PCP's are fine, if you like to carry a pump (or scuba tank) with you......they have a place and are wickedly accurate and easy to shoot.
TeleCaster - the math does not win out with a hunting air rifle for me. The .22 is a much better killer than the .177 - velocity and energy levels via formulas would not suggest so, but 1000+ rock chucks with rifles of both calibers has absolutely shown me that the .22 kills faster and more consistently. The problem with the KE formula is that it does not provide for the additional frontal area (.346 for .22, .278 for .177; ~25% increase). In a slow moving projectile that has proved a substantial difference for me. Pass through energy is wasted energy. At the ranges I typically shoot (25-50yds) the trajectory difference is minimal. The .20 cal may be the perfect compromise but the availability of ammo makes it a little more difficult to deal with and the difference for me is not worth the hassle.
As usual, it depends on what you are doing with your air rifle, what game your trying to take (the op ask about hunting air rifles) and at what range your likely to be shooting.
I don't have any real hunting experience...............especially to compare with your rock chucking, but I've noodled this issue over a LOT in my spare time, and came to the same conclusion that "pass through energy is wasted energy" and being a big bore revolver guy, I naturally gravitate toward the larger frontal area of the .22cal. (Knowing RJM's love for the .41mag, it's almost a foregone conclusion he's also a .20cal fan.
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I'd pretty much settled on an R9 in .20 or .22 but after realizing that the .22 would have more ammo availability than the .20, and maybe a little more thump, I then started wondering if a .22cal R1 makes more sense. I don't have access to Gaylord's book on the R1, but apparently the R1 isn't just more powerful than the R9, but also a totally different design. So now I'm wondering if the weight and extra dollars up front are worth it for the potentially better design and extra speed without tuning. In a perfect world I'd have an R9 in both .20 and .22 and an R1 in .22, then see which one I preferred.
My style of hunting will be shooting ground squirrels from a (mostly) stationary position, so carry weight isn't as important as the smoothness of shot cycle (and thus accuracy), velocity with the heavy (high BC) pellets, and potentially the ease of tearing into the gun to lube/service/fiddle. Shots on ground squirrels can start to stretch out there, and wind is often a factor too, so a fast .22 seems like the answer. I don't know if 100yd shots could be the norm rather than wishful thinking--------they've got small noggins-----------but I'm hoping so. If body shots are still humane, then maybe kills beyond 100 are possible. Obviously accuracy and shooter skill are matter most, and the PCPs seem to deliver this the easiest, but I'm a sucker for that heirloom quality that TeleCaster referred to, and the self-contained, traditional, dated technology of a springer.
If a springer is going to limit my range, then maybe a .22cal R9 is enough, and I'll need to save my coins for a fancy PCP to really stretch my effective hunting range. A two gun approach might satisfy both "needs" and compliment each other.
Any additional thoughts and feedback are greatly appreciated, because I'm doing a LOT of educated guessing right now.
