Ethics of Squirrel Hunting

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HiBC

New member
Whatever works for you,is fine by me.

I have managed to experience giardia in Colorado.About 40 years ago,I drank wild,cool water only about 2000 feet,maybe 3000 (+ or -) below the Continental Divide.
To be clear,the Divide is the line where melting snow decides if it is heading for the Pacific or the Missisippi.Its real far upstream.

Another name for Giardia is "Beaver Fever" .Allegedly,beaver ponds and waste can be the source.

Elk and trout live in that country,too.Both carry liver fluke.I agree,cook your food.
I meant no disrespect.
 
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HiBC

New member
So,no trout sushi,and skip the "eat raw liver" initiation for young elk hunters.

Cooking is a good thing.
 
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Boogershooter

New member
I didn't take it as disrespectful or off in anyway. I love a good discussion (argument) that always comes with hunting. Your rifle is too big or too small, this animal is edible or not, and how far that big buck was or not sort of argument. I find it interesting the different ways people respect, process, and eat certain animals in different parts of this great country. Always educational! Squirrels are on our menu a couple times a month here during the off season but usually a couple times a week during season.
 
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CajunBass

New member
When I was a kid, with my first shotgun in hand, my mother gave me some of the best advice I ever got. She said, as I headed out the door on my first "hunt"..."Don't ever shoot anything you can't brag about."

(Yea...back in those days, people would just turn a kid loose in the woods with a shotgun and trust him to not kill a dozen people.)

Somehow, I can't imagine bragging about shooting a squirrel and just leaving it in the woods.

Thanks Mom.
 
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Soclosenotnear

New member
I've just taken my hunting education course recently and have been considering attempting to go hunting for my first time. All of the last page is why squirrel will be my first experience. Deer seem to be a strenuous process.

So yes, recipes?
 
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Boogershooter

New member
There are so many recipes. If you like gravy, boil until tender, let cool, then debone. Brown a Lil flour in oil and make your roux. Then add some of the stock from the boiled squirrels to thin the gravy. Put over rice, mash taters, or biscuit. You can make squirrel dumplings or gumbo. Most just soak it in there flavorite marinade and then coat with flour and fry it. My kids like squirrel tacos and enchiladas. You can always throw them in the crock pot with taters, onions, carrots, and any flavor peppers of your choosing.
 
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979Texas

New member
Boogershooter is right, there are soooooooo many recipes. I could fill up a thread real fast with telling you all the different ways to cook it. But just as a rule of thumb in the kitchen, you can use squirrel in just about any recipe as a replacement to nearly any protein the recipe already calls for. But, and this is IMPORTANT, you have to treat squirrel as a very dry and lean protein so adding fatty proteins, vegetables, and oils is important. Also overcooking it is devastating because of its leanness, and its not the most forgiving of meats. So just watch how you cook with it and be as cautious with it as you would with alligator, fish, or white poultry meat. Also bringing acid into the recipe is a good touch as the flavor qualities of squirrel are best brought out with and balanced with acidity. Vinegar's are the best acid to pair the squirrel with and it also cuts through the rich gaminess of the meat and balances it out well. But obviously with some genres of cuisine vinegar isn't the best acid of choice and you might be better suited with lemon or lime juice. Also unless you are deep frying it then a cream based sauce should be avoided with squirrel unless you are using a cream based sauce or a beurre based sauce and you incorporate some sort of beef or veal stocks or fond de veau, or dark liquor into the cream base of the sauce. Just follow those few simple guidelines and you will see how easy and versatile squirrel meat is.
 
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briandg

New member
I'm known online as the "squirrel wrangler" not because I hunt them, because I spent years wrestling with them over ownership of my home. Yes, a whole lot of them died.

a couple years now, there has been a guy posting on facebook, asking for squirrels to use in the northwest arkansas squirrel cookoff, or something of the sort.

That post made a whole lot of people laugh.
 
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Erno86

New member
I like to lightly brown fry my quartered squirrels in a frying pan with olive oil, and them throw them in a pressure cooker, with red wine, carrots and onions for about 40 minutes --- Comes out fork tender.
 
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deerslayer303

New member
Marinade - 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup olive oil, 1/2cup white vinegar, 1/2 soy sauce. Mix it up put your squirrel in it and marinate it for 24 hours. Then grill it or pan fry it slow. Turns out great. Sometimes I'll par boil it. Bread it in House Autry medium hot breader, fry it, then make gravy from the drippings and put it over rice. Or I will soak it in a brine for a day or so. Basically, cold water, brown sugar, and salt. Squirrel is very good. REMEMBER they are what they eat, if you kill some mainly in a pine thicket, they will taste like turpentine. As squirrels who live in such a place love green pine combs.
 
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Erno86

New member
Squirrels love to eat some types of poisonous mushrooms --- So just because you see a squirrel eat a mushroom --- Does not mean it is safe for you to eat that kind of mushroom; unless you can safely identify it.
 
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1hogfan83

New member
Squirrel is one thing but here in Arkansas we have several seasons for game animals that I wouldn't dream of eating. Crow, coyote, bobcat, coons and the sort. I wish I had a few squirrels, my oak trees drop so many acorns I need some to clean them up, knock on wood.
 
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PaulFelder

New member
I would be sorry to kill squirrels, much less leave them so dead. I think so, if you hunt, then why do you do it? If it's for the meat, I'll understand. If you just kill the squirrels and leave them, what's the point? You like to just kill, it's not cool... It is better not to touch the animals, they are already being hunted by a sufficient number of wild animals and birds. Let it happen wild animal food chain. I became interested in this after I often found fox corpses on my territory. I was wondering what happened and who did it. I ruled out the hunters because there was no sign of a gunshot wound, just a torn body. Draw your own conclusions...
 
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Ricklin

New member
Letter to the editor

Perfect, I live in SW Wa. state, about an hour north of PDX. We have in my town.
1. An annual squirrel festival
2, Several squirrel bridges. 5?
3. A whole bunch of folks that are nuts for squirrels.
I would be run out of town on a rail were I to put squirrel meat recipes in the paper. I feel a letter to the editor coming on:D

Leaving game animals to rot is disgusting IMHO. Not a fan of squirrels, they are a game animal.
Back in the day we hunted jackrabbits around Fort Rock Or. a target rich environment. We always brought a gunny sack to haul off the carcasses. Lots of raptors would feed on the dead rabbits and some of us used shotguns. We chose to avoid the raptors getting lead in their lunch.
Hard to kill a jack with a .22 unless it's .22 mag, tough critter. Shot placement is challenging when they are running, thus the 20 gauge. My old M1 carbine got to play there too and was pretty ideal.
 
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