old'un Posted June 22, 2018 Report Share Posted June 22, 2018 Just been looking at early PCP air rifles and came across the Girandoni .46 caliber repeating ball air rifle 1779, it was in service with the Austrian army from 1780 to around 1815, lethal combat ranges of 125 to 200 yards and some extend that range considerably. the detachable air reservoir was capable of around 30 shots it took nearly 1,500 strokes of a hand pump to fill the air reservoirs. My question is does anyone know what pressure those rifles would be working at to fire a .46 lead ball out to 200 yards? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
243deer Posted June 22, 2018 Report Share Posted June 22, 2018 Plenty about them on Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_gun - 800psi approx apparently to answer your question Great post - I never realised pcp was such old technology Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flyboy1950 Posted June 22, 2018 Report Share Posted June 22, 2018 A pal of mine has co written a book on this rifle which I have been meaning to buy for years. This post has prompted me to phone him and organise my copy next week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old'un Posted June 22, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2018 2 hours ago, 243deer said: Plenty about them on Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_gun - 800psi approx apparently to answer your question Great post - I never realised pcp was such old technology 800 psi (55 bar) does not seem enough to push a half inch piece of lead out to 200 yards with any stopping power? Not when you think of modern air rifles operating around 190/200 bar, unless they were fired like artillery shells and the falling slug did the damage due to its weight? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strimmer_13 Posted June 22, 2018 Report Share Posted June 22, 2018 5 hours ago, 243deer said: Plenty about them on Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_gun - 800psi approx apparently to answer your question Great post - I never realised pcp was such old technology +1 knew they were old - just never to that extent. Fascinating Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flyboy1950 Posted June 23, 2018 Report Share Posted June 23, 2018 I have it in the back of the memory that Napoleon ordered all airgun snipers to be hanged on the spot if they could catch them, it wasn't how warfare was to be conducted! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rovercoupe Posted June 23, 2018 Report Share Posted June 23, 2018 Have a look here be warned you will be sucked in for a hour or so! http://orro.net Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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