Pillar guide
The Small-Game Hunting Guide: Rimfire Loads, Ranges & Ethical Shots
Small-game hunting is where most rimfire shooters first discover that the rifle was never the limiting factor. The limit is your honest effective range, and almost everyone overestimates theirs by a considerable margin.
The short version
- Check your state's regulations before anything else. Seasons, licences, legal species, permitted cartridges, hunter-education requirements and any lead restrictions are all set locally and change annually.
- Your field range is much shorter than your bench range. Set the limit from unsupported field groups, not from what the rifle does off a bag.
- .22 LR is a short-range proposition and that is fine. The magnum rimfires extend the range meaningfully and cost several times as much per round, which is the entire trade.
- Every rimfire shot needs a backstop. A .22 LR bullet carries far past any distance you would ever shoot at game.
Start with the regulations
There is no national small-game rulebook. Every state sets its own seasons, bag limits, licence requirements and legal methods, counties and municipalities layer additional restrictions on top, and the rules are revised annually. An article cannot tell you what is legal where you hunt, and any article that tries is giving you a reason to be cited.
What a guide can usefully do is tell you which questions to ask your state wildlife agency before the season, because the ones that catch people out are consistent:
- Licence and hunter education. Most states require a hunter education certificate for new hunters, and many honour certificates issued by other states. Courses fill up before the season; book early.
- Season dates and bag limits by species. These differ between species that live in the same woods, and they differ by zone within a single state.
- Legal cartridges and methods. Some states restrict which rimfire cartridges may be used on which species, and some restrict semi-automatic firearms or magazine capacity for hunting.
- Lead ammunition restrictions. These exist in specific areas and on specific public lands, and rimfire ammunition is overwhelmingly lead. Non-lead rimfire exists but the selection is narrow.
- Public land rules. National wildlife refuges, state forests and wildlife management areas frequently have their own permits, closed dates and firearm restrictions that differ from the statewide rules.
- Hunter orange requirements. Where required, these are usually specified as a minimum square-inch area and often as a specific garment.
- Transport rules. How a firearm must be cased and where it may be carried in a vehicle varies, and the drive to the woods is where people get into trouble.
Hunting law is state and local, it changes every year, and enforcement is real. Get the current regulations digest directly from your state wildlife agency for the season you are hunting, and read the specific rules for the specific property. Nothing on this page substitutes for that.
Choosing the cartridge
Three rimfire cartridges do essentially all small-game work, and choosing between them is a question about distance, wind and money rather than about which is objectively best.
.22 Long Rifle
The default, and the right answer for most people most of the time. It is by an enormous margin the cheapest to shoot, which matters more than it sounds — the skill that makes you an effective hunter is built by volume practice, and .22 LR is the only one of the three you can afford to practise with properly. Its limitation is that the bullet is heavy for its velocity and sheds speed quickly, so trajectory becomes steep at moderate distance and holdover gets serious sooner than newcomers expect.
.22 WMR
The .22 Magnum extends useful range meaningfully and carries more energy at distance, at a per-round cost several times that of .22 LR. It is a genuinely different proposition for larger small game and for open country where shots are longer. It requires a dedicated firearm — the cartridge cannot be fired safely in a .22 LR chamber under any circumstances.
.17 HMR
A .22 WMR case necked down to a much smaller, much lighter bullet, which produces a notably flatter trajectory over practical varmint distances. Flat trajectory forgives range estimation errors, which is exactly the error hunters make most. The trade is that a very light bullet is more susceptible to wind deflection than the flat trajectory tempts you to believe, and cost per round is comparable to or above .22 WMR. It is overwhelmingly a bolt-action cartridge in practice.
| Cartridge | Practical strength | Main limitation | Cost per round | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| .22 LR | Cheap enough to practise with constantly; quiet; huge ammo selection | Steep trajectory beyond short range; wind matters sooner than expected | $ | Woods hunting, close cover, high-volume practice, suppressed work |
| .22 WMR | Meaningful range extension over .22 LR | Several times the cost; needs a dedicated rifle; louder | $$ | Open country, larger small game, longer shots |
| .17 HMR | Flat trajectory forgives range-estimation error | Very light bullet is wind-sensitive; cost; mostly bolt-action only | $$ | Open-country varminting where you can read the wind |
Ammunition selection for game
Within .22 LR, the choice that matters for hunting is between solid and hollow-point bullets, and the deciding factor is what you intend to do with the animal afterwards.
Solid, round-nose bullets pass through with minimal expansion. For small game destined for the table, that is frequently what you want, because damage is confined. Solids are also the traditional choice where a clean, precise hit is the plan and meat preservation is the priority.
