Benjamin makes a darn good all around air gun weather it be a rifle or pistol either one, and you are correct that they pack a wallop.
Though slower in FPS that .22 lead hits impressively hard.
It sounds like you smacked your game with a baseball bat.
I did a lot of rabbit hunting with a .177 pellet rifle and it did ok, but the .22 cal was quite a bit more accurate over a distance.
I did a lot of small game hunting with a compound bow for years, and used to practice on ground squirrels.
Got 17 in 3 hours of hunting in a competition with another bow hunter.
If you can shoot squirrels with a bow nothing bigger is really much of a challenge.:D