Air rifles

[mmartin798]

I can't recall ever seeing a discussion on the use of air rifles. This would seem a good fit in a gunpowder constrained environment. Something like an Ataman M2R Carbine Air Rifle, as a modern example, would seem to be fairly effective against unarmored opponents and game animals. The Girandoni air rifle was used in Europe in the late 18th and early 19th century. One draw back of the Girandoni was the hand pump took about 1500 strokes to repressurize the tank, though this was mitigated for military units by having a wagon mounted tank to recharge the rifle. In a Morrow setting, a trailer mounted wood or steam powered air compressor could accomplish the same task for a modern air rifle.

The energy numbers I have for the Ataman M2R in various calibers is in foot pounds of energy (FPE) and I have not had an opportunity to calculate a conversion to EFactor to see how effective it would be in game terms. But on the surface a rifle that is very quiet, completely smokeless and making no flash would seem to be a good choice of weapon in guerrilla warfare.