Is Small-Game Hunting the Best Training for Big Game?

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It was 90° before first light, and by the time I settled down against the trunk of a hickory tree, my shirt was soaked with perspiration. The hike in had been relatively short—about two hundred yards up a ridge from the edge of the lake where my hunting partner J.J. Reich and I had been dropped off by boat—but the damp August heat was taxing. Nothing stirred, and the surface of the lake was mirror flat and apricot colored in the pre-dawn stillness.

Then I heard something. It was a raspy sound, like a wood file. High above me, a squirrel was gnawing on a hickory nut and moments later, I heard the tick-tick-thump of the discarded shell dropping through the limbs to the forest floor. It landed twenty feet from my boot. Afterwards, the woods were still once more.

Where are you? I scanned the boughs high above trying to find any dark lump in the upper limbs, but the canopy was thick with a shroud of late summer leaves. I waited in the dull heat, blinking away the whining mosquitoes, until I heard the rattle of a limb high above. A cluster of hickory leaves shuddered, and I saw the squirrel wind its way down toward the main trunk of the tree then disappear on the opposite side of the trunk. That’s when I made my move, sliding the Ruger American Rimfire into position on the shooting sticks and pointing the suppressor toward the hickory.

Minutes passed and the drone of the mosquitoes grew. I’d given up on finding the squirrel when something moved to my right. A fox squirrel was sitting on a wrist-thick branch working a hickory nut in circles in front of its face. I eased the rifle into place, settling the crosshairs on just the spot I wanted the CCI bullet to strike. When everything settled, I drew a breath and pressed the trigger. The suppressed report of the rifle was so quiet I heard the bullet strike and saw the squirrel fall from the limb out of sight. There was a heavy thump in the leaf litter.

Small Game School

It’s often said that small-game hunting is the best training for hunting big game, and I believe that’s true. But I’d take it a step further and say that precision small-game hunting is a tool that improves a hunter’s skillset and prepares them for big game at extended ranges. Unlike bagging squirrels with a shotgun, rimfires require lots of practice, extra patience and extreme precision—the three essential Ps of long-range hunting and shooting.

It's not just squirrels that fill this role. Rabbits, woodchucks, or even shooting pests around the home all provide essential training that every precision hunter needs to perform in the field. And while it may not generate the same heart palpitations experienced when centering your rifle on a bugling bull elk or a Dall sheep, small-game hunting helps test your hunting and shooting skills and train you for larger game and longer shots.

Most shooters who’ve had a bit of training with a centerfire rifle can consistently ring the gong at 500, 600, 700 yards or more, but far fewer shooters can make those shots from field positions on an animal that’s moving. Perhaps because they’re on the menu of so many predators, small game animals, like squirrels, seem to be in a state of perpetual motion. While stationary shots like my fox squirrel in Kentucky do happen, it’s more common to spend the day tracing the quick movements of a squirrel through the treetops and quietly thinking, just hold still for one second!

They rarely do, and that’s part of what makes small-game hunting with rimfires such relevant training for big-game hunting. You either learn to be patient and pick your shots on small game like squirrels or you get skunked, period. I’ve seen good shooters needlessly rush shots on big game because they simply couldn’t handle the added stress of connecting with a target that moves and didn’t wait for the right moment to squeeze the trigger.

Skills That Transfer

Whether you’re hunting Marco Polo sheep in Tajikistan or fox squirrels in the woods behind your home, you’ll need to choose the right moment to fire the shot, and that requires an understanding of the animal you’re hunting. Effectively hunting small game with a rimfire rifle requires the hunter to be a true woodsman. Experienced hunters learn to recognize the animal’s behavior and determine when to take the shot, and that’s ever so important when hunting small game because a single, sudden bob of the animal’s head might make the difference between a clean, killing shot and sending 40 grains of plated lead into thin air. Good hunting requires having patience not to rush a shot and the wisdom to shoot only when a high-percentage shot presents itself. Rarely are those lessons learned at a stationary range while clapping steel plates a half-mile away.

