Was Meriwether Lewis’ Girandoni the predecessor of the Byrna?
.61 caliber vs .46 caliber air guns
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While the Lewis and Clark airgun isn’t produced anymore by anyone other than a few brave replica creators, at extreme cost.
There are modern airguns up to .50+ caliber for hunting!
One example
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Damn! Just read through that article,
Great information on it there!
Do you think it’s the actual one?
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I suspect it is, but no true way to prove it other than to round up and disassemble every Girandoni air gun in the world to examine the mainspring 
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Not according to Google AI:
“The Girandoni and Byrna are not in the same lineage. While they both use compressed air to fire projectiles, this is a very broad category of technology. The development of non-lethal weapons, which the Byrna is a part of, has a distinct history driven by modern law enforcement needs. The Girandoni was a sophisticated, high-powered weapon designed for military and hunting applications, making it more of an early ancestor to modern pneumatic hunting rifles than to the Byrna.”
According to Gary H little intelligence (LI), the Girandoni preceeded the Byrna, so, yes it is a predecessor of the Byrna 
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Interesting devices.
Funny how sometimes it’s a bummer when state, county or city laws prohibit us from legally owning air guns, even sling-shots. In my state, air guns require a license/FOID card.
“Check your local listings”.
Some areas are ok with .177 calibers.
I like how quiet they can be in a world where regular firearms damage our hearing - as we are prohibited from having suppressors.
I’m not a fan of their heavy weight, or need for having to buy, and add gas cartridges. If more of them had pump or lever action self filling air pressure - I’d like those features.
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My gammo bone collector is probably lighter weight than my 10-22, so they’re not all absolute bricks!
And as for needing external air tanks or disposable cartridges, the most popular modern air rifles are so called “springers”
You cock the gun in a single stroke typically breaking the barrel down about 120* to the stock, this compresses a spring driven piston and opens the breach so you can load a single pellet, then swing the barrel back up to locked aim and fire.
The spring powered piston flys forward compressing all the air behind the pellet and sending it on its way at up to 1400 FPS!
The draw back of springers, they will DESTROY scopes that are not rated for use on an airgun! First they recoil backwards like a regular gun, but when the piston hits the front of the chamber it actually snaps back forward.
Firearm scopes are only built to deal with the rearward movement of the gun, that forward impulse is deadly!
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Remember the bridge scene… Another type of air gun. 
The size of a BB. With 4 holes drilled to form an X. 
Diagram depicting the small metal pellet found embedded in Georgi Markov’s leg after his death.
Diagram depicting the ‘umbrella-gun’ that many people believe was used to fire the poisoned pellet into Georgi Markov’s leg while he stood waiting for a London bus.
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That tiny thing was fired through an umbrella, and contained ricin ,… I’ve seen many documentary’s on it and its deployment.
kinda scary really.
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