I am going to go against the grain here and recommend AGAINST a 10/22. I'm not saying it's a bad rifle. It's just that it is no better than any other lower end semi-auto .22, yet it costs much more. The 10/22 shines when it comes to being customizeable, but for regular shooting concerns - accuracy, resistance to jams/feed errors, etc. - it is no better than, say, a Marlin 795 or a Mossberg Plinkster but it costs twice as much as either of those. And yes, I do have all three of these mentioned .22's so I can speak from experience. Again, there is nothing wrong with a 10/22, but unless you plan to customize your rifle, I see no need to pay double the cost of other rifles for a 10/22.

On another front, I would not recommend a semi-auto .22 for hunting anyway. You are limited in what ammo they will find acceptable to cycle their actions. I would go for a bolt, lever, pump, or single shot for hunting. With the non-semi choices you can shoot supersonic ammo, subsonic ammo, hypersonic ammo, powderless ammo... You are not going to have all those choices available to you with a semi. Pricewise, for basic/standard models, a single shot will be your cheapest, followed by bolt, lever, then pump in that order. I have all these action types, and my favorite, by far, is the lever (a Henry H001T Frontier Model octagon barrel specifically). Followed by the bolt and single shot tied. Followed by the semi-autos. I don't know where the pump will fit in, because I haven't had it long enough to have formed an opinion yet. The action is a little tight, and the forend has sharply angled edges that make it a little uncomfortable to pump. But once I do an action job on it that opinion may change massively. Sanding/smoothing the forend and refinishing that should help a lot too.