When I was growing up,never knew what a scope was and got PLENTY of squirrels,rabbits,and groundhogs,as well as foxes with THE rifle. It was called THE rifle because we only had 1 rifle as my dad wasn't much on hunting. The rifle was a OLD remington single shot bolt action and I used it for everything from small game,varmits,to plinking. Since then I've become hooked on scopes. Now you'll NEVER find any rifle of mine naked (without scope).If you're young you probably have decent vision so close shots shouldn't present much of a problem.