My small game (read woodchuck) career started at an early age of 10 with a bolt-action Winchester single-shot rimfire rifle. With open sights and a surprisingly crisp 3-pound trigger, I could spend days stalking my prey on the family farm in the Southern Tier region of New York state. For a young boy on safari on the north forty, the gun could shoot shorts, longs or long rifle ammunition. The summers were warm; there was plenty of fish in the brook and dozens of varmints to pursue. Life was good and I still have that rifle to boot!
Today, I hunt with a multitude of .22 caliber guns, to include single-shot and bolt action rifles. Ruger Number One’s are my choice for wildcats, the recently introduced Browning B78 is a dream come true in .223 Remington as is the Browning Low Wall. Bolt actions of course makeup the bulk of my small game arsenal, and with the advent of top-notch gunsmiths around the country, you have a full rein of custom features you can add to make your personal rifle, well, more personal.
In short, I am the type of small game hunter that likes to roam, not sit on one corner of the field and snipe away at small targets many hundreds of yards away. I was always drawn to the “sporter” weight guns with lighter barrels that could be counted on for one-shot kills up to 250 to 300 yards distant. The Remington’s, Weatherby’s, Browning’s and a few Winchester’s are in the mix; all serve the purpose with aplomb.
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