On 10/6/2011 11:48 PM, Jon Anderson wrote:
On 10/6/2011 2:43 PM, Snag wrote:

And components to make more ... And components to make components ... I
was always a warmonger .

Had a guy come by today looking for some prototypes and pre-production
work for large bore air rifles. By large bore, I mean .45 and up.
He demonstrated a .45 rifle, charging it via a bicycle style pump on
steroids, to around 2500 PSI. I had two 1" thick laminated particle
board cabinet tops headed for the dump, so leaned them up against each
other for a target. Lordy, it sounded almost as loud as a real firearm!
Punched a nice clean hole in the laminate on the first board, and a nice
big exit hole on the 2nd.

And it still had enough air for 2 more shots! These shoot the same
bullets as black powder rifles. So, couple of molds and a source of
lead, and you're shooting for as long as you can man the pump. (while
they can be hand charged, they usually use pressure tanks)

Here's one example, a Quackenbush .50
http://quackenbushairguns.com/bandit_1.html

This ain't yer daddy's Daisy!


Jon


Air Rifles were quite popular back in the Lewis and Clark era.

The leading competitors were mostly flintlocks and matchlocks.
EITHER of which were rendered useless if the powder got wet.

The idea of a self-contained cartridge was probably floating around,
but they were not readily available.