Lewis and Clark expedition had a lot of special purpose equipment. It was as extreme a venture as going to the moon was in the 20th century. On there own in unknown territory. Harper's Ferry Arsenal made up special Rifles for the expedition in 1803 based on the 1792 musket but more of a Pennsylvania design. To my eye it's the ultimate Flintlock rifle.  They had a daily need for food and lived off the land. That air rifle no doubt kept the pot full without using up precious supply of gunpowder.

Lot of old journals are hard to read but the original account of the expedition is a wonderful set of books.  Read it with a good Atlas in hand.

Boats

Excellent! Interesting. Thanks for posting the link.  The speaker did make one glaring mistake right at the end. He said Potomac  rather than Columbia river.  Otherwise , well done.  I wonder who pumped that baby up? 

                          Joe.

This air rifle is a unique piece of engineering.  As to the question of how it was pumped up. The butt stock, as explained was a removeable piece. Removing the butt stock revealed a kind of "lag screw." protrudiing from the butt stock. This lag screw was pushed and screwed into a convenient tree.  Then you just stood there and rocked back and worth 1,500 times.    One of the purposes not mentioned in he clip, unless I missed it, was the rifle's "quiet" discharge, for the procurement of small/medium size game. It didn't spook anything or anyone, alerting their location. Anyhow, when he hammer fell, it hit a small lever or button discharging a shot of compressed air. I would love to get my hands on a set of drawings or specs and build one. OOPS,  can we talk about this, it's a repeater, not a single shot.  I'd make one anyway. A uniq

If I read the Journals right, it was mostly used to wow the Indians.   

Hello C_W,

Obviously this man is not the original 'Quackenbush' manufacturer of air rifles. As a boy of 5, I was introduced to shooting using a Quackenbush air rifle that belonged to my grandfather who used it to help feed his family in WW1. I'm 68 now and that rifle is still doing service on a country estate owned by a nephew of mine.

The last time I saw it (30 years or more ago) the blue had turned to plum colour and the varnish was nearly all worn off, but it would still shoot.

Harry

It says there is a distant relationship.