ICYMI Lewis and Clark took along air rifles to 3xplore the north west territory, and that’s how they survived.
Ah… you beat me to that! I was fascinated when I read that… :-)
They were Girandoni air rifles, which became their primary meat-getters because they were quieter, didn't leave a tell-tale gunpowder smell, and didn't delete their precious stockpile of black powder.
Thomas Jefferson owned a Girandoni, and he made sure Lewis & Clark had two.
For a time, the Girandoni was the primary infantry weapon of the Austrian Army. You could reload it from the prone position (until the air charge ran out) and was impervious to rain, so it had some material advantages over a black powder flintlock.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girardoni_air_rifle