>>I meen how often does a person ever get close enough to the animal to kill it with an airgun?<<

Getting close to game is part of hunting.

Most shooters experienced with airguns consider their effective limit to be about 30 yards on small game. People all over the world take animals at much closer ranges than that every day, with all sorts of weapons.

In the case of a survival situation, how far is it to a bird feeder in your backyard?

>> airguns are useless in any wilderness sort of situation... silly to bring up airguns<<

Well, among a great many others, noted "survival" authors Mel Tappan (in "Survival Guns") and Ragnar Benson ( in "Live off the land in the City and Country") have disagreed with your thesis.

If you read my original post, you'll see that I did not advocate airguns as a primary survival tool, but only as a supplement to others.

But then, if you read my orignal post, you'll see that I did, very explicitly, try to direct it only to the open-minded. If you prefer to disregard it, please do.