Used to hunt squirrels withtwo very oldsmall caliber muzzleloaders. It was neat to hunt with them but both are heavy, hard to load and harder to clean. Found out that my CVA Staghorn is more accurate than either of them:i now hunt squirrels and rabbits with a 240 grain XTP and 70grains of Pyrodex RS. It will smacksquirrels in their headsevery time out to 50 yards: Rabbits a little farther. There is another benefit in using a .50 for small game: If a pig shows up at close range he becomes pork.