Harmonica rifle

[Boaz]

Video on an harmonica rife , I thought it was interesting . Even made by someone we know well .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxNcjRf0O0o

[pietro]

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FWIW, the harmonica rifle wasn't made by the same John Browning of A-5 fame - it was made by his father, Jonathan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Browning


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[tdoor4570]

cool rifle wonder what one would cost now?

[Boaz]

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FWIW, the harmonica rifle wasn't made by the same John Browning of A-5 fame - it was made by his father, Jonathan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Browning


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That was discussed in the video , makes it even more interesting , don't you think ?

[Boaz]

Black powder rifle with a magazine ?

[bigted]

that family had too much talent for one blood line I am thinkin.

stick with the rifle in the video and come September you will see what it is worth ... at least to whomever wins the rifle at auction.

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

Back in the late 1980's as Utah was preparing for the State Centennial Celebration, a friend in the SLC area was approached by the Browning family to replicate one of these rifles for a few family members to carry in the parade. This friend, Steve Fotou, was one of the most talented and creative gunsmiths I have ever known. He could MAKE things! We shot Schuetzen together for several years at Raton.
As an example, his wife wanted a Schuetzen rifle, but was unsure of what brand. At Raton, she saw a Texican shooting a Borchardt. So, she just tells Steve "make me one of those...". You all know how that works. So, Steve asks me to find the patent drawings for him. I did, and he made her one over the winter.

Anyway, Steve gains access to the Museum thru this member of the family, and takes the original home with him. A couple months later, he has replicated four or five for the family, and they were not just "looks good" dummies. They actually shoot. The originals could have any magazine capacity desired, and I have heard stories about 20-30 rounders. That would have been a fun encounter for Indians as the Mormon wagon trains came west.

Steve moved to the Seattle area, and I lost track of him.

If we are lucky, he is here somewhere. Steve, if you are, PM me.

Rich, in Nampa

[GabbyM]

Very cool rifle. Never knew of that design before.

[Artful]

The originals could have any magazine capacity desired, and I have heard stories about 20-30 rounders. That would have been a fun encounter for Indians as the Mormon wagon trains came west.

Just remember that when someone says the Original firearms discussed in the Constitution where only single shots - they are wrong
And there where repeaters before Brownings creation - clear back to the continental congress being offered repeaters.

I would still like an Airgun as good as Lewis and Clark had on their expedition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pqFyKh-rUI

Wikimedia Commons

2/10

GIRANDONI MILITARY AIR RIFLE
In 1780, while everyone else was still fooling around with incremental improvements to muzzle-loading black powder flintlock muskets, the Austrian military was equipping itself with a repeating rifle that carried a magazine of 21 lead balls, capable of accurately hitting targets 150 yards away with roughly the same stopping power as a modern .45 ACP round.

Incredibly, this weapon owed its ahead-of-its-time performance to the same technology used by your Daisy Red Ryder Carbine to shoot your own eye out — the Girandoni Air Rifle was essentially a primordial and massively beefed-up BB gun. The oddly pear-shaped stock was in fact a pressurized air reservoir good for 30 full-power shots, and troops were typically issued two spare reservoirs and a hand pump to re-pressurize the gun. The reservoir system was the Girandoni’s biggest flaw, as they were difficult to manufacture with contemporary technology and required an exhausting 1,500 pump strokes to fully pressurize.

The rest of the gun was no picnic to operate either, being far more delicate and complicated than powder guns and requiring every soldier so equipped to be completely and comprehensively retrained. Nevertheless, the Girandoni saw service for 35 years with various Austrian units and famously accompanied the Lewis and Clark expedition as an effective hunting piece.