Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Small Game Your favorite gun for small game?

My favorite small game gun is a compact, multi-purpose gun that is always with me for thousands of miles of canoeing and dog mushing:

Sp 101 "Parka Pistol".

1. 180 grain A-frame/1200 fps load for bear protection when camp is full of moose and/or caribou. Moose protection when on trails with dog team. Moose are super grumpy in winter when startled by dogs.

2. Ruffed grouse, snowshoe hare and beaver.
158 grain speer tmj/1000 fps.

Even though I'm currently without one, always liked the build and feel of the 101. Nice.

Savage Model 24, 22lr on top 20ga on the bottom. Such a great bunny gun. Running shots with the 20 and head shots with the 22 if the hold. Big fan of the single shots for small game.

How many more days until Sept 1, feels like it will never get here.

Too many.

By far my Ultra Light Arms Model 20 RF, lefty single shot. For the last twenty three years it’s been nothing but an excellent squirrel rifle.

No one favorite. Many I like to use:

CZ 452 American (22 LR)
marlin 880 SQ. (22 LR)
Winchester 310 (22 LR)
Rem 540XR (22 LR)
S&W m-14 full lug. (38 special wadcutters)
Beeman HW77. (.177 pellet under lever air rifle,)

Current favorite is Marlin 782 22 Magnum topped with a 4x Leupold. For years I would have nothing to do with a 22 magnum but now that I can hunt feral hogs and small game at the same time I find it a perfect dual use rifle. It shoots the CCI and Fiocci 40 gr. FMJ's right at an inch most of the time at 100 yards and will with head shots take hogs out easily. The other option, a shotgun is limited by regulations to #2 shot max and I like 6's for squirrels so the rifle is already loaded for the possible hog appearance and the shotgun with #2 shot is not a top hog load and I would have to switch from a load of 6's in the chamber to the #2's before I could shoot. On the other hand the place has to be the Water Moccasin capitol of the world so sometimes I take the shotgun anyway.

lots of great pictures and stories here. As I was reading the replies, I noticed I have some of the same favorites. I have a plain jane CZ452 that's accurate as heck, a 10/22 with all the kidd accessories, leupold 2-7, silencerco sparrow, etc, but my all-time favorite is still the gun I grew up carrying in the woods alongside my dad, the remington nylon 66... lightweight, accurate enough, and beat up to the point that I don't worry about being a little rougher with it than I would the others.

I use a 10-22 with red dot and a SKB M100 20ga IC/M.

Tough question... if you forced me to pick only one, probably my Anschutz 64 topped with a Leupold VX-3 4.5-14X40mm EFR. But I use many different rifles and shotguns. My favorite shotgun is a Browning BSS Sporter 20 gauge that I had threaded for thin wall chokes... when we do our annual NorOnt upland/walleye trip, I bring the Anschutz or a Ruger 77/22 (stainless/walnut) and the BSS 20 gauge... it is a mixed bag of ruffed, spruce and sharptail grouse... limits every day, of both grouse and walleye... we eat good!

@T_Inman, I know this post is OLD, but man... What's that rear sight you got on there. That's sexy.

Looks like a Skinner...

Good guess MOGC but it is actually a XS Ghost Ring, though I'd have zero reservation with a Skinner.

Marlin 39 XS

I have an XS Ghost Ring on a Marlin 1895 .45-70, a Skinner on a 336 .30-30 and a Williams Fool Proof on a M39A. For some reason that looked like my Skinner. Either way, they are all good! Love an aperture sighted lever gun.

What kind of accuracy are you seeing with that combination Tin? Certainly looks svelte.


Hands down my favorite chicken gun is Mathews Switchback XT. Stuffing a 100 grain Judo through a ruffie or snowshoe hare is definitely satisfying.

My favorite small game gun is the Stevens 22/410 my dad bought around 1950. I can't imagine the number of critters this gun has put on the table for my family over the years. Off hand between dad and I , I can remember it taking rabbits, squirrles, a few skunks foxes,grouse,doves,quail,pheasants,ducks a couple of geese ( Prior to non toxic shot rules of course) and 1 turkey. And lots of wood chucks. Dad has been gone for 30 years now but I still feel his presence every timetable the old gun out, and it still kills everything I want it to just fine. These days my kids all enjoy it too, they love the stories of their grandpa they never met.

Marlin 39A Golden Mountie

Good question. I honestly don't know.
I've never actually shot that rifle at a target, besides a random beer can to make sure it was on, then started killing stuff. I bought it used with that peep and front sight.

I have several, The K22 by KDF or the Mauser 201, same rifle, a Sako Quad, and a 581 Rem. I turned into a custom.

The Sako


The Mauser


The KDF



And the Rem.