436 - Repitierwindbuechse with Girandoni air system model 1779

Repitierwindbuechse with Girandoni air system model 1779 dating: circa 1800 provenance: Austria, Rifled, 11.5 mm cal. barrel (bore with pitting and visible rifling), octagonal, with imperial mark and a loading mechanism at the base; rear sight and foresight. On the right side, a tubular magazine holding twenty bullets. Forward spring lock with cock, working mechanism; brass frame with serial number "11xx", imperial mark and the letter "G" for Girandoni. Wooden stock with brass mounts, iron butt containing the air chamber marked "2", missing leather covering. See "Hand- und Faustfeuerwaffen der habsburgischen Heere" by Erich Gabriel, page 382/3. Unlike the rifle described, ours has the marking "G" and the imperial mark on both the barrel and the frame. The Repetierwindbüchse was one of the first pneumatic repeating systems to be adopted for actual military use. Its innovation lay not so much in the use of compressed air, which was already known, but in the integration of a detachable pneumatic reservoir, a multi-round magazine and a rapid-feeding mechanism. Bartolomeo Girandoni, whose surname also appears in sources as Girardoni and Gilardoni, was a craftsman and mechanic from Cortina d’Ampezzo, which at the time belonged to the Habsburg territories. The rifle was presented to the Austrian military authorities in 1779; it was adopted the following year and remained in service until 1801. Its main advantages lay in its smokeless nature and rapid rate of fire; however, despite these innovative qualities, the weapon was later withdrawn due to the delicacy of its mechanism, the weight of the reservoirs, and the gradual loss of effective range as the pressure in the reservoir decreased. Never-the-less It has remained a weapon of great fascination and rarity.