Squirrel Fever!

[flux]

I am very eager for hunting season to open next month, so much so that I find myself reminiscing of the fun I had last year. Don’t have many friends that hunt so I figured I would share my excitement with the forum. Here are a few pictures from my first squirrel hunt, I used Steven Rinella’s recipe to chicken fry it and it turned out great.

Anyone have any tips on what makes good squirrel habitat aside from nut bearing trees? What about cottontail habitat?

 

[RidgeRoamingRichard]

I find squirrels around slash piles and near recent logging activity. They seem to like the piled up stuff.

 

[MO Betta]

Cottontails I tend to find around the edges of timber, near structure like brush piles. Squirrels, just pretend to be deer hunting and you'll see tons of them but areas with acorns and other food, they won't be far away.

 

[BrentD]

Flux, that's a nice looking Abert's. When I lived in Arizona, they were common in Ponderosa - their claimed specialist food source, but I found them more often in Doug fir, and at red squirrel middens where they were kleptoparasites, stealing cones and mushrooms.

You can often find a feeding tree by looking for short pieces of de-barked twigs under firs, pine and spruce, they are after the cambium and peel the bark off of small twigs to get it. They drop the clipped twigs to the ground which look a lot like a pack of smokes strewn about. Not all trees of a given species taste equally good, so they will feed heavily in one tree and not touch the one next to it.

 

[Spartan]

That was a heck of a shot! I do a lot of squirrel hunting over here in MD, and the squirrels are often plentiful around oak trees, and on the outskirts of residential neighborhood clusters where the predator population is fairly low.

 

[Sshrop5]

How was the Recipe?

 

[Gellar]

I find squirrels like to be very near my tree stands. Even more so when I am in them, trying to be quiet deer hunting.

 

[flux]

How was the Recipe?

Tenderize with a fork, soak in buttermilk, dredge in flour, fry. I really enjoyed it but I have never tried squirrel any other way so I don't have anything to compare it to.

 

[BrentD]

Tenderize with a fork, soak in buttermilk, dredge in flour, fry. I really enjoyed it but I have never tried squirrel any other way so I don't have anything to compare it to.

Nothing wrong with that. Add some garlic, mushrooms, and onions too. At least I do.

But my true favorite and the way that 95% of my squirrels get eat is grilled slow after marinating for a few hours or a day in the fridge.

marinade quarters in
3/4 c soy sauce
1/4 c olive oil
1.5 t garlic powder (or a few crushed garlic cloves)
1.5 t ginger powder (or an amount of sliced or chopped fresh ginger root)
2 T honey
2 T vinegar

Emulsify the marinade in a blender or whisk well.

I really do not know of a better way to eat squirrels than this. It is the finest wild game meal I know.

 

[huntinsonovagun]

Nothing wrong with that. Add some garlic, mushrooms, and onions too. At least I do.

But my true favorite and the way that 95% of my squirrels get eat is grilled slow after marinating for a few hours or a day in the fridge.

marinade quarters in
3/4 c soy sauce
1/4 c olive oil
1.5 t garlic powder (or a few crushed garlic cloves)
1.5 t ginger powder (or an amount of sliced or chopped fresh ginger root)
2 T honey
2 T vinegar

Emulsify the marinade in a blender or whisk well.

I really do not know of a better way to eat squirrels than this. It is the finest wild game meal I know.

Going to try this!

 

[MITCHMO]

We always ate them in a pot pie growing up. Par boil, pull the meat off the bones and put in a pie crust with a bag of mixed veggies and some chicken gravy. We always threw a squirrel heart in the pie and if you got the piece with the heart, you were the winner lol. Nothing like some tree rat pie!

if anyone is coming to northern mi and wants to shoot a pile of big squirrels, look me up. I’d argue we have some of the most squirrels of anywhere in the country. we certainly have an abundance of Fox, grey, and black and they are as big as you've ever seen a squirrel. Huge fangs and sharp claws too

 

[BAKPAKR]

We always ate them in a pot pie growing up. Par boil, pull the meat off the bones and put in a pie crust with a bag of mixed veggies and some chicken gravy. We always threw a squirrel heart in the pie and if you got the piece with the heart, you were the winner lol. Nothing like some tree rat pie!

if anyone is coming to northern mi and wants to shoot a pile of big squirrels, look me up. I’d argue we have some of the most squirrels of anywhere in the country. we certainly have an abundance of Fox, grey, and black and they are as big as you've ever seen a squirrel. Huge fangs and sharp claws too

In MI, can you use Holy Hand Grenades on those foul, cruel, and bad-tempered rodents?

 

[Jbotto]

Man this makes me miss my MN squirrel hunts when I was younger. Always tried to get out to the property I deer hunted about this time of year for a weekend focused on squirrels. Gave me something to smile about when they annoyed me in the deer stand later on in November. Squirrels and .22’s are unmatched in the fun department.

 

[jimpickens]

Seen a few fat grays around here and flux that looks tasty.

 

[MITCHMO]

In MI, can you use Holy Hand Grenades on those foul, cruel, and bad-tempered rodents?

Actually you have to use those. It’s the only way to kill the beasts.

 

[sigpros]

Nothing wrong with that. Add some garlic, mushrooms, and onions too. At least I do.

But my true favorite and the way that 95% of my squirrels get eat is grilled slow after marinating for a few hours or a day in the fridge.

marinade quarters in
3/4 c soy sauce
1/4 c olive oil
1.5 t garlic powder (or a few crushed garlic cloves)
1.5 t ginger powder (or an amount of sliced or chopped fresh ginger root)
2 T honey
2 T vinegar

Emulsify the marinade in a blender or whisk well.

I really do not know of a better way to eat squirrels than this. It is the finest wild game meal I know.

I will be trying this one. Sounds fantastic

 

[buffybr]

Although I have shot a few squirrels, I've never eaten one. Once I did skin out a squirrel but it looked like it had about much meat on it as does an 8" brook trout, so I gave it to my cat.

One year about 40 years ago I had a pretty good hunting season. That year I had killed either a Bighorn ram or Shiras bull moose, a bull Elk, and a Mule deer and Pronghorn antelope bucks, all on DIY hunts. My two freezers were full of venison. Back then I also subscribed to Outdoor Life magazine.

One day that fall I received my monthly copy of Outdoor Life along with a renewal notice. The cover story that month was about some guy who had "opening day jitters" for squirrel season. For some reason I couldn't get very excited about reading stories on squirrel hunting so I didn't renew my OL subscription. I know, I'm a bit narrow minded sometimes.

 

[BrentD]

Buffy, I feel for you. You know not what you miss. Those squirrels are tastier than anything in your freezer Yup. I said it and I mean it.

Squirrel hunting seems to be lost to the modern day hunter for some reason I do not understand. Too much hype on big game expeditions I guess.

 

[JTHOMP]

Squirrel is a delicious meat unlike any other. I don’t have any tips for Colorado but good luck and hope you get a few more this season.

 

[rwc101]

I wish I could find squirrels here anywhere other than my backyard.