Question for DU military historians

[jberryhill]

9. Ah, the Girandoni Air Rifle Brigade strikes again

There were some very unusual and finicky weapons capable of a low rate of repeat fire.

One of them which is often trotted out is the Girandoni air rifle, which was not even a firearm.

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

Its major claim to fame, being nigh unto useless as a military weapon, is that Lewis & Clark had one in order to be able to shoot critters to eat in the event they ran into gunpowder problems.

It launched balls much like a paintgun:

This gravity operated design was such that the rifle had to be pointed upwards in order to drop each ball into the breech block. Unlike its contemporary, muzzle-loading muskets, which required the rifleman to stand up to reload with powder and ball, the shooter could reload a ball from the magazine by holding the rifle vertically while lying on his back and operating the ball delivery mechanism. The rifleman then could roll back into position to fire, allowing the rifleman to keep a "low profile".

...and it worked like a pump BB gun to "reload":

The air reservoir was in the club-shaped butt. With a full air reservoir, the Girandoni air rifle had the capacity to shoot 30 shots at useful pressure. These balls were effective to approximately 125 yd (114 m) on a full air reservoir.

Okay, so, yeah, you got some guy rolling around on the ground who is going to take out a bunch of people in a mass shooting. Not.

Then, they trot out the "puckle gun":

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

The rate of fire of this flintlock revolver was 9 shots per minute.

None of these weapons were common household items.