I do most of my hunting with an Encore in several calibers. My go to's are .260 for deer and .17 fireball for groundhogs, fox, and coyote. I love the Fireball and it's a great compromise between the .17 Hornet and .17 Rem. It's very fur-friendly, virtually no recoil, and not particularly loud. The Fireball is an MGM barrel. I also have a Rem 700 SPS in .17 Fireball that I only use for groundhogs or short walks due to its weight. The nice thing about the Encore for predator hunting is that it's so compact...but you do have only 1 shot so it needs to be a good one.