Use mini-guns for pint-sized game

Mike Marsh

Terry Nance says a scoped .22 pistol is a perfect weapon to carry when hunting squirrels with dogs.

Terry Nance uses a Ruger Mark II semiautomatic target pistol for shooting the squirrels his dogs have treed because it is easier to carry than a rifle or shotgun.

His pistol is as accurate as a.22 target rifle, and the scope makes it easy to hit squirrels. When shooting a squirrel, he first finds a tree suitable for a rest and braces the pistol or his hands against it.

Unlike many hunters, he doesn’t use hollow-point ammunition, preferring solid bullets. He said expanding bullets are not necessary for recovering squirrels on a dog hunt and that they unnecessary damage the meat.

During the 2011-012 hunting season, the former barrel length and caliber restrictions for pistols used for taking rabbits squirrels, opossums, raccoons, fur-bearing animals, and non-game animals were eliminated, allowing the use of some extremely accurate .22 pistols with barrels that were once too short to for legal hunting of squirrels.