I had a single shot 20 gauge Stevens when I was a kid and I killed a lot of pheasants, bunnies and a few ducks with it but when I hunted squirrels I always used the Remington bolt-action .22 with a cheap Weaver scope that my parents gave me for Christmas in 1958 when I was 10 years old. That was a deadly little rifle and I would always try for head shots. I hate lead pellets in my meat, once having cracked a molar on one. Even when shooting grouse and woodcock I try to lead them enough to minimize shot pellets in the breast meat. I am often successful but not always.
Took the head clean off a grouse two seasons ago but this year in Maine I killed a woodcock somebody else must have peppered with lead shot as I discovered a pellet in the breast meat. It was a No. 8 Rio pellet and I was shooting RST 8's….
Incidentally, that woodcock breast is almost overdone!
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