Favorite Varmint/Small Game Walkabout Rifles/Cartridges

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This is not only my favorite walking around rifle, it's plain and simple my favorite rifle. .22 WMR and Leupold compact 2x7. It can take it, and it can dish it out. It shoots Remington 33 grain premier polymer tip well, and also Winchester 40 grain JHP.

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On the plains, one of my 222 Rem Savages. Up in the mountains after highyotes, I have a sporterized (by Bubba, not me) '94 Swede that loves Nosler 123 grs match. And RBH 45LC.
 
I reckon region and perspective are what they are, everything from .22lr to .300 Wm having been at play, my varmints are generally prairie dogs, coons, and coyotes. For this, I've killed plenty of all 3 with everything at hand. I don't do LOTS of walking but if I am walking after small game, CVA compact .223, compact 20 ga, 10/22 and single 7 get the nod. For other purposes, the savage walking varminter seems OK and I've run an accelerator 17hMr just often enough to wow my kids, and the .22lr revolver has claimed its share of snakes and prairie dogs, I think the cva compact .223 takes the prize.
 
I'm in the process of putting together a "walking varminter" now. Primary use will be a calling coyote rifle, majority of shots have been 30-100 yards.

Have been using my 3Gun AR15, but am switching back to a bolt gun. I've put together a REM SS M7 in .223 in an HS stock with Timney trigger, have the LW Talley low mounts. Just waiting on the Leupold VX3i 2.5-8-36X to show up.....any day now.
 
For squirrels and other small critters here in the Virginia woods my Marlin 39A is the rifle. For woodchucks, my dad's 222 Remington is the story.
 
Corpral_Agarn said:
I've taken more squirrels with a Winchester 9422 in 22LR than any other gun I own.

Actually, now that i think about it, that rifle has killed more things than all my other guns combined.
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I wish I'd bought a 9422 instead of the last Marlin 39 I bought. It had several factory-related problems including: Iron sights both off-center, scope mount screws off-line, and extraction failures.
 
Picher said:
I wish I'd bought a 9422 instead of the last Marlin 39 I bought. It had several factory-related problems including: Iron sights both off-center, scope mount screws off-line, and extraction failures.
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that's a bummer.

my old 9422 hasn't ever given my any issues. and, while I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, I didn't clean it for the first 15 years that I had it.

now that it is clean however, it is smoooth.
 
My first 39A was a real gem and very accurate. Can't remember why I ever sold it. Lots of empty shells have rolled off the benches since then.

I also had one Remington pump in the 1950s that was very accurate before trading it to buy the Marlin. The best thing about that pump was that it was very quick-pointing and was a blast to shoot aerial targets. Once, my buddy and I were shooting in a gravel pit along the Kennebec River in Sidney, ME, when I started shooting coins I flipped into the air (very safe direction). My buddy said that a guy he knew shot ash off his friend's cigarette when it was in the guy's mouth. I told him that was a dumb thing to do and that I'd never try it.

About then, he flipped his cigarette to the ground and I picked it up, flipped it into the air, and knocked the ash/embers right off it. (Some things just stick in your memory.)

Anyway, I could never hit anything in the air with that Marlin...probably a good thing.
 
BTW: The reason I traded the Remington was the "tinny" sound when dry-firing it. Kind of a dumb reason, I suppose, but I traded guns like some people back then changed their underwear.
 
An update.....the VX3i2.5-8x36 Leupold was on back-order, so I went with a VX3i 3.5-10x40 with CDS. Cost a couple ounces and an inch in length. Did barrel break-in and zero'd with a scratch load that I'd worked up for my AR15, I simply increased the OAL to .020 off the lands of the M7. Then put 5 rds into .78" at 100 with the 1st shot a clean bore. 4rds were in .43". It even put 3 rds of my 62grn Hornady "3Gun" load sub-MOA while cleaning after each shot.

