The .22 would be nice because they are cheap to shoot and fun to plink with. I might sway towards the 20 ga BPS though simply because in my opinion the shotgun will be more versatile and the BPS is a fantastic gun. With the BPS you could squirrel hunt, bunny hunt, bird hunt and do some trap and skeet. And you could deer hunt with some slugs if you wanted, or get a rifled slug barrel for it.

Personally for me if I went for a .22 squirrel gun I would look at a savage bolt action instead of the 10/22. The rugers are nice if you plan on tricking them out but in my opinion the savage bolt guns with the accutrigger would be a better gun out of the box and maybe a bit cheaper as well. They make some nice youth models as too.

I would say get the BPS now, then save up and get a .22 later and you would have both.

My opinion anyway.

Paul