What am I missing?

Very interesting academic discussion, but I guess I'm just old and dumb enough to miss the point of it all. Metallic cartridge technology allows the ballistic goals here to be easily met, using relatively simple and inexpensive technology. Duplicating with air rifles, the lower end of that which is readily available with firearms seems......I don't know, maybe lacking practical application? Given what I think it would take to buy and maintain the kind of air rifle contemplated, I can't imagine it being sufficiently handy and robust to bang around the woods. For that use, I kind of like the the absence of O rings, valves, air handling equipment, etc., the stuff that is the bane of air gunners. Firearms are, in comparison, strong as a vault, simple as a rock, and can deliver any level of accuracy and power needed. But, curious and adventuresome people develop many great and useful ideas, and maybe that will be the case here. 

Very interesting academic discussion, but I guess I'm just old and dumb enough to miss the point of it all. Metallic cartridge technology allows the ballistic goals here to be easily met, using relatively simple and inexpensive technology. Duplicating with air rifles, the lower end of that which is readily available with firearms seems......I don't know, maybe lacking practical application? Given what I think it would take to buy and maintain the kind of air rifle contemplated, I can't imagine it being sufficiently handy and robust to bang around the woods. For that use, I kind of like the the absence of O rings, valves, air handling equipment, etc., the stuff that is the bane of air gunners. Firearms are, in comparison, strong as a vault, simple as a rock, and can deliver any level of accuracy and power needed. But, curious and adventuresome people develop many great and useful ideas, and maybe that will be the case here.

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You are neither old, nor dumb. There has been an effort afoot in the AG industry the past couple of decades to raise AGs to the level of performance of firearms. Frankly, as a technical challenge, it is interesting but as a practical matter it begs for regulation and I don't mean in a good way.

A potential problem on the horizon? The AG community seeks on the one hand to distinguish itself from the FA community because they wish to avoid the legal dispute. But then they work as hard as they can to develop projectile technology which substantially increases the dangerous range of their AGs. Bullets, slugs, boolits, whatever you want to call them have higher BCs than pellets, are fired at higher energies than pellets, and carry those energy levels much farther down range than pellets. Worse than that is the temptation of ill informed members of the AG community to take those projectiles into built up areas because it is "only an air gun". As a community we should be always watchful that our new members realize the full potential of this tech so that the inevitable is prolonged. What is the inevitable? Some nut will take that technology and use it to do harm. I will leave, as an exercise for your imagination, how that might be accomplished; however, the more efficient we make it, the larger that potential becomes.

I have several PBs. There is a rifle range fifteen minutes from the house. I also have several AGs. I nearly always pick up one of the AGs and walk out into the yard when I want a little trigger time because of the convenience and safety they offer.  I don't want anyone to feel like they should not push the AG technological envelope because that is how we improve the product. I am not judging you if you do want to push the envelope. I speak only for myself.

I shoot pellets at relatively modest velocities (600-900 fps) because they present my neighbors with the lowest level of concern. They are a mature technology and they represent for me the truest form of the sport. Gift me with a bullet firing AG that is capable of shooting a 450 grain slug hundreds of yards and I will sell it and use the money to purchase two or three shotguns, one of which will have a slug barrel.

Oldspook, your post mentions something I have not considered, and it's concerning. If we, as a group of airgun enthusiasts promote airguns to be developed into the realm of high power center fire rifles, we will have done the community a huge disservice. I can see the anti-gun folks firing up the legislation that could effectively end the kind of easy purchase and shipping we now enjoy. And also the practical safety and noise concerns that could be raised, and with good cause. As a retiree, one of my great pastimes is shooting my airguns in the backyard, and I am in town with close neighbors. I would like to see less aggressive plans for more power, and continued appreciation for airguns as quiet, close range instruments of precision accuracy. All it would take is the wrong thing whispered in the wrong ear in Washington to create regulation nightmare. 

Oldspook, your post mentions something I have not considered, and it's concerning. If we, as a group of airgun enthusiasts promote airguns to be developed into the realm of high power center fire rifles, we will have done the community a huge disservice. I can see the anti-gun folks firing up the legislation that could effectively end the kind of easy purchase and shipping we now enjoy. And also the practical safety and noise concerns that could be raised, and with good cause. As a retiree, one of my great pastimes is shooting my airguns in the backyard, and I am in town with close neighbors. I would like to see less aggressive plans for more power, and continued appreciation for airguns as quiet, close range instruments of precision accuracy. All it would take is the wrong thing whispered in the wrong ear in Washington to create regulation nightmare.

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I find oldspook's timing and reply here to be spot-on, but it is not the first time that such an opinion has been voiced here. I do not see airguns reaching centerfire levels before they eventually get attention from the crooks (politicians). Several countries already have metered regulations of airguns when compared to the U.S.... you don't have to look any further than Canada to see a start of it.

PT