You're right, Mr. gwpercle. Usually, though, it starts with feeding the birds, and eventually the squirrels find out about it and move in. They are entertaining to watch.
I used to occasionally shoot the large tree squirrels out of our walnut orchard when I was a kid, and the family would eat them. A bit later in life I made a friend from Texas who would actually eat the heads, a part that we discarded. Just recently I read a news story about a fellow that caught some exotic disease from eating the heads, and died rather quickly. Wouldn't consider eating squirrel today -- those rib steaks that come from the supermarket all wrapped in plastic on a Styrofoam tray have more appeal.
Now days when I walk out to feed the squirrels, I have to look about very carefully to make sure a hungry squirrel sniper isn't drawing a bead on them!
Speaking of heads & squirrels, I once headshot a tree rat & he headed for the top of the oak tree. He ran right past the treetop! Was still running as he fell down to the ground, then stopped. Figgerin he was dead , I walked over to pick him up. Took a peek where he was hit. Saw a big hole in head & brains . Then he came back to life and tried to bite me! Dropped my .22 & quickly rung his neck like he was a rabbit . After that I went to hollowpoints!
Gotta agree with slow cooker. Pressure cookers work good too, and much faster!
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Had a squirrel problem at my house in Michigan. Kept getting in soffit. Finally found his was inside my drop ceiling. Scared the **** out of wifey! Even more so when it chewed its way down into the living room while I wasn’t home . My cat ignored it. My wife ran and hid from it. I got home to fi d him hiding in ceiling again. I pulled out my Ruger single 6 with Calibri loads—primer only. Hadn’t sighted in with them, so it wasn’t working out so well. I then grabbed my Sheridan Silver streak. I’m standing on top of the 6’ ladder on tippytoes, holding my pelketgun sideways so I can git dat sucker. I have only 1 tile removed, so I’m looking for him and he tries to jump me from behind! Almost fell off the ladder on that one! He takes off for the far side of ceiling after that, so I get a sideways bead on him and ! Dead in my ceiling! 3 days later I find my kitchen a disaster upon getting home . bread shredded, stuff knocked down. I was PO’d. Then I hear rustling behind my cabinet holding the microwave! I look behind it and see more brown fur and a bushy tail! Shot that one with the Sheridan as well! Of course I had to eat them both, since I did shoot them both in my house !
Sweet revenge!
Man—2 Squirrel—0!
(True story)
Almost as good a story as the time I head butted a Great White shark , better than the time I caught a deer in a headlock from the car , or had a knife pulled on me in the Philippines .
(Also true stories)
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Last edited by fiberoptik; 12-14-2018 at 01:36 AM.
Smoked was my favorite, but we made patties with it like you would with canned salmon and the kids loved those when they were young.
We had a strange carp die off in the big lake I live on here, real weird and the party line we got from KDWP wasn't convincing. The population of them still is nowehere close to what it was, and I'm convinced enough anglers griped about the "trash fish" that someone devised a species specific poison or micro organism to kill them off. I used to bowfish a quarter mile stretch of shore, out and back, almost every night and could count on shooting 8 or 10, now I hardly see any if I walk that stretch.
In spring I always catch a dozen or so 3-4 pound carp to smoke. Vac bagged they keep frozen for a year. Great appetizer and people scarf it then ask what kind of fish. When I say carp some have turned green and I thought they were going to puke LOL Yes it is oily but as mentioned, you can trim off a lot of the fat when cleaning. I fillet and skin then smoke the fillets on a screen over a foil drip tray(a must or your smoker will reek of carp fat for months!).
I notice that nobody mentioned Curried Squirrel ---- you might be pleasantly surprised if you do .
Best wishes to all for Christmas and the New Year ,
MZZLDR
Squirrel is good if you can get it tender. We always quick fry to brown and then place in a pressure cooker for ten minutes. Can be eatin then.. When the wife and I first got married, I was cooking down a pot of squirrels to make dumplings with, well I got side tracked out in the yard and until the smoke alarms started going off,,,well you get the picture. She has not let me live that one down yet..
We have a bumper crop this year, Maybe the air rifle needs a workout..
I had tried fried squirrel once, and found it to be about like chewing a steel-belted radial tire. Then I found a recipe in Paul Prudhomme's cookbook for something called Super Squirrel, and it was great! A friend of mine, who was from Conyers GA, said that it was the best squirrel he had ever put in his mouth. He was the guy who took his wife squirrel hunting for a first date.
Wayne
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger - or else it gives you a bad rash.
Venison is free-range, organic, non-GMO and gluten-free
If you can post that recipe, I'd be interested.
Not seeing many in the woods here this year. Kinda funny, the rabbits always get scarce after Spring, but I have never seen them so thick in Spring then disappear so completely in Summer and Fall as this year, I thought they had gone extinct. I know rodent populations come and go in cycles, could the two be related?
I haven't made an effort to squirrel hunt this year but usually see a lot during the conduct of deer hunting and didn't see many this year. Not sure what's going on.
"If you can post that recipe, I'd be interested."
I'll send you a PM.
Wayne
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger - or else it gives you a bad rash.
Venison is free-range, organic, non-GMO and gluten-free
This one makes number five...
I've been out with the 22 wmr the last couple days and this one came sneaking in after a coyote calling session right after I turned off my foxpro to see what all the dieing rabbit noise was all about. He was one of the prettiest, softest squirrels I've harvested. It was a good sized one with a full belly of corn.
Time to fire up the croc pot!
After about four hours the meat falls off the bone and mix it up with BBQ sauce and make sloppy joes out of it. Good stuff. I normally par boil mine first. It makes all the fat,crud, and fur I missed float to the top. I scoop it all off the top if the boiling foam on the top of the pot till it boils clean and then croc it.
Last edited by Tripplebeards; 12-18-2018 at 11:25 PM.
When I was about 14, I scrounged enough money to buy a Squires Bingham bolt action in .22 WMR and proceeded to slay all kinds of stuff with it as a teen ager (still have it), but quickly figured out the .22 WMR is too destructive on edible small game. I've used a .17 HMR on exactly one squirrel, won't do that again unless it's a head shot.
Makes me wonder why every time the ammo manufacturers want to increase the power of rimfires, they always go lighter and faster. Seems to me like the old .25 rimfire was the perfect level for edible small game, wish it was still around. I prefer cast in my .22 Hornet, cast in a .30-30 or similar or just standard .22 LR hollow points.
Last year every squirrel I shot with 30 gr vmax litteraly blew a huge hole in them. This year I've been trying for 100% head shots. The last four in a row put bullet sized holes in and out but destructive inside. I make sure it's head shots only with 22 wmr. The fox squirrel was #6, 12 gauge meant for a crow. I had grey stained 22lr semi auto that shot excellent...I think it was a squires Bingham as well. Long gone now.
I haven't harvested squirrels since the early eighties and took a few last winter and played around with cooking them. Here's how I get my squirrels ready to cook. I par boil them and scoop off all the nasty brown and white foam till the water is boils clean and then I put them in my croc pot with any seasoning ans one BBQ sauce. This gets all the fat, hair, and all the other scuz off the the wild game I missed. After about four hours in a croc pot I take them out and remove the meat off the bones. It just about falls off the bone at this point. I par boil turtle meat as well, then, like the squirrels, I'll boil till the turtle meat is tender. It gets all the nasty game taste out of the meat.
I normally just eat the meat right out of the crock or with cream of mushroom soup over toast. I'm going to try chili with this batch. This post inspired me.
Last edited by Tripplebeards; 12-20-2018 at 01:04 PM.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |