And I'll say it again since it didn't sink in before. If you do not place the shot correctly, the animal will not die. It doesn't matter if you hunt with an airgun or a .50cal Barrett. Since airguns have no recoil and are accurate almost to the point of stupidity, if the hunter does his job, the gun will do its job. But rifle or airgun, it's up to the hunter.
It shouldn't bother you that the bear was shot and didn't die. You have no idea where it was shot, how, how far, etc. For you to justify using a rifle because an animal doesn't die immediately upon being hit anywhere with a rifle, then this argument is futile. It doesn't make sense. This guy had the big gun and the bear still didn't die. Obviously, that means if you don't put the damn bullet where it needs to go, it doesn't matter how much energy the bullet has behind it.
The fact is airguns are viable hunting tools. They can humanely and quickly dispatch an animal larger than a human. You talking about inferiority is silly. You call a gun with less than ultra super uber magnum power inferior, I call it adequate. And I call a gun with super uber magnum power overkill.
This cop and civilian could certainly attest to the power of big bore airguns......if they were alive today to talk about it.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/artic ... d=10680803