What Is The Best Small Game Tool?

Three squirrels & Contender .22 handgun

What is the best small game tool?  Ah! Not to skirt the question, but it depends on who is asking, how they hunt, what they hunt, why they're hunting...

1. Shotgun for the Typical Hunter - For a typical, ordinary hunter, the shotgun is the best tool for making an easy clean kill on most small game.  But a shotgun makes a lot of noise which may limit your chances on nearby game for some time.
2. Air Rifle for the Expert - A top quality air rifle with a good scope and a knowledgeable hunter/shooter is probably the most deadly efficient overall tool for small game.  With the right gun an expert can silently make head shots and take more small game from one area.  But not all guns are that quiet or that accurate, and not all hunters/shooters are experts.
3. Rimfire for the Tradition - The traditional small game gun is the .22 rimfire. Many consider it more fun than the shotgun because a good shot requires more skill.  But the ordinary rimfire makes noise which may reduce the overall amount of game taken from an area.
4. Bow & Arrow for the Archer - Today we don't use archery equipment because it's efficient, we choose to use it because we love it and we relish the challenge.  But arrows can make some noise and really disturb an area when we go to retrieve them.
5. The Slingshot for Simplicity - While the slingshot could be viewed as the lest efficient tool in this list it can easily be the most accessible, lest expensive, and is very effective at times. The slingshot is as quiet as most air guns, as traditional as the rimfire, and similar but more challenging than the bow & arrow. 

I once went small game hunting often, but today I more often take an opportune shot while hunting deer or turkey. Even more often I have an opportunity to eliminate a pest in the yard...  A slingshot is most often available.  My iPhone is not my best camera either, but it's the easiest to have available and it gets used the most.