Red squirrel

[John Barton]

Any suggestions on what zone I could find some red squirrel. Looking to start with them since they are unprotected. Never hunted before and hoping this will get me started. I live in 1C Long Island and have maybe seen 2 in all my life

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[Culvercreek hunt club]

Find the pine trees (or any evergreen) and that is where you will find them. And as far as eating? They taste like turpentine. lol

[The_Real_TCIII]

I wouldn't eat one, they eat eggs and even baby birds. Please kill them all though


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[sailinghudson25]

Where would you like to hunt other game.  Might as well learn some public land.

If you take to upland bird hunting, examining red squirrel spots can help you find grouse spots.

They like most conifer trees.  Talk to a nysdec biologist or their forester in the region you'd like to visit. 

They're small and take alot of skill to harvest with a 22.  Not extremely difficult, but theyre more restless than a grey squirrel.  When they bust you, they don't hide.  In fact they scream out their location.

 

[sailinghudson25]

The NYC watershed lands can be good too. In Ulster or Greene County theyre hard to avoid.  

They can be your friend when deer hunting.  Sometimes they bark when a deer goes by.

Was asleep at a vase of a tree.  One barked.  I woke up and a deer was 40 yards away.

Edited March 30, 2017 by sailinghudson25

[Elmo]

Chipmunks are also unprotected if you're looking to hunt for the sake of it.

[airedale]

The key for locating squirrels is finding forest that hold mature trees that grows food they like, oaks, beech and big white pines are a good bet.

Years ago I was sitting around with some of my hunting compadres and we were having a discussion about the palatability of oddball game animals. The subject turned to squirrels, red squirrels in particular and none of us had a clue because none had cooked one and tried it. Easy enough to find out, a squirrel hunt was scheduled for the upcoming weekend. We met up at a good stand of oak woods and decided that everything squirrel was fair game for the cook pot including chipmunks. So between the four of us we ended up taking about a dozen and a half assorted red and grey squirrels and chipmunks in pretty much equal numbers.

They were all dressed out and cleaned up good and it was decided a good stew recipe would be the best way to give the rodents a try. Bottom line we all felt as far as taste there was not a lick of difference, all three species tasted pretty much the same, very good! The only way we knew which animal we were eating was the body size.

Al

Edited March 30, 2017 by airedale

[sailinghudson25]

Red squirrel have a stronger nutty flavor.

Grey squirrels I bone out the backstraps and shoulder flanks.  

Red squirrels are considerably smaller.  Just grab the rear legs.

Look up squirrel cleaning videos on youtube.

Squirrel hunters have some big advantages over big game only hunters.  Ability to stalk.  More time in the woods.  More practice shooting in field situations, less of the "buck fever" response to shooting game.

Slow cook them in broth, then discard the broth, then cook with what you'd use with the meat.

You can brine them before cooking.  Either way the gaminess gets soaked into the fluid.

[John Barton]

Thanks for all the good advise guys I can't wait. Just hope I can get the hang of all this hunting stuff.


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[Paula]

Have fun