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Red Squirrels

5K views 21 replies 16 participants last post by  alleyyooper 
#1 ·
Idaho just opened a season on Red Squirrels. Who knows anything about them? Are they good eating like the squirrels I read about back east? I have seen them most of my life around here in the woods. There was never a hunting season on them so about all I know about them is they holler at you when your trying to be quiet. Anyone hunt them? Anyone eat them? What say you?
 
#2 ·
Been hunting for squirrels all my life. My grandfather said they were the best meat in the woods.
The way we cook them is; boil them till done, then season and roll them in flour and fry'em.
Save some of the boiling water to make gravey.
If you don't, they have no fat, and dry out like jerky when you just fry.
Another way is "squirrel and dumplings".
Purty good eating.
 
#4 ·
Cook them in a pressure cooker for about 20 minutes and the meat will be tender and falling off the bone. Biscuits and squirrel gravy is about as good as it gets.



Yes, they do not like to have their woods invaded and will let you know it. I usually hunt them by taking a bag chair out in the woods and sitting in open view. Doesn't take long for one to show up and start fussing and swishing its tail.
 
#5 ·
Wish I had a nickle for every red Tree Rat that woke up and started his day long after I was on the deer stand, and then just HAD to go ballistic when he saw me.
Please shoot them. I have even used milk to take the taste out of pork liver, might work for strong taste in other stuff, as does tomato juice.
best wishes
 
#7 ·
Not sure what your red squirrels are out there in Idaho. There's often some confusion when people from different parts of the country start talking about fox squirrels and red squirrels. In some places what we call Fox squirrels here in the midwest are called red squirrels elsewhere.

In Michigan we have Fox, gray, black, and red squirrels (and a species of flying squirrel that I've never seen). The fox is the largest and prefers woodlots adjacent to farm fields for habitat and feeds mostly on corn and nuts. The gray and black (which is merely a color phase of the gray) prefer larger forests (especially oaks) and spend more time up in the trees than fox squirrels do. All three are good eating. Our red squirrels are scrawny little b******s and love to go ballistic at you when you're trying to sit on a deer stand! They thrive in pine, spruce, and hemlock stands and taste like their environment!

They are challenging to hunt with a .22 because they're a small target and always moving.
 
#21 ·
Not sure what your red squirrels are out there in Idaho. There's often some confusion when people from different parts of the country start talking about fox squirrels and red squirrels. In some places what we call Fox squirrels here in the midwest are called red squirrels elsewhere.

In Michigan we have Fox, gray, black, and red squirrels (and a species of flying squirrel that I've never seen). The fox is the largest and prefers woodlots adjacent to farm fields for habitat and feeds mostly on corn and nuts. The gray and black (which is merely a color phase of the gray) prefer larger forests (especially oaks) and spend more time up in the trees than fox squirrels do. All three are good eating. Our red squirrels are scrawny little b******s and love to go ballistic at you when you're trying to sit on a deer stand! They thrive in pine, spruce, and hemlock stands and taste like their environment!

They are challenging to hunt with a .22 because they're a small target and always moving.

In New Hampshire we don't have Fox squirrels but we have the scrawny little red squirrels. There's no closed season on them because we have so many. They're great for introducing little kids to hunting because we have so many of them. They actually taste ok if you can find ones that have been feeding on acorns instead of pine/spruce/hemlock/fir. I blast away at every single one I see around my house, they love to cause damage. We have grey squirrels and flying squirrels as well.
 
#8 ·
Hadn't thought of that. Around here its "fox squirrels, and their diet is, acorns, native, and paper shell pecans, and horse apples.
No odd tastes, cause pines are few and far between.
 
#9 ·
plenty of pines where i hunt, but these pines in this region
don't have "nuts" like the far western and northern pines do.
just loblolly and longleaf pine.

most of these squirrels here eat acorns and hickory nuts and
persimmons, about like the rest of the edible game around here.
most all the deer were gone when my folks were growing up,
and most all their wild game meals were squirrel and ***** and
such.
ate many a squirrel and bunny myself.
i'll agree with the ^ ^ ^ squirrel and dumplings, and i've
started put squirrel meat with ramens. not too awful bad
for a fuzzy tail rat. or make squirrel gravy as in sausage
gravy with biscuits.
 
