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- Robert E. Petersen Collection
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- Freedom's Doorway
English Smoothbore Muzzle Loading Air Rifle
A similar air gun incorporating a buttstock reservoir and pump was carried on the Lewis & Clark Expedition. Due to the noiseless nature of these guns, frontier hunters were able to shoot game without telegraphing their presence either to animals or to potentially hostile native populations. Lewis and Clark also demonstrated the operation of their air rifle to Indians encountered during their expedition.
A similar air gun incorporating a buttstock reservoir and pump was carried on the Lewis & Clark Expedition. Due to the noiseless nature of these guns, frontier hunters were able to shoot game without telegraphing their presence either to animals or to potentially hostile native populations. Lewis and Clark also demonstrated the operation of their air rifle to Indians encountered during their expedition. Lewis and Clark also demonstrated the operation of their air rifle to Indians encountered during their expedition as noted more than once in their journals, "After the council was over, we shot the air gun, which apeared to astonish the natives much . . . " Captain Clark, 29 October 1804.