Squirell stories, resipies, hunts, ect.

[ballista]

 hey everyone, I killed a squerrel a few days ago, and it occoure to me, i never really had to cook one, my grampa always did it. I just roasted it over a campfire within 15 mintues of the kill, but id LOVE to hear some good recipies to cook the critters, maybe some stories as well. everyone has a unique way of skinning, mine didnt work well at all, i had to make a few different cuts. so, does anyone have a very reliable tecnique? thanks, -jimmy

[knightd]

For skining I just make a cut in the middle of the back and then stick two fingers on each side of the cut and pull his shirt and pants off at the same time. ..
 I like to take them and flour and fry them and then make a batch of thin gravey put the fried pieces in there and let it simmer on a very low heat until the meat is tender. and serve it over rice.

[ballista]

awesome, thanks for the reply- how long would you say is too long after the kill? like from when you shoot it, to when you fry it up?

[mullet]

  I clean them the same way. But I do it as soon as I shoot it. The skin comes off easier while it is still warm. I just go to the Colonel's chicken place and stock up on handi wipes. And carry two, two gal. Zip-Lock baggies with me.

 I then save them till I have a bunch,(10 or 20) then put them in a pressure cooker till the meat falls off. Pick all the bones out and mix it up like you would Tuna fish salad. I then freeze it till I go hunting for the weekend and that is my sandwiches or it is great on Ritz crackers and a cold beer.

 By the way, I shot one out of the top of an oak Saturday morning with my new James Parker bow. But he ran off into the palmettos.

[ballista]

 thats awesome, i shot one a week in the suburbs, i got hell from my mom for it though- homemade blowgun did the trick there    do you freeze them unti you have a bunch, or do you go out there like f-in rambo and get 18 within a days hunt?  oh, i as watching bear grylls (one of my favourite shown next to weapon masters, both worth watxching) and he just roasted the entire rabbit, guts and all- he did an identical thing with a squerrel in russia, but it was also frozen solid from the trap, he didnt even take the guts out... wouldn't you want to just pinch out as many as you can? thanks for the replies guys, jimmy.

[mullet]

  I save them up till I have enough. We have a small game season that runs from the end of Dec. to Feb 1. I usually hunt with a 22-410 O/U then. But we can shoot small game from Sept till then during any of the different seasons.

[ballista]

oh i ment the guts- haha but that season's alot longer than illinois, its august to march, thats just off the top of my head though. so, i was worried from deer experiences, the crap hole. is it something to really worry about, do you cut around it, ect?

[mullet]

 Push it out with your finger

[Hillbilly]

Yeah, get the guts out as fast as you can, especially if it's warm weather. You want to get the meat cooling down as fast as you can. Bear Grylls is an idiot in my opinion-he does all that fear factor TV crap just for the shock factor. If he had a filet mignon in his pocket and was standing next to a clean, cold spring  he would still eat a handful of slugs and night crawlers and wash them down with a bottle of warm pee. He does everything about exactly opposite of what you would actually want to do in a real survival situation. Then his crew airlifts him out every evening in a helicopter to a resort hotel to spend the night. If you want to see something more realistic, watch Survivorman. I usually skin and fix squirrels like KnightD said unless I want to save the hide, then I split them down the inside of the legs and down the belly to the chin. They're also good if you take the meat off the bones, run it through a meat grinder, and make squirrel tacos. Or like you said, just roast 'em over some hot coals. There is a world of difference between a youg squirrel and an old tough one, too. Fry or roast the young ones and parboil the old leathery ones.

[ballista]

 i gotta agree with you, the canadian's alot better,  bear grylls shows you alot of things, but you kinda have the suspition after he's done filming, he's got a turkey dinner waiting for him. would you put them in salt water and brine them? thats what i did with a couple carp this year, believe it or not they were Amazing. i was thinking about the tails as maybe string silencers, but it would be kinda hard to put in the string-but it would look cool on a selfbow. do you use blunt tips often? i've heard alot of good things, but i've never used them on anything smaller than a groundhog (which was a monster, could possibly be why) thanks again, BOW SEASON STARTS TOMARROW!!!

[Papa Matt]

Yeah, Bear Grylls is a moron. I can't stand to watch him and Hillbilly, you hit the nail right square on the head. I agree with everything you just said 1,000%. The sooner they take that worthless show off the air the better TV will be. I hate to have to even flip through and happen to see 1 second of it. He misleads people. Some city kid that didn't know better and was just starting out to learn how to hunt and interact with nature might actually beleive you should drink snake pee in a survivial situation instead of breaking open a cactus.

~~Papa Matt

[mullet]

  I hate all those survival shows, except Survivor . You don't need to brine the meat unless you just like salt. If you strip the fur off the tail it is not stiff. Just cut a ring around the tail, split a small piece of oak limb and place it at the cut ring. Then squeeze it hard together and pull in opposite directions. You will have fur in one hand and a rat looking tail in the other.

[ballista]

Thanks for the replies- this is going to sound a bit odd, but if you wanted a garlic squirell... how'd you do it? my dad made some vennison last year that had some garlic in it, hes a beeter chef than a hunter though. i asked him, he said yo're better eating the vennison he made i went huntin yeaterday, i saw a red fox squirell 10 yards away, i was deer hunting though. if i was out just for squirell...... i'd had drilled him im using a compound for now, i want to make sure my accuracy is completely pinpoint with a longbow before i go deer hunting trad. thanks for the posts, and do any of you guys snare? i might do a little of that, then just check the snares after i hunt. -jimmy

[Arthur Herrmann]

So glad to here that no one on the site likes Bear Grylls. Notice how he teaches "how to survive" by putting himself on the side of a cliff on every episode. He teaches the most foolish ways to get around. I love Les Stroud, informative, smart, and has some good advice. You wont see him with a live scorpion dangling out of his mouth just to put on a show. Grylls is definitely going for the shock factor, as you guys said.

And if I see Bear drinking his own urine one more time, then I will have to remove cable from my bedroom! 

[ballista]

haha yeah, alot of the crap he puts on is just for the show. I guess he got busted staying at a "pre arranged camp" but it was probibly a motel or something-if you're getting paid that much, you might as well stay outside. Yeah, the canadian has some great tips, but my reasoning for favorng him, no camera crew. he shows you exactily what he has, he'll tell you he has one match. wehreas bear, he has a flint-fire is something you need in most senarios, a flint isnt far from a lighter. popped a litle chitmunk today in my backyard with a blowgun, i was thinking about cooking him, but i just gave it to the neighbour's dog as usual (i didnt kill it just to kill it, the litle bastards gnawed a hole clear through my shed...)