern double barrel shotguns. Can get them in 9mm, .45, and .50 cal.
@@Voltaic_Fire for what it's worth, I've read that the .45cal airguns are not ideal, they have the disadvantages of both 9mm (low power, iirc) and .50cal (high air consumption), so if you have the $$, buy the 9mm and the .50. Note that those are precharged pneumatic (aka PCP), so you will want a 4500psi air tank, too.
Terrorists have used a stolen van and kitchen knives to kill people in the streets? Better try and ban airguns, .50 cal rifles and knife sales online.... /Theresa May
Yep- pretty much anything fun is in their sights for a ban right now; we'll be a nation of archers soon enough. I'm thinking nothing short of a protest march with 1 million+ members of all shooting hobbies is required; right to the gates of Downing Street with a list of demands for common sense laws on knife and 'gun' ownership, and an end to the scape-goating we're experiencing right now. It started with Labour and their VCRA bollocks, now the Tories are just adding to it under the pretense of protecting us from terrorists largely. Makes me sick.
I find it quite interesting that the sphere on the bottom of the Pritchard is about the same size and construction (excepting being made of iron as opposed to ABS plastic, naturally) as the one used for the classic 90s era Super Soaker 80. I suppose form follows function and the design is quite efficient.
I've always found military air guns fascinating. I always wondered why they didn't catch on in specialized role within the military, especially since they generally has a much higher rate of fire than black powder.
Nathan Snitko Would probably be good for sentry duty, things like that. You're not expected to fire far, since you're close to defenses, but a higher rate of fire would be great for defensive positions...
As Ian mentioned it mainly came down to cost, any competent gunsmith can manufacture barrels, furniture, and locks, but building a reliable air tank to equip a division would be extremely impractical, you can look at the early history of rifle adoption like the Baker rifle as a good example of where a military passes over good tech to keep costs down
I mean it’s mainly cost and reliability. Same reason the US has kept the AR-15 platform in service for decades when you have better assault rifles on the market
Back in the days where these guns had an advantage over black powder muzzle loaders, you didn´t have any small elite units like we have today, that you would equip with such expensive weapons. Plus without rifling their range is limited so in best 18th century style, the enemy could just fix bayonetts and charge like it was done time and time again.
i like the spherical air tank. it's got a nice patina, shape and it's even adorned, albeit with a functional seam around the middle. it also adds just an iota of steampunk which looks great but without any ridiculousness.
Although a fictional story, one of Arthur Conan Doyle's "Sherlock Holmes" stories feature an assassin companion of Moriarty (one Colonel Moran), using an airgun to kill "inconveniences", even trying to kill Holmes himself with it. As my previous knowledge of airguns was limited to modern 177's and 22's, I thought it a bit far fetched. This video proves that the story had a great deal of fact behind the fiction.
Modern mass produced AirGuns are available in small bore calibers: .177, .20, .22 & .25, and in big bores : .30, .357, .45, .50 caliber. Check pyramydair.com if you are interested.
Hi, the one used in sherlock holmes story was a spring powered air gun firing a revolver bullet ( popular sizes were. 45 or. 455 soft lead) to disguise it origin and made by a swiss gunsmith with a barrel looking like a "opera" stick and stock concealed beneath the shooters cloak. A 19 th c DAY OF THE JACKAL. read original story for more info.
"Although a fictional story, one of Arthur Conan Doyle's "Sherlock Holmes" stories.......'" well thats what the Brit govt want you to believe. Are you aware that King George V paid all the costs to set up the British Intelligence Service well before 1914, and his predecessors Queen Victoria and later Edward V11 had bank rolled the recruitment of selected British Gentlemen as "travelling explorers" (Robert Baden-Powell an example) to carry out Espionage missions throughout Europe, Africa and Asia.
The way I’ve heard it described, pre-industrial technology could produce devices nearly as intricate and precise as anything we might have today but they couldn’t do it quickly or in quantity. Air guns would seen to be a perfect example.
While there skills shouldn’t be downplayed at all, in many ways people of preindustrial era were far more skilled craftsmen then us, but while they could produce precise and intricate devices, it very far from the level of preciseness and intricacy we can create now.
One could still use those with a custom tank, even with a new separate valve to refill without taking it off the weapon. Hell, even a backpack battery powered air compressor*.
Cool! So, as a german, this is the one time I can actually relate to something on this channel. Cause my parents had an Airgun when I was young (still have it I believe). Alright, that was my glorious time to shine! Thank you for your attention. That's it. Bye!
