Squirrel hunters

[Lobo]

Does squirrel taste good? I’ve never tried it.
The many I've eaten tasted like a cross between beef & venison. They take some cooking to tenderize...

Squirrel meat is the finest fixin's you'll ever wrap a lip around. I flour the pieces, brown then in a cast iron skillet, then cover and put in the oven until the meat is tender. Take out the squirrel and make squirrel gravy to put over your mashed taters or biscutes

 

[Lobo]

 

[Lobo]

Squirrel gravy is larapin

 

[hanshi]

My grandma, she raised me, would always parboil the squirrels I brought home and then flour and fry gently. A friend and I went out for a squirrel hunt in a virgin area not squirrel hunted previously. The two of us killed 15 bushytails.

 

[shane a gress]

Geez.....got to wait till October before season opens again. Gonna be a miserable wait with lobo and Spence posting pics like that.

 

[tenngun]

I'm talking any where near where I live. I have to drive 50 miles to find pine squirrels, 300 for fox squirrels. As far as the Aberts I've never seen one. They are not listed in the game rules. And they list red/pine squirrels which there is a season on 10 a day. So I don't think we have them.
Jerry

It’s hard to tell tree rat from ground rat( prairie dog)

 

[Rodd Boyer]

Smoked squirrels... meat fell off the bone!

 

[Loyalist Dave]

They taste just like chicken

Actually I've always thought "bacon" and a lot of folks around where I am call them "limb bacon" or "tree bacon".

LD

 

[Juice Jaws]

Actually I've always thought "bacon" and a lot of folks around where I am call them "limb bacon" or "tree bacon".

LD

That's a new one ,

 

[renegadehunter]

These pictures really make me want to have a go at cooking some up. Idaho just last year incorporated a red squirrel season. It is open from August through March, so I'd better get with it so I don't have to wait until August.
Not much size to a red squirrel, so I imagine it'll take several for a decent meal for two.
Those of you that parboil them, I'd guess that you lose the ability to make gravy from them afterwards? I want to try gravy from them as well, so perhaps a Crock or Dutch will be the way to go for me.

 

[Grimord]

You might find that Red Squirrels will require soaking in salt water before par boiling. I find that they have a very strong pine/resin taste due to their diet. I much prefer grey squirrels, but will take Reds in a pinch.

 

[renegadehunter]

Thanks Grimord, I'll do that. We only have red squirrels, except for in town where you can't hunt. They say we only have red squirrels in Idaho, but here around town we definitely have a bigger different squirrel. I'm not up on my squirrel species by any means.
I'm thinking soak in salt water. Then season, bread and fry. This gives me fixin's for gravy. Then put in the oven at a lower heat until more tender.
Frying with breading and then baking until tender is how I like to do chicken gizzards.

 

[Idaho Ron]

We only have red squirrels, except for in town where you can't hunt. They say we only have red squirrels in Idaho, but here around town we definitely have a bigger different squirrel. I'm not up on my squirrel species by any means.

I hunt Idaho squirrels a LOT. But I do it with my air rifle. We do have both fox squirrels and Red Squirrels. The Red Squirrels can be almost black in some areas.
While the Fox Squirrels are exactly the same color anywhere. My best day I got 14 fox squirrels. They are considered a invasive species in Idaho. The F&G want them gone but that will never happen.
My favorite way to cook them is putting them in my home made marinade for pork. I put them in that for a couple days in the refrigerator.
I take them and pan fry them in Olive oil until they are brown. Then I put them on a cookie sheet, put some olive oil on them and bake them at 350 for 20 minutes.
They are awesome.

 

[renegadehunter]

Thanks Idaho Ron. The Red squirrels in my area are definitely very dark colored with a very white underside. The ones in town must be Fox squirrels. It would take a lot less of them to make a meal, they are nearly twice the size.
Your air gun would definitely be a better choice for the "in town sportsman", lol. (I won't be shooting any in town). Since I only own a .54, I'll probably choose something different to collect a few for starters. Perhaps it'll motivate me to buy a small bore of some type if we really enjoy eating them.

 

[Idaho Ron]

Thanks Idaho Ron. The Red squirrels in my area are definitely very dark colored with a very white underside. The ones in town must be Fox squirrels. It would take a lot less of them to make a meal, they are nearly twice the size.
Your air gun would definitely be a better choice for the "in town sportsman", lol. (I won't be shooting any in town). Since I only own a .54, I'll probably choose something different to collect a few for starters. Perhaps it'll motivate me to buy a small bore of some type if we really enjoy eating them.

These are fox squirrels.

I have a great place to shoot them and no one else bothers with them. I have a great little squirrel dog.

Where in Idaho do you live? I am in the Twin Falls area.

 

[WVAED]

Fox squirrels are kind of rare where I live in WV. We have them, but I would say I see 10 grays to one fox squirrel. I don't really like killing them as they are much tougher to eat and I like seeing them. Figure I will let them repopulate in my neck of the woods for a while.

 

[Carbon 6]

Yesterday, I watched a gray squirrel kill a cardinal. It was interesting, The squirrel didn't want to kill him.

 

[renegadehunter]

These are fox squirrels.

Where in Idaho do you live? I am in the Twin Falls area.

I live in Lewiston. I figured you lived down south somewhere from your open country hunting pics. Those are definitely the squirrels we have around town. I've never seen them outside of town where one could hunt them up north here.
All of my hunting areas, Units 8A, 11, and 11A only have the smaller Red squirrels. The amount of snow we have in the mountains right now would require a snowmobile and snow shoes to hunt them before it closes this month unless it really warms up a lot. Grimold has me nervous about how the Reds will taste, but the hunting and preparing sounds like fun. It might be next fall before I get a chance with the snow around here.

 

[Eterry]

When I was hunting elk in Colorado the locals said the squirrels all tasted like pine trees, and not to waste my lead and powder on them. I had brought some 165gr cast bullets at 1250fps, never got to use them. Does anyone else think the pine squirrel taste bad ?
My hunting buddy killed several fool's hens...they were good.

 

[hanshi]

In my native Georgia we had lots of fox squirrels and even more gray ones. I took many with an air rifle. THis first pic is a fox squirrel I had mounted long ago.

A gray squirrel for comparison.