I have a 22 break barrel rifle that I shoot with round lead balls. They carry some mass. Lewis & Clark brought a Girandoni .46 air rifle on their expedition.
“ The earliest known example of the Girandoni air rifle is currently on display at Stockholm, Sweden’s Livrustkammeran Museum and dates to around 1580. Featured in fairly large calibers, these pneumatic weapons were employed by the very wealthy in hunting large game such as deer and wild boar. But around 1780 an enterprising Tyrolean gunsmith named Bartolomeo Girandoni developed a rugged new model air rifle that was soon adopted by the Austrian military. Produced in .46-caliber, the Girandoni was a quantum leap forward in weapons technology.”
Thanks I’ll check tht out. Sounds like a pretty large bore air rifle. They make them as large as .50 cal. Those though need compressed air, and can only shoot around 4 shots or so before the tanks lose enough air to be effective, so there is a downside to the compressed air type for the real large bore pellet rifles. The smaller caliber ones can use smaller co2 canisters and can shoot many rounds.
I currently have a .17 caliber under barrel mechanism. It shoots about 800 fps. Some though get up around 1100 fps, mine drops off pretty quick, but can punch nearly through a 1/4 inch plywood. Enough to take down pest squirrels if needed, though the Larter Grey squirrels you gotta be precise with, not so with the larger bore pellet guns. The bigger bores though smash right through even thicker plywood,, with no problems, even the break barrel ones.
Would like to get about a .30 with a magazine that holds around 15 shots or so (or however many they hold). They run around 3-400 or s, not too bad, though they ares still air rifles, should be down around 1-250 or so imo.