what to carry

[Jack]

It's relatively easy to make pellets, swaging and moulding pellets can be done at home, you could buy a kit in your chosen calibre or if you are adept in the workshop, make your own. Lead can be found in abundance is you know where look and has a low melting point.

I'm not proficient in the use of a bow, xbows yes but can't consistently get the same results with a bow as I just do not have the skill.
For me an air rifle will be my choice of hunting weapon supplemented with traps for bigger game that I would dispatch with a priest (club) or use the xbow.

As for scopes many things can and do go wrong with them, most are filled with nitrogen to keep atmosphere out of the body giving better optics, recoil does and will effect most scopes but if you buy a reputable brand and make sure its at a ballistic grade you should be fine.
A 30/30 reticle is ok but mill dots give you multiple reference points for poi (point of impact) and you can map it much better at pre defined ranges (I use an MTC mamba with sbc ret I can't recommend enough!)