@Joost van Schijndel: I guess he's referring to the (comparatively) high difficulty of legal gun ownership here in Germany. You can't just walk into a store, fill out a form and buy one (as you can in most states in the US). So gun ownership and especially gun culture (if you can even call it that here) is very different. So you are rather unlikely to find many Germans here in the comments going "oh yeah, we have one of those in the attic back at my parent's home", like you occasionally see with commenters from the US (at least on the less obscure guns he features). That said, legal gun ownership is still very much possible, it's just a lot more of a hassle (and in many ways much more restricted). Source: I'm German and a legal gun owner (hunter).
This gun seems like it was way ahead of its time. A rifle that could quickly fire a lot of rounds. Wonder why these were not used more commonly. Think about it, these as rifles for light cavalry, they could get close enough to enemy and pepper them with hundreds of rounds before retreating to reload.
Due to limited precision machining capability in those days, each gun had to be custom made and fitted by a master craftsman. They would had cost too much to outfit regular soldiers with.
I was curious how the action worked on these. Very interesting. How did they go about creating the air tight pressure seals without rubber? Copper? Leather? Some sort of fabric loaded with grease?
Greased leather or moistened cork gaskets was what I read they used. They had to periodically reapply the grease or wet the gaskets to keep a tight seal. One reason why in military usage they required well-trained soldiers to deploy and maintain.
Very old air pumps had dished leather seals. 200+ year old water pumps had oak cylinders with leather compression rings. Without knowing definitely I'd therefore assume leather.
I just re-discovered your channel. Looking forward to more oddball firearms. These things fascinate me. I was a machinist/operator and I can appreciate the engineering and skill that goes into these hand crafted old weapons. You do a wonderful job presenting them as well.
It is amazing how far air guns have come in the last few years. The Pritchard, pushing a 50 cal round ball (~177gr) at 575fps would develope around 130ft-lbs. A modern comercially available 50 cal air rifle specs pushing a 550gr slug at 760fps developing 705 ft-lbs!
I'd be amazed if you can actually get that many shots from a charge, I love my airguns but modern big bore ones at 50cal or above only get half a dozen shots max, and they have bigger reservoirs that are charged up to 4500psi. They're certainly interesting and have definite applications but shot count per charge falls off dramatically with bigger calibres.
Yeah i was thinking that too. A couple dozen is really optimistic. That might also be the total number of shots even if they werent usefully powerful though even that seems high. They were shooting at much lower velocity and probably less air per shot so that shot count would be higher than on the modern ones.
Airguns have such a neat niche in history and even made their way into popular culture back in the day: in one of the Sherlock Holmes stories, one of Holmes' enemies, Col. Moran, tries to assassinate him with an airgun because it was quieter and wouldn't draw police attention to the shooter's location. Moran was able to kill a man from across a wide city street and almost got Holmes, although the detective fooled him with a bust statue set up by his window. Holmes was particularly nervous about this because even if the shot missed he wouldn't be able to figure out where the shot was fired from and probably wouldn't be able to get out of the way in time before airgun fired again. In the late 90's Granada TV series on the books I believe they even depicted Moran using a Girandoni, specifically.
In the short story 'The adventure of the empty house' 1894 written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle a German air gun is used to commit murder. The way it reads suggests the use of an air gun for that at that time was at least strange and possibly unheard of. The first time I read it, in perhaps 1960, it was news to me.
Thanks guys she just got dianosed with Breast Cancer and shes 3 months pregnant. Only 31 yo. Its frustrating to not be able to help, videos help me kinda occupy my mind.
nc_classics _ That's terrible to hear, I hope things improve. Stay strong, man. Know that you've got a ton of random gun/history buffs praying for and/or thinking of you guys!:)
It would be interesting to shoot this gun, or a black powder equivalent producing identical velocities, against ballistic gel over say 50 - 100 yards to assess the effectiveness of this weapon
Frankly, air guns are a lot cooler than firearms in some ways, the inventiveness of designers comes out with all the different ways of pressuring air and then delivering that air to the chamber, different ways of delivering ammo to the chamber, and they have a big of a quirkiness to them being that they don't use a propellant.
I underestimated the hell out of air guns until I went hunting with a buddy that used a .50 cal air rifle to take down a deer. One shot, clean, only took like 3 steps and dropped. Blew my fucking mind.