A gray squirrel’s head is about the size of a golf ball, and to be instantly fatal, your bullet needs to strike the vital portion which is roughly the size of a shelled hickory nut. Small-game hunting requires precise shooting, and that’s also a beneficial skill for large game hunting. Many poor shots on big game are the result of course aiming, a phenomenon that occurs when a hunter becomes overwhelmed by the sight of the animal and fails to take the time to select a precise aiming point. Small-game hunting with a rimfire doesn’t allow for such missteps. Making head shots on squirrels requires hunters to concentrate on placing the bullet precisely where it should strike.

My rifle for the Kentucky squirrel hunt was a Ruger American Rimfire in .22 LR. I was one of the few hunters that didn’t carry a .17 HMR, and if I had the decision to make again, I would likely have switched to the .17. It’s not because the accuracy of the .22 rifle wasn’t good—the Ruger is one of the most accurate off-the-shelf .22 LR bolt guns I’ve carried. Rather, the hunters who carried Ruger .17 HMR rifles had a flatter trajectory and more energy. Cartridge selection isn’t everything in small (or big) game precision hunting, but it’s a key component. And, as with any rifle, knowing the practical limits of your cartridge, your gun, and yourself are important.

I topped the Ruger with a Leupold VX-3HD scope in 4.5-14x, which was a fine choice. Look for a small game-hunting scope with a side parallax adjustment and make certain it tracks properly. When you make corrections, you want them to be accurate regardless of the rifle or the game, so quality glass matters. I also topped my rifle with a Silencer Central Banish 22 suppressor, and I would do the same every time. The suppressor made the rifle hearing safe and squirrels seemed to pay little attention to the crack of the shot.

Spend a few days testing rimfire ammunition for accuracy and you’ll learn that there’s quite a difference between brands and products. Variations in group size between loads can be dramatic and I’ve seen several rimfire rifles that would fire five rounds into a thumbnail-sized cluster at 50 yards with one ammunition brand, but fail to hold five shots under two inches at that same distance with another brand. I may be obsessing a bit, but I measure muzzle velocities and standard deviations and look for ammo that’s close to or below 10 for SD. Obsessing, though, is the stock-in-trade of most precision shooters and it’s a beneficial trait when you’re trying to make head shots on small game.

Once you’ve assembled your small game rig, you need to practice often. And, most importantly, practice from field positions. Take the time to drag your shooting sticks and daypack to the range and rearrange your rests, knees, feet and elbows until you find a stable setup that works for you. Don’t forget you’ll need to shoot from the treetops to ground level and must be able to make those transitions without excess noise or movement.

More Than a Means to an End

I appreciate the fact that precision small-game hunting helps improve my performance on big game, but that’s not my sole purpose for rising early to suffer through the heat of late summer squirrel hunts. I do it because, in truth, it’s fun. Lots of fun. Sure, you’ll have to put up with steamy temperatures and swarms of mosquitoes (and, for some, the ever-present threat of venomous snakes, fire ants, ticks and other warm-weather pests), but I enjoy early-season squirrel hunts. As the season progresses and the leaves fall, the shots become easier and the snakes, mosquitoes and other unsavory creatures disappear, making it even more enjoyable.

I also love the seemingly unlimited access to public-land hunting spots. In my home state of Ohio there’s substantial pressure on public land during whitetail season, but before and after the deer hunters arrive, a squirrel hunter often has the woods to himself. When prepared properly, small game like squirrels and cottontail rabbits make excellent table fare, and precision rimfire rifles damage substantially less meat (and result in fewer broken teeth from biting into a hidden pellet) than the spray of shotgun pellets.

Precision small-game hunting isn’t simply a means to improve performance on larger animals. Rather, it’s a fun and challenging way to brush up on your field shooting skills while still spending time in the woods. If you want to be a successful hunter you’ll need to master the three Ps—practice, precision, and patience—and nothing teaches those fundamentals as quickly as hunting small game with a rimfire rifle.

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