Hollow points expand on impact and transfer more energy into the animal. On the larger small-game species and for pest control where the carcass is not being eaten, that is usually preferable, and it makes a marginal hit less likely to result in a wounded animal escaping. On a small animal at close range, hollow points can do more damage to edible meat than a hunter wants.
Velocity class matters too, and here the action type decides for you. If you are hunting with a semi-automatic, you need ammunition that reliably cycles it, which in practice means high velocity. If you are hunting with a bolt gun or a lever, the whole catalogue is open, including subsonic loads that are dramatically quieter — a real advantage when you want to take a second animal from the same area rather than clearing the woods with the first shot.
Different loads print to different points of impact from the same rifle, and the difference at hunting distances is enough to turn a good shot into a wounded animal. Zero with the exact load you intend to carry, confirm it again close to the season, and confirm it after any knock to the rifle or scope. If you find a lot your rifle likes, buy it in depth — the next lot may not print to the same place.
Setting an honest effective range
This is the part of the guide that matters more than the rest of it combined, and it is the part that gets skipped.
Your effective range is not what your rifle groups at from a bench. A bench removes your heart rate, your breathing, the wind you cannot feel at ground level in cover, the awkward angle, the branch in the way and the fact that the animal will not hold still for the four seconds you would like. All of those exist in the field and none of them exist at the bench.
How to find your real number
Set up a target the size of the vital area you will actually be shooting at — not a full-size silhouette, the small area that constitutes a clean hit on your quarry. Shoot at it from field positions: kneeling, sitting, braced against a tree, standing if you are honest enough to admit you sometimes will. Do it on a day with wind rather than waiting for a calm morning. Start at a distance you are certain of and work outward.
Your effective range is the furthest distance at which you can put every shot inside that area, from the position you will actually use, on a day like the day you will actually hunt. Not most shots. Every shot. The moment one strays, you have gone past your limit, and the honest number is the last distance where you were perfect.
Almost everyone who does this exercise properly comes away with a number substantially shorter than the one they had been quoting, and almost everyone becomes a better hunter immediately, because the discipline of not taking the shot is the whole skill.
Shot discipline and ethics
The ethical obligation in small-game hunting is straightforward to state and demanding to keep: take only shots you are confident will be immediately effective, and pass on everything else.
That means several concrete things in the field. It means not shooting at a moving animal with a rimfire, because you cannot place the shot precisely and a wounded animal that escapes into cover is the outcome you are obligated to avoid. It means not shooting at an animal that is partially obscured, because you cannot see what you are actually hitting. It means not shooting at extreme angles where your bullet path through the animal is unpredictable. And it means passing on the shot at the far edge of your range even when it is the only chance you have had all morning — especially then, because that is when the temptation is strongest and the judgement is worst.
It also means being prepared to follow up immediately. Mark where the animal was standing, go to that spot, and search carefully before concluding you missed. A hunter who takes a marginal shot and then does not search has compounded one error with a worse one.
Practise the positions you will use
Range practice from a bench builds confidence in the rifle and almost nothing else. The positions that put game in your bag are kneeling, sitting and braced, and they are the positions almost nobody practises. Shooting sticks and a simple rest carried in the field will extend your honest range further than any equipment upgrade, because they address the actual limitation, which is you.
Backstops, ricochet and the danger range
Rimfire's low recoil and modest noise create a persistent and dangerous illusion that it is a minor firearm. It is not. A .22 LR bullet that misses its target continues travelling for well over a mile, and it retains the capacity to cause serious injury for a very long portion of that distance.
The practical rules follow directly:
- Identify a backstop for every shot. Rising ground, a substantial bank, a dense hillside. Not a hedge, not a treeline, not the horizon. If you cannot identify what stops the bullet, you do not have a shot.
- Never shoot at a skylined animal. An animal silhouetted against the sky has nothing behind it but distance.
- Treat water and hard flat surfaces as ricochet hazards. Rimfire bullets ricochet readily off water, rock and frozen ground, and the deflected path is unpredictable.
- Know what is beyond the woodline. Rural does not mean empty. Know where the houses, roads, footpaths and livestock are before you start, not while you are aiming.
- Angle matters. Shooting downward into a bank is safe. Shooting level across open ground is where the mile of travel becomes relevant.
Field craft that actually matters
Equipment discussions dominate hunting content because equipment is purchasable and skill is not. But small game is taken by people who move well and see early, not by people with better rifles.
