I have a Beretta 9mm carbine, and have shot several other brands. They aren’t the most accurate things in the world. A good 22 or 22magnum really outshines them considerably. They are in that catagory of neither fish nor fowl. To powerful and not accurate enough for squirrels or small varmints, and too weak for deer of larger stuff. A 22 hornet would probably fit your needs IMHO.
Well, yeah, for small stuff my Ruger .22 lr is hard to beat. A real tack driver with a decent scope on it, even for a relatively inexperienced shooter (me). But, we are basically looking at taking down an in-between size: 30 lb. coyote (or really big raccoon) up to a 40 or 50 lb. stray dog getting into our animals.