Had it out this am shooting at 200 & 300. No issues staying on an 8" plate at 300 either prone off back-pack or sitting off sticks. Top of the bottom duplex gets me 305yds or I just click in 2.5MOA. I think it's going to work out. New walking varminter:

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ApacheCoTodd said:
My start within those parameters started with taking my Sheridan Blue streak on my trap line with me. I knew that - carefully - it could dispatch a beaver or muskrat if I needed to and also garnered rabbits at 8 bucks a pop.

Then, I got the one shown and it was THE deal for me. That .22/20ga Savage got me more than the traps some times and other times, the gun itself was the reason to go woodsin'.

Later, it was also the family's Marlin 39. The Marlin was incredibly quiet and shockingly accurate. Heavy to be sure but it came with wonderful sling-swivels too.

All hail the Savage 24! The total package for a kid. Even when I got a 10/22 later the same year, the Ruger stayed home for the trap-line and general walk-a-bouts as well as fishing; both ice and open water.

Todd.
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I love to see the 22/20 Savage. My first firearm was a 22/20 that I passed one to my nephew.
 
I have two favorites, an accurized, suppressed 10/22 and an old Winchester M94 "Trapper" 30-30, depending on the likelihood of running across hogs.
 
My two favorites are CZ 457 in 17HMR and my Winchester 9422 with skinner peeps, for small varmints.
 
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Years ago my heavy barrel 10-22 went everywhere. Today more apt to be a CZ American 22 LR. It is a fixed barrel. AT times I prefer a RAR .22 WMR. Mine is pretty accurate. I would like to get a new .17 but don't use the rifles I have much anymore. Camping I had only a .357 which I am more likely to take along and I shot a critter that had been chewing wires with that. Wished I had a .22 along then.
 
A Remington 12A 22 rimfire and H@R Sportsman, is my combo for squirrel or cotton tails.
A Savage Model 40 single shot heavy barrel 22 Hornet, with 40 grain Vmax and
Lil'Gun powder will do the dirty deed on whistle pigs or Wiley coyote.
 
mcb said:
I have been carrying my 300 BO pistol with suppressor for the past two years. Thwacking the armadillos with it is allot of fun and easy on the ears. Not cheap to shoot with my subsonic hunting load but it's worth it.

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Sweet. I ran across a deal on a 300BO (and my first AR!) last summer and could not pass it up. Now I grab it anytime I head out. Tons of fun and just way more useful than I would have imagined .... for everything from armadillos to, I guess, zombies! All my other toys just stay at home. I even bought 10k rounds of BO just because.
 
In terms of centerfire, "walkabout" varmint/small game rifles/cartridges, two of my favorites are a Browning (Miroku) 1885 Low Wall, chambered in .223, having a Burris Compact 3x9 powered scope mounted and a Browning A-Bolt Micro, chambered in .22 Hornet, wearing a Burris Compact 2x7 powered scope. Of the two, I like the Low Wall best-but I'd hate to have to part with the little Hornet.
 
I don't do much wakling now as my wheel bearings are getting worn and squeeky but if I were to I would either grab the Remington Model 12 I carried as a kid or a Rossi 62C that I ran across a few years ago and grabbed for my oldest great grand daugher to grow into. She's grown into it now but I bet she would let Grandpa borrow it. I would probably grab the Remington as it's a very accurate little thing. For years I carried a Ruger single six but my hands are getting a little shaky and I don't do well with iron sights anymore so I would just be wasting ammo with it. It's uncomfortable to prop up on a mesquite bush and shinnery oak is too short and flimsy for a pistol rest.
 
I feel the game targeted and the expected range of the shot has a big determination on the rifle carried.

On my hobby horse farm, I've shot undesirable critters with 22 LR, 22 Hornet, and 221 Remington Fireball.

I have a Remington 700 with a slender 22 inch, 17 Remington chambering that is a good, flat shooter out to 300 yards or so that would be a good "walk-about" varminter. It is just good for a couple of shots before the barrel needs to be allowed to cool.

It is definitely a rifle for a prairie dog town.
 
Mine is a Marlin M1894CL in .218BEE
Leupold 2-7x Compact
Opening morning of deer season, 2017.
 

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