Move less than feels natural
The standard failure is walking at a normal pace and stopping occasionally. Reverse it. Move a short distance, then stand still for several minutes, and repeat. Most small game freezes when it detects movement and resumes activity once it decides the threat has passed — which happens on a timescale of minutes, not seconds. The hunter who outlasts that timer sees animals the walking hunter never knew were there.
Hunt the edges and the food
Small game concentrates where cover meets food. Learning which trees are producing in a given autumn, and finding the cuttings and shells that indicate recent feeding, narrows an entire woodland down to a handful of productive spots. This is season-specific local knowledge and it is worth more than any gear.
Hunt the right hours
Early morning and late afternoon are not a cliché; they are when most small-game species are actively feeding. Midday sits are usually unproductive and are better spent scouting for the following morning.
Listen more than you look
Squirrels in particular are heard long before they are seen — cuttings dropping through leaves, claws on bark, movement in the canopy. Hunting with the wind in your face and your hearing unobstructed will find more game than any optic.
Gear worth carrying
The list is short, and everything on it earns its place.
- A rest you can actually deploy. Shooting sticks, a compact bipod or a small bag. This is the single highest-value item because it directly extends your honest effective range.
- An optic suited to the distance. Small-game shots are close and the animals are small; a modest magnification with a parallax setting appropriate to rimfire distances beats high magnification you cannot hold steady.
- A game bag or vest. Something that lets you carry harvested animals separately, keeps them cool, and does not put them against your back.
- A small, genuinely sharp knife. Small game field dressing rewards a small blade and punishes a big one.
- Nitrile gloves. Handling wild game is a disease-transmission route, and gloves are the simplest control. Several small-game species carry parasites and bacterial infections transmissible to humans.
- Hearing and eye protection. Rimfire is quieter, not quiet, and hearing damage is cumulative and permanent.
- Hunter orange where required, and honestly, where not required.
After the shot
Field dressing small game promptly matters more than with larger species because the carcasses are small, they hold heat, and warm weather is common at the start of most small-game seasons. Get the animal opened and cooled quickly, keep it out of a sealed plastic bag, and get it properly chilled as soon as you can.
Wear gloves. Several small-game species can carry bacterial infections transmissible to people through handling, and cases cluster in early season when temperatures are still warm. Cook game thoroughly. Any animal that appeared sick, sluggish or abnormal before you took it should not be eaten, and in some states should be reported to the wildlife agency.
Finally, log the hunt. Where you were, the date, the weather, what you saw and what you heard, what was producing food. Small-game hunting rewards accumulated local knowledge more than almost any other kind, and a notebook from three seasons ago will tell you where to be next October more reliably than anything else you own.
Frequently asked questions
What is a realistic effective range for .22 LR on small game?
Shorter than most people assume, and it is personal rather than universal. The correct way to find yours is to shoot a target the size of the vital area on your quarry, from field positions rather than a bench, on a windy day, and take the furthest distance at which every shot lands inside it. That number is your limit. The magnum rimfires extend it meaningfully but the same testing method applies.
Should I use hollow points or solids for small game?
Solids confine damage and are usually preferred where the animal is going to be eaten and the hit will be precise. Hollow points expand, transfer more energy and are generally the better choice for larger small game and for pest control where the carcass is not being used. On a small animal at close range, hollow points can spoil more meat than a hunter wants.
Is .17 HMR better than .22 LR for hunting?
It is flatter shooting, which forgives errors in range estimation, and that is a genuine advantage in open country. It is also several times more expensive per round, uses a very light bullet that wind pushes around more than the flat trajectory suggests, and is mostly a bolt-action proposition. For close-cover woods hunting and for the volume practice that actually builds skill, .22 LR remains the better tool.
Do I need a hunting licence for small game?
In almost all cases yes, and most states also require a hunter education certificate for new hunters. Seasons, bag limits, legal species and permitted methods are all set at state level and revised annually, with additional rules on public land. Get the current regulations digest from your state wildlife agency before the season rather than relying on any article.
How far will a .22 LR bullet travel if I miss?
Well over a mile, and it remains capable of causing serious injury for a long portion of that distance. This is why every rimfire shot requires an identified backstop, why you never shoot at an animal skylined against open sky, and why water, rock and frozen ground are treated as ricochet hazards. The low noise and light recoil make rimfire feel minor; the ballistics disagree.
Can I hunt small game with a semi-automatic rimfire?
Where it is legal, yes, and many states permit it while some restrict semi-automatics or magazine capacity for hunting — check your own regulations. The practical constraint is that blowback semi-autos need high-velocity ammunition to cycle reliably, which rules out the quiet subsonic loads that let you take a second animal from the same spot. A bolt or lever action gives you the full ammunition catalogue.