Favorite Varmint/Small Game Walkabout Rifles/Cartridges

[skeeterfogger]

22lr over 20g

 

[Dibbs]

In my case, caliber followed weight. I built an AR15 for light weight, to use hunting varmints. .223 is very acceptable for the task, and
occasionally I find a new, lightweight part, which further lightens the rifle.

 

[WisBorn]

My walkabout rifle would likely be this handi-rifle in. 204.
If we're talking varmints, not small game, this is most likely on my shoulder.
Once or twice a year, it's not uncommon for me to sit in my elevated box blind and run a predator call. Or maybe just sit at a good vantage point for an hour then slip on to the next one.
View attachment 889112

It looks like a great rifle to hunt mushrooms with

 

[Daveboone]

For general woods wandering, Marlin 39. It just feels like an old friend.
During deer season, when I am more concerned with the walk than meat, Winchester 94 30-30.

 

[Armorer 101]

I actually have a couple that I use depending on what I am walking around to see. On the farm, if I am walking it is with a purpose like riding the fence line, checking the critters or checking the roads. Small light weight things get a Remington 510 16.5” 22 LR single shot with 45 gr Sub Sonics and a can. Larger expectations get the 300 BO with a can and 220 cast powder coated. Then for larger things like a large hog, I pickup the 358 MGP with 200s on the way out. I carry a handgun and a rifle every day, I expect to run into something every time I am out and about, usually I am right.

 

[redneck]

Can't do much walking around here unless you go to the state or national forest and then plinking is against the rules, so I mostly go there to hunt. Squirrel season I carry a marlin 81ts,tube fed bolt action .22lr with a burris ff II 3-9 scope. It holds a lot of ammo, not overly heavy and accurate enough for squirrel.
If squirrel are out of season and I really just want to spend a day in the woods I carry a savage model 110 in .243win with a bushnell elite 3-9 scope. It's a synthetic stock model with a light contour barrel that carries easily and is surprisingly accurate. I figure its good for coyotes, ground hogs, and feral pigs which are the only things you can hunt year round here, and also the only things I've never seen on public land haha.

 

[Gordon]

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.

When I first arrived back from Nam 2nd tour and a divorce when I got home in 71 I moved back to Big Sur Calif. as I had spent a few years in Monterey area and loved it . My first gig to recover from the as of yet named PTSD was an 1850s log cabin on a yet to be Molera State park where I was a Care taker until the state started development in 1973. I was literally propelled back to 1850s in this remote and beautiful primative seclusion for $200 a month and a 200 gallon monthly trailer of drinking water . My first purchase with my unemployment insurance checks for a few months was a Sheridan Blue streak with peep sight, 1000 5mm pellets and a Colt Nickle Combat Commander .45. The pellet gun gave me a couple fat quail or Rabbits when ever I wanted them. The Commander gave me sound sleeps , and a reputation to be feared in Monterey county That job lasted August 1972-may 1973 . I got a job as a ranch foreman on a large nearby Bigsur ranch that lasted 5 years and I completed college degree and Warrant Officer school in the reserves in that period. Here is the old Sheridan , with friends and the Combat Commander.. The Marlin 39, the Marlin .35 , the Ithaca 20 ga. the Ruger Mark 1 and S&W 34 snub and the .410 single barrel were added during this time period .

 

[ECVMatt]

Great thread! I have moved my family off-site for a couple of weeks and don't have access to some of my photos so I will have to catch up when we are back. In no particular order I like: 77/17, 77/357, Remington 700 6 mm or 22/250, Marlin 336 and 1895, River American Ranch 7.62x39. I guess I do a lot of rambling.

 

[Keyfer 55]

I like my Ruger mini 14, I like my rifle over a shotgun on small game. Sometimes the lead shot drags hair into the meat.