Not Powerful Enough? Says Who?

Power isn’t what hunting is about, the editor says

As many readers know, my shooting interests extend beyond the wonderful world of airguns so I meet many people from the wider shooting world. Almost everyone I meet has their own airgun story, from those beloved memories of their father’s English-made break-barrel, to their own first airgun, and almost to a man they tell the stories with heartfelt affection. However, every now and then I get confronted with a shooter who says that airguns are just not powerful enough to make them humane sporting rifles. This is usually backed up with an anecdote about how he once shot a rabbit, pigeon or squirrel and that it didn’t die on the spot.

If the teller of the story allows me to explore the circumstances of that shot, it can usually be explained. I ask was the rifle zeroed? The answer is most often ‘no’, or ‘what do you mean?’

Was the rifle in good working order, and had the power been checked recently? Answer ‘no’.

How far away was the quarry? “

Oh, only about 55 yards.” This one always upsets me.

2000 FT.LBS

All these answers tell me that that the shooter didn’t know what he was doing, and ‘just had a go’. Well, I’m sorry, but that’s not good enough. Often, these people are shotgun shooters who see their guns with 2000+ft.lbs of muzzle energy launching 250 pellets at a time as invincible, but the proof of my own eyes shows that they are not.