Not so silent. You can compare it to slapping busting an air filled paper bag. They were strong enough to shatter a burnt clay brick at some distance. You could see them as a compromise between firearm and crossbow, just with a more favourable rate of fire at the expense of range.
i know they had round magazines 1000 shots they had machine guns in the 12th century and people these days are none the wiser pneumatics the way of the past in alot of public works projects it would be amazing if it was the way of the future and will be because of people like me who are bringing them back into full fashion
It'd be pretty interesting to see someone roll up to their local woodsball field with an unrifled reproduction in .68 caliber. (With the pressure dialed down, natch, probably supplied from a 12 gram CO2 cartridge in the stock.)
no, you would not pump up the reservoir when empty, you'd hand it over to your man-servant who'd have pumped a spare for you already to put right back in. No sweat. (Literally). :)
Ian, I would like to learn more about Theodore Roosevelt's dynamite gun, the weapon he and the Rough Riders took to Cuba during the Spanish American War. Any chance you could do video on that weapon and how it was used?
Impractical as a weapon but a light-gas gun is essentially a superpowered air gun (although the actual energy source is a chemical propellant). Those have achieved a muzzle velocity of 8.5 km/s. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-gas_gun
they are overall under powered compared to smokeless powder firearms, and even black powder. An actual rifle is much much more powerful than a rifle utilizing air. However, during the extremely early 19th century, it would have boasted superior firepower because it would be easier to reload than most firearms at that time.
Yeah I definitely couldn't see anything like this on the battlefield, I could see something more along the lines of a modern fully automatic pellet rifle, of course far more engineered for modern combat.
The idea of a automatic pistol, the air triggered by a spining wheels that indexes (by some kind of gear or cam) and load each shot from a spring loaded tube magazine below. As it's so simple im not sure why know ones built one? (I'm not sure of how uk law would take it, is it sec 5 or an air rifle?)
@Not worth it there's a lot more energy to be stored and released in a chemical reaction rather than via pressure. I think the next step of firearm development is using fission-based propellant, which should have even more energy-per-mass.
Wow, I'd love to have this. Lately I have been more into air rifles than actual firearms for some reason. It's just so cool that you can basically make a deadly BB gun.
RedFang you would be able to own it as an antique but if you wanted to shoot it then it would need to be below 12 ft lbs to use without a licence, more than that FAC required
Wow, this is actually very surprising to me. I always assumed that you wouldn't have the necessary materials such a long time ago to create a good enough of a seal.
The Girodonni air rifle was high tech in those days. On an expedition like Lewis and Clark they were very useful logistically and also a force multiplier. Saves gunpowder for the other weapons and rapid fire . I do not know who had the idea to bring those rifles, but it was a good idea. I am sure they pulled more than their weight.
It has been rumored that the creator of Neuschwanstein was shot with one of these. Back then, they had a reputation of assassins weapons. The military used them for a brief time by something similar to snipers (especially by professional huntsmen). They weren't used for long range shooting but more for taking out multiple opponents in quick succession without waking up the entire village. Still, they are louder than crossbows.
The giarardoni that Lewis and Clark carried could actually accept a reservoir pressure of up to 800 PSI with about a 200 pound man operating the pump. The disadvantage was that if you were a smaller bill you couldn't get pressure to be quite as high because of the pump used at the time. I am an airgun fanatic and hunt almost exclusively with air I love he's videos and would really love it if you could do more antique air gun videos because the history on them is not as easy to find out as it is on many firearms.the giarardoni is famous enough you can find info on it about the only one I know of and would love to learn more about Pritchard as well as any other old-fashioned PCP guns. I consider you to be a very knowledgeable source seeing as I know quite a bit about firearms in history myself I got to say when I need information on an old gun I look to your Channel keep up the good work!
Qhen I was in my early teens, I read about Lewis & Clark having one of these. Very interesting and I wondered how they compressed air back then. It definitely kept me having an interest in air guns. An AirForce Airgun is definitely in the list. A lot of people underestimate airguns 🤷♂️.
Austrian soldiers were issued manual pumps which required 1500 strokes to fill a single reservoir on their Girardonis, of which they carried at least 2. This took about 20 minutes. The Austrian army also had carriage mounted pumps for refilling them. Lewis and Clark likely had an Austrian style hand pump for theirs.
Napoleon ordered that any soldier found carrying a air rifle be executed on the spot, such was the totally understandable fear of a powerful but silent rifle capable of matching black powder weapons of the time.Some were elegantly designed in such a way that the (detachable for recharging) stock contained the air reservoir so they looked identical to the flint locks of the time. Some outperformed flintlocks ballistically. Swiss adopted them because they did not trigger avalanches.
The94GTC. Correct, however they were obviously not loud enough to cause avalanches or the Swiss would not have adopted them. A gun does not have to be completely silenced to avoid triggering an avalanche, just quieter than a firearm.
