Lewis and Clark brought a large caliber air rife with them. It had an air reservoir in the stock, and was capable of firing a dozen shots before needing to be re-pumped.
And it was a powerful sucker too from what I heard. Air rifles are perfect survival tools. Even the ,ess powerful ones thst you don’t need air co pressure for. If the co trstsnts onmthe show “Alone” had them, it would be a game changer. Some models,you can pump with built,in pump, some you need external pumps, but even the “lowly” .177 cal has takenma great many rabbits, squirrels, woodchuck, fox etc. They typicslly,aren’t as accurate as the pcp type thst can shoot extremely accurate at quite long distances (provided you adjust for pellet drop which is greater than poweder,burners) with massive impact, but they are very accurate out to,50,years or so, some of the more lowerful,ones even further, say around 100 yards or a bit more. Plenty,of gun for semi long shots on smaller game.
My .25 cal, and even my 22 wil punch roght through a 2x4 no problem.
Another great thing about them is that you can legally have them in full auto, and large capacity,mags, nk checks,on buying them, and certsinly,no registration for,them. They are making some,truly accurate and powerful full auto ones these days, but I prefer single shot multi round ones as they are a bit more accurate. The full,auto are still a bit of a novelty, but theynare getting better reliability wise.
I’ve seen some incredible 300,yard shots with .22 cal on things like overpopulated rabbits, ground squirrels, even certain overpopulated monkeys in Africa that destroy crops. There are acouple,of pest control hunters on YouTube over there. For pest control,in barns, the lower power air rifles are perfect as they wontmgo,through the metal roofs or siding. They crank,the power down pretty significantly (another great feature of some air rifles).
I’ve taken my .25 out to 150,yards and was getting a 3 inch spread (I’m not the best shot) consistently. The .25 gets about 40,shots per fill, whereas the .22 gets over 100. Thinking about getting a springer thst doesn’t need to,be filled except after each shot with one pump of the barrel. (Theynare break barrel guns). They get arohnd 1200 ft per second or so depending on pellet. Too much speed really.
Today’s air rifles are not the air rifles of days past., theynhave come a long way.