#13 ·
Hate those little pines squirrels, wish they never would have made it to our area. Started seeing them about 10 years ago and now see them quite regularly. Shoot on site!
 
#14 ·
Here in the middle of the country we have Fox skirls and Jack Skirls. The jacks are little and annoying as heck. Their number has been declining steadily for years until they are almost a treat to see now. Young fox squirrels are the best and I just roll them in flour and throw them in the skillet on a low setting. I let them simmer in Crisco until they are done. The mature ones do need to be boiled before fried unless you're into lots of gnawing. I also like to throw them in the crock pot with barbeque sauce and let them cook all day. The meat falls off the bones.

One thing that really helps with taste is make sure you get rid of those gland sacks in the squirrels armpit. They are pretty strong. They are obvious once ya get the hide peeled off.

Don't ya hate it when you're skinning one of those rascals and you make the cut through the tail but not the back side hide and then a couple of cuts around towards the belly. Ya step on the tail and pull up on the legs and the gish dern tail comes off. I swear that's the number one reason why vise grips got invented!
 
#16 ·
I used to give all of my squirrel tails to the neighbor kid and he sent then to Meps. and that was back in the 80s. Then I think they had a surplus of them because they quit buying for a couple of years.

When the neighbor kid got to highschool he must have had 100 tails stock piled. Every car coming out of the school parking lot had a squirrel tail zip tied to the antenna.
 
#17 ·
I grew up in Arkansas and we had fox squirrels and gray squirrels. I preferred the fox squirrels cause they were bigger and seemed easier to fool with my quarters I used as a call. Grays taste the same (delicious) but took more to make a meal. Have a fox run into a hole in a tree just give him a few minutes then standing on the opposite side from the hole take two quarters and rub the edges together he will come out to see what is going on.


My mom would pressure cook them for about five minutes then flour and fry them and make gravy! Dang that was good. She would also make squirrel and dumplings that were great as well. My father always used to say if you had a piece of moms fried squirrel hanging between your eyes your tongue would beat you to death trying to get to it!:tango_face_smile:


CR
 

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#18 ·
I grew up in Ohio hunting fox squirrels near home in the farmlands and dad would occasionally take us down to the hills for grey squirrels. Squirrel hunting with my .22 was my favorite sport, we considered shotguns unsportsmanlike. After the army I relocated to Colorado where there were Abert's squirrels, black with tufted ears, about the size of eastern greys and pine squirrels which were like furry tailed mice. I ate pine squirrels only once. I took a camping trip where I was determined to "live off the land" as provided by my muzzleloading shotgun. I boiled up 2 pine squirrels, a blue jay and two tiny brook trout and called it "mountainman surf & turf". It actually wasn't bad considering of course that I was very hungry.
 
#20 ·
For some - red squirrel = pine squirrel and not to be confused w fox squirrels which may be 2-4 times bigger than a red squirrel. I've never tried eating them. Trap them and tan the hides and sell to ladies who make Alaska Native dolls. Tough critters and tough hides. We used to have tons of them here in my north corner of Bristol Bay but they are scarce now. Used to tell all the woods I was out hunting. Now woods are mostly quiet. I wonder if the spruce bark beetle killing a lot of spruce is ruining their food supply?

Had a young friend who shot one and his folks made him eat it. He said it was good but at 14 he ate anything. Not much meat on them. Tiny

these rascals destroy cabins and such. Gnaw into walls and haul away all the insulation or make nests right in the wall pee, stink etc. One cabin we used to ski into in winter - fire up the stove and wake up the squirrels sleeping in the walls - hear them fuss and such.

they'll gnaw on cabinets in the darnedest places and make a mess.
When my brother in law was building his house he paid his son $1 per tail and armed the kid w a pellet rifle.

Years later rebuilding a shed they found about 50 pounds of dog food inside the wall.
 
#22 ·
As bad as rats if not worsce as they will get into every thing and destroy it.
I have a vendata on them and shoot all I can and feed them to the cats and local weasle population.



The larger red phase of fox squirrel are very good eatting. I like to wrap them in bacon and bake them.


:D Al
 
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