You bet people have tired it. Some have even tried to fly!
Air guns don't have much power to work with, so can't push a decent lap bullet. Quite a few customers have used my Fire Lap compound on a tight patch to polish the bore of air guns and obtained excellent to dramatic improvement in performance.
To give you a good perspective of air gun power. If the pellet has large driving bands or slightly harder than pure lead, velocity will fall off dramatically! I've made several experimental airgun moulds with not so good results, because of barrel drag. Most pellets barely contact the rifling lands and have a sharp edged thin skirt to seal off air leakage, plus they are hollow to keep weight down. Even the heavy RWS spring guns, which are probably the most powerful, and definitely the best spring guns available, in my opinion, are very susceptible to barrel drag.
