Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Firearms trivia question ....

So, growing up and living in Oregon almost enough years to qualify for a �Pioneer� hunting license, I have always been fascinated by the story of the Lewis and Clark expedition and their travels across the Rockies (through Oregon) to the Pacific Ocean. My earliest elk hunts with my father, were in the Blue mountains of NE Oregon and the drive from the Willamette Valley, up the Columbia River Gorge and into the mountains is filled with Hysterical (sic) markers, relaying various Indian encounters and campsites of the Lewis and Clark party.

I�ve visited the re-created Fort Clatsop near Astoria (where they spent the Winter of 1805-06), the salt cairns in Seaside, where the crew boiled sea water down to salt and I�ve walked some of the portions of their trail though Oregon, Idaho and Montana. I have an entire shelf of books on their epic struggle that go way beyond Stephen Ambrose�s �Undaunted Courage�. I�ve even read pages from one of the original copes of the Lewis and Clark Journals, in the Beinecke Rare Book library at Yale. But, it wasn�t until last week, that I learned a tidbit of firearms history, that could probably win you a bet, around most campfire gatherings of hunters/shooters.

Here�s the Question (1):

Along with a dozen or so muzzle-loading rifles and a few pistols ... what other unique �firearm� did the Lewis and Clark expedition equip themselves with ?

For Extra Credit (2):
�Why was it selected ? �

For Extra Credit (3):
�What was it�s most common actual use (during the journey) ? �

For Extra Credit (4):
�How did it perform ? �

You are welcome to post which questions you already knew the definitive answers to (Googling not allowed) ... but let people ponder this for a little while (say 24 hours or so) .... before posting the actual answers.

Hint ... it was NOT a �Binford-6100� wielded by Pamela Anderson

... Silver Bullet

Always know the difference, between being invited-to-dinner ... and being on-the-menu !

It was an air gun. Saved on powder.

Perhaps a cannon for dispatching buffalo.

Air gun



Mike

About 40 caliber IIRC and was charged with a bellow's type of deal as the stock was the air chamber. Good for multiple shots between charges also IIRC. Was used to impress the Indians among other things.

Question 1 - already answered, air gun.

Question 2 - don't know for sure.

Question 3 - kept kids off the lawn at Ft. Clatsop

Question 4 - pretty good

ET got 1 and 2. #3 was impressing and putting the fear of God in the natives. #4 was it worked well enough that they made it home with their scalps.

I was thinking it was a Glock 23

I think is was mostly used for showing off with to the local natives. I don't believe they actually shot any game with it.

Can you really call it a "fire" arm?

My vote too

Dang, a tick over a minute, and some of that time would have typing.

If they had only AIed it, they would have had something worthwhile.

It wasn't the gun that one of the men used to shoot Lewis in the butt, mistaking him for an elk. That's a part of the trip that most schools seem to neglect.

Read an article a year or two ago about that air gun. They thought that perhaps they had found the original gun and had pictures of it.

Well now you�ve done it Ollie ... you�ve wasted a perfectly-good trivia question ....
and proven that while the 24-hr crew is steeped in TRIVIA ... they can�t Read !
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The idea was to post up the �question number� of the questions you already knew the answers to, too show-off how smart you wuz .... <grin> and leave the unwashed masses to continue to ponder what the actual answers were.
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Anyway, the initial reason the air rifle was originally chosen to accompany the team, was not so much to save powder ... but in case they ran out of powder ... either from use, capsizing of the boats or theft by the natives.

As to whether or not it should be classified as a Fire-arm ... the fact that the air-gun was able to rapid-fire (fed from a tubular magazine) kept Lewis and Clark from venturing too far South on their expedition .... Why ? .... because Kali-Phony-Yah had classified the air-gun as an assault weapon and banned it.
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Once past the Mandan villages, most of the Indian tribes they encountered were still in the pointy-stick, spear and tomahawk phase. They may have been exposed to the long rifles of some of the early mountain men, but had not managed to secured any of their own.

The fact that Lewis and Clark�s men were well armed with fire-sticks was not necessarily new to the tribes .... but when they displayed the air-guns relatively quiet, yet powerful (repeating) capability, immediately after each pow-wow with the local Indian Chiefs they encountered, it instilled the fear that the representatives of the Great-White-Father possessed some really-bad Medicine and were not to be messed with.
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�Any sufficiently advanced technology ... is indistinguishable ... from Magic ! !

... Silver Bullet

So many Pirates ... so few Lifeboats

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9WEsILY92o I was a guest at the Army Educational Center ,Carlisle Pa. in June of 2006 and watched this air gun fire. The original Demo was May 2005. Web

1. Airgun

2. To get gamne silently in Indian country

3. Hunting?

4. They killed a Grizzly Bear with it.

I am pretty sure I know the answers to #1, #2 & #3 . . . #4 I have a good idea of the answer, but no difinitive proof.

Post the answers tomorrow, SB, and I'll let you know if I was right . . .

Dang! I thought it was a AK.

I dazzled my wife with this little bit of trivia at lunch. She said, "How did you know that?" i said "I learned it at the 'fire." Now she knows this place is more than just pissing matches and jokes. It's educational!