Carl Pirko butt reservoir (Vienna)

Carl Pirko butt reservoir (Vienna) 

With thanks to Mark.

He says about this air rifle: "The barrel tips, but only if you remove the screw at the rear of the barrel that goes through the receiver.

I have no idea why this would be made this way. It's totally useless in the field unless your carrying a screwdriver.

I was looking for another gun, or similar action as I would suspect or would at least think that the screw should be more of a part you could take on and off by hand... something similar to what's found on the back of a Gat type air pistol. The biggest drawback to that idea is that the "knob" of such part would probably be in the line of sight and therefore blocking your view while shooting... unless it's small and narrow.

The screw that's in there appears original, and fits as it should. It goes completely through the receiver and threads directly into the barrel.

With no provision for a ram rod... this gun is a one shot wonder in actual field use.

An pretty interesting little rifle, that leaves me scratching my head in how it's supposed to be used!"

He adds later:

This one is mentioned in Wolf's book "Airguns" . It has been in nice collections since at least the 1940's. The rife was built sometime in the mid 1800's.

It's hard to really tell in the photos, but it is a small rifle.  It's as if it were made for a child or young teenager, not an adult. What I find curious about that is it also has that big chested women engraving on the bottom, yet this really seems more like a young adults gun. Maybe a father wanted to give his kid ideas.. lol.... who knows. 

I received the rifle as a gift, and decided to actually get the gun sealed up and shooting. For years I've seen it in a friends collection and he decided to give it to me for a Christmas present. 

There was one screw missing from the gun and that was all it really needed. The firing pin is pretty tiny, so I had a new one made to save the original in case it were too break. 

Citizen K adds that the woman portrayed in the engraving is probably a harpy:

THE HARPYIAI (Harpies) were the spirits (daimones) of sudden, sharp gusts of wind. They were known as the hounds of Zeus and were despatched by the god to snatch away (harpazô) people and things from the earth. Sudden, mysterious dissappearances were often attributed to the Harpyiai.

The Harpyiai were once sent by Zeus to plague King Phineus of Thrake (Thrace) as punishment for revealing the secrets of the gods. Whenever a plate of food was set before him, the Harpyiai would swoop down and snatch it away, befouling any scraps left behind. When the Argonauts came to visit, the winged Boreades gave chase, and pursued the Harpies to the Strophades Islands, where the goddess Iris commanded them to turn back and leave the storm-spirits unharmed.

The Harpyiai were depicted as winged women, sometimes with ugly faces, or with the lower bodies of birds.