Someone said that air guns were/are being used in Afghanistan to shoot out street lights in areas where they want to quiet things down. That would not be a dangerous combat zone. Who would haul around a PCP along with their standard weaponry? Remember that most PCP's are pretty loud if not suppressed and barely come up to what are considered low powered firearms.
The Austrian guns sound menacing when you read about 210 grain round balls ( .52) at 500 fps. That's about as powerful as a fifty caliber flintlock pistol. Even Beeman romanticizes their effectiveness beyond thirty or forty yards, suggesting they were superior to the .52 Spencer repeating rifle, a battle proven design. Beeman also seems to think that flintlocks were still in the process of being perfected, although they had just about reached the peak of their hundred-plus years of development. Also, be aware that the Brown Bess musket, shooting a .75 projectile well over 500fps, did not always kill a man at a hundred yards, the balls glancing off arm and leg bones or buckles, etc. And, should you be facing infantry armed with muskets, the first volley would be at a hundred yards or less, with the opponent typically launching a bayonet attack, standard tactic of the day. Considering that the air guns did not have a lot of stopping power, you had better pick up your heels.
