• This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.



    Sign up here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/account/upgrades

Squirrel hunters

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Nov 30, 2015
Messages
1,854
Reaction score
140
Location
Georgia
When you score, where do you carry the squirrels. I generally get four or five, and avoid leather bags because they get foul with blood. I break away from tradition which I do quite often and haul them around in a WW 2 gas mask case. Plenty of room and it's light-weight and washable, being made of denim.
 
When you score, where do you carry the squirrels. I generally get four or five, and avoid leather bags because they get foul with blood. I break away from tradition which I do quite often and haul them around in a WW 2 gas mask case. Plenty of room and it's light-weight and washable, being made of denim.
Carried on a string by the back leg - multiples can be easily accommodated. I also have a small knotted-hemp mesh game bag I made (in my gun bag) that can be used.
 
Lately I have carried them by their tails between the fingers of my left hand. I can still hold and shoot by doing it this way. I only get 2 or 3, just enough to go in the pot. My strolls around the fence rows generally don't get me far from the barn. If I head up on the mountain I have my orange game vest on and put them in the back pocket.
 
In PA you have to wear a fl orange vest and hat for small game hunting. :( I put mine in the game pouch in the vest. It would be nice to have a muzzleloader season for squirrels where safety orange wasn't required. :)
 
I made a game bag which has worked well for me.

game bag1.jpg
game_bag2.jpg


Spence
 
I do exactly as Grimord does. I agree, a cold tree rat is one tough bugger to skin (and they ain't so easy right after the kill). Also it is my personal opinion that ALL game does better as table fare if dressed and skinned immediately after the kill. I even gut my fish and keep en on ice as soon as caught.
 
I do exactly as Grimord does. I agree, a cold tree rat is one tough bugger to skin (and they ain't so easy right after the kill). Also it is my personal opinion that ALL game does better as table fare if dressed and skinned immediately after the kill. I even gut my fish and keep en on ice as soon as caught.
I've never had a problem skinning a cold or warm squirrel. Remove the feet and head, make a slit across the mid back and pull the skin to both ends - takes less than 30 seconds...
 
When you score, where do you carry the squirrels. I generally get four or five, and avoid leather bags because they get foul with blood. I break away from tradition which I do quite often and haul them around in a WW 2 gas mask case. Plenty of room and it's light-weight and washable, being made of denim.
I cut a slit in the hind foot and feed a green stick through the tendon like a stringer off fish.
 
I've never had a problem skinning a cold or warm squirrel. Remove the feet and head, make a slit across the mid back and pull the skin to both ends - takes less than 30 seconds...

Thats exactly how I do it too, carry a set of Gerber sportsmans shears. not "hard" but the toughest of any game I have skinned
 
Thats exactly how I do it too, carry a set of Gerber sportsmans shears. not "hard" but the toughest of any game I have skinned
I use my belt axe to skin, gut and portion squirrels. Hardly ever use a knife anymore...
 
When you score, where do you carry the squirrels. I generally get four or five, and avoid leather bags because they get foul with blood.

So I carry a single strap pack, a snapsack when hunting . Both ends cinch closed. At the bottom I have my drag rope for deer. So...
I open the sack and pull out the end of the drag rope about 6", Leaving the rest tied up in a bundle, and then cinch up the bottom of the snapsack around this protruding piece of rope.

THEN when I get a bushytail, I untwist part of the rope, which has a whipped end. I untwist it enough so that the squirrel's head fits through the rope with one strand around the neck, and then I allow the rope to retwist..., a voila, the squirrel is secure. The next squirrel gets the same setup, BUT I use a different piece of the rope to form the gap for the squirrel's head. Their mutual weight makes the rope want to twist and clamps the strands down well on their necks. So they hang as they would from straps on some styles of game bag, but I don't need a game bag.

If I get really lucky and get more than a pair or so..., I pull out more rope, and tie the loose end around where the strap attaches on the pack at the other end. The rope is then parallel to the snapsack, coming out the bottom opening and attaching at the other end. Thus it's away from me, so dangling squirrels don't drip blood on anything but the forest floor, AND as they are behind me with the pack on my back...don't snag on brush.

LD
 
So I carry a single strap pack, a snapsack when hunting . Both ends cinch closed. At the bottom I have my drag rope for deer. So...
I open the sack and pull out the end of the drag rope about 6", Leaving the rest tied up in a bundle, and then cinch up the bottom of the snapsack around this protruding piece of rope.

THEN when I get a bushytail, I untwist part of the rope, which has a whipped end. I untwist it enough so that the squirrel's head fits through the rope with one strand around the neck, and then I allow the rope to retwist..., a voila, the squirrel is secure. The next squirrel gets the same setup, BUT I use a different piece of the rope to form the gap for the squirrel's head. Their mutual weight makes the rope want to twist and clamps the strands down well on their necks. So they hang as they would from straps on some styles of game bag, but I don't need a game bag.

If I get really lucky and get more than a pair or so..., I pull out more rope, and tie the loose end around where the strap attaches on the pack at the other end. The rope is then parallel to the snapsack, coming out the bottom opening and attaching at the other end. Thus it's away from me, so dangling squirrels don't drip blood on anything but the forest floor, AND as they are behind me with the pack on my back...don't snag on brush.

LD
Dave,
Very interesting method.
I've thought about making a purpose build haversack
like Spence, but I have to admit, I like the idea of the net bag for more than one purpose of foraging if the weave is tight enough.

The Sicilian
 

Latest posts

Back
Top