Bows are less “powerful” than many of the big air rifles folks are shooting at deer.
Don’t believe me? Do the math.
Somehow they kill stuff incredibly effectively.
Shock does not kill animals…. Holes in vital organs kill animals.
A .50 cal hole through both lungs is certain, and quick, death.
I've taken elk, deer, turkey, javelina and grouse with a bow. I've been doing it for 20 years.
Let me unravel the mystery for you.
An arrow effects a kill with a wound channel that is exponentially larger than an airgun slug of any caliber. Even with a straight pass through it will inflict several square feet of bleeding tissue. The wound will not close. An arrow has enough kinetic energy to break through bone and still penetrate. An arrow that does not pass through is MUCH more lethal. When an animal runs, falls, struggles it wags around inside their chest and causes more damage. It is incredibly effective on the largest game.
An airgun slug has a comparatively low amount of kinetic energy. When it looses speed it has very little and hide slows it down a lot. It cannot break bone and penetrate. It leaves a tiny wound channel with no hydroshock effect. The wound channel is subject to closure. It produces no damage after the hit. Zero.
That's why an arrow kills large animals very effectively and an air rifle does not.
A double lung shot with no shock effect will often close and not even leave a blood trail to track by. Ask any hunter who shoots a primitive weapon with a ball projectile. This isn't complicated nor a secret. It's common knowledge with any experienced hunter. Most animals go long distances and live hours after they are shot. An instant kill doesn't always happen even with a direct heart shot. Instant kills just don't happen very often no matter what gun you are shooting. They will happen rarely when hunting larger game with an air rifle.
Shock DOES kill animals. Anyone remotely familiar with hunting knows that. To think otherwise is grossly misinformed. You can poke all the holes that you want. Unless shock damages tissue and forms a wide wound channel you have an animal you are chasing. Or leaving to die slowly from blood loss or infection.
This is just basic hunting 101. Things a teenager should know before picking up a rifle to kill an animal. Knowledge that is sorely absent with some guys in the airgun community.
Now let's do the math.
A medium weight carbon arrow with a 125 gr. broadhead shot from a 70 lb. bow will have about 50lbs. of kinetic energy at 40 yards. It cuts a wound channel about 3.5 inches wide. That's roughly 70 square inches of bleeding tissue for every foot of penetration. It continues to cut and produce new bleeding tissue as long as the animal is still moving.
A 40 grain airgun slug at 900 fps has about 70 lbs of kinetic energy. It cuts a linear channel that is basically half of the penetration depth. A 12" pass through shot would have less than 6 square inches of bleeding surface area. It is too light to penetrate bone. The small wound is subject to closure. It damages nothing after the projectile stops moving.
That right there is the real situation like it or not.
Let's not go into shock and how bullets kill. Airgun slugs aren't bullets. They just don't have the speed to make a projectile perform like a bullet. When a bullet slows to the point it won't produce shock it becomes ineffective. Like an airgun slug.
Air rifles poke a nice hole very accurately. But they are nowhere near as suited for killing an animal as a rifle or a bow. They just don't produce a wound channel large enough to effect a reliable kill nor can they be used to knock an animal off its feet. Yes, if you can place a perfect shot in the brain they work fine. Outside of this specific situation they don't work very well at all for an animal much larger than a rabbit.
Most guys don't know how to kill with a 7mm magnum much less an air rifle. Most guys cant handle a bad shot and have no idea how to bring down a wounded animal on the run. This tells me that most guys hunting big game with a PCP are wounding lots of animals without recovering them. They do every day with powderburners. The idea that an airgun would not produce even more wounded animals in real hunting situations is just not realistic.
www.airgunnation.com 
