Bushy Tails

[DirtTime]

Just curious if anyone else is going in the morning?

I will be scouting, so I may as well carry the .22lr and try to put some squirrel meat in the freezer. Might be the year I talk the fiancee into trying it.

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[Buckmaster7600]

I will be out "scouting." don't know what I'll be carrying but will certainly have a gun with me loaded for squirrels.


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[Buckmaster7600]

I will be out "scouting." don't know what I'll be carrying but will certainly have a gun with me loaded for squirrels.


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[greybeard]

Good Luck..

[Culvercreek hunt club]

4 hours ago, ....rob said:

 

Just curious if anyone else is going in the morning?

I will be scouting, so I may as well carry the .22lr and try to put some squirrel meat in the freezer. Might be the year I talk the fiancee into trying it.

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crockpot squirrel with Italian style stewed tomatoed over rice...mmmmmmmmmmmm

[DirtTime]

crockpot squirrel with Italian style stewed tomatoed over rice...mmmmmmmmmmmm

That sounds good. Never tried it that way. Thanks for the recipe CC.

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[Culvercreek hunt club]

21 minutes ago, ....rob said:

That sounds good. Never tried it that way. Thanks for the recipe CC.

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Anything you want to add works great. When I have folks that like spicier food I toss in hot peppers.  Is very good with rabbit as well.  I have also added some heavy cream to it but that was before my Cholesterol went through the roof...lol.  (pick out all the bones when gettign people new to eating game to try it. That turns them off).

Edited August 31, 2017 by Culvercreek hunt club

[DirtTime]

She saw what they eat in the city, so it pretty much ruined her of trying it.

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[growalot]

I have one particular nasty one that's been crapping all over the porch and eating the cats food...which sits 4 ft off the deck...I may be sitting out there in my Adirondack chair laying in wait...

[Steuben Jerry]

I'll be out looking around, but I tend to wait until the first frost before shooting any.

Those bot fly larva things just aren't appealing to me! I know they're harmless and all that, but F those things!

[growalot]

triple that!

[Culvercreek hunt club]

21 minutes ago, Steuben Jerry said:

I'll be out looking around, but I tend to wait until the first frost before shooting any.

Those bot fly larva things just aren't appealing to me! I know they're harmless and all that, but F those things!

Whatever you do, don't google cattle bot flies. (the same species can get into deer)

[rachunter]

i'll be out in late October I love small game hunting. I had the trigger polished on my ruger 10/22 and can hit a golf ball at 50yrds, consistently. i'm also looking forward to trying out my fathers safe queen an ithica feather light 20ga. he never shot it.

someone taught me to fielddress and skin them in the woods and carry icepacks to cool them down,what a difference it makes on rabbit and squirrel meat. anyone else do it?  

[turkeyfeathers]

18 hours ago, growalot said:

...I may be sitting out there in my Adirondack chair laying in wait...

That stems a question    Are they just called "chairs" in the Adirondacks ?

Forgot about bot flies    Ugh   May go tomorrow

[Rattler]

I was looking forward to going out this morning.  I look forward to hunting them, as it gives me a chance to hunt with my Kimber Hunter .22LR with the Leupold VX-III  2.5 - 8X power scope.  (Never thought I'd own $1500 worth of squirrel shooting rifle.  LOL!  I got it for much less years ago though)  Heck, I look forward to the first day being able to hunt something after the long summer.

Anyway, it was cold when I got up, about 38 degrees outside and 50 degrees in the house, so I turned on the furnace for the first time this season and it didn't work.  I had the propane tanks changed out about a month ago because they were rusted and I could smell some gas leaking from them.  Seems the guy didn't light the pilot correctly when he was done and it went out.  Problem now is, I can't get the pilot to light.

So I spent the AM dealing with that instead of hunting.  Now I have to be somewhere at 1 PM so today didn't work out as planned.

[DirtTime]

Just got home. Great morning to be in the woods! Didn't see much for tree rats, a few running across the ground faster then I cared to take a shot at with a .22lr. Chipmunks everywhere.
Found some pretty well used deer runs. Made a few brush blinds.

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[philoshop]

Change out the thermocouple, Rattler. They don't last very long if they're not kept hot once they've been used.

[Rattler]

Thanks for the info philoshop. I don't have a clue how to do that.  Gonna have the gas company come out and fix it and not paying them to do it.  It worked great for years until they touched it.  They broke it, so I expect them to fix it.  They better hope they can light the pilot.

[TACC]

Good luck, rattler let us know the end result of that.

Thanks for the initial recipe, are we just using front and rear quarters, or what do most of you guys kept to cook.

Couple more recipes would be helpful also

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[Culvercreek hunt club]

5 minutes ago, TACC said:

Good luck, rattler let us know the end result of that.

Thanks for the initial recipe, are we just using front and rear quarters, or what do most of you guys kept to cook.

Couple more recipes would be helpful also

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There is meat on the "backstrap" but not a lot.  For squirrels I use the quarters mainly. For rabbits I use the whole thing (they have a bigger backstrap)

[Elmo]

On ‎8‎/‎31‎/‎2017 at 2:47 PM, ....rob said:

She saw what they eat in the city, so it pretty much ruined her of trying it.

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I once had the pleasure of having a small conversation with Steve Rinella and he told me he would trap squirrels in his backyard (this was when he lived in Brooklyn) and eat them.  I asked him if he was worried about city squirrels since they're not like wood squirrels and he said he wasn't because you should really look at what they eat.  They maybe scurrying around trash cans and what not but they're not really eating trash.  Maybe the occasional pop corn or something.  I tested this out.  I tossed some of my morning muffin at a city squirrel once.  It sniffed it and left it alone.

[Elmo]

2 hours ago, Culvercreek hunt club said:

There is meat on the "backstrap" but not a lot.  For squirrels I use the quarters mainly. For rabbits I use the whole thing (they have a bigger backstrap)

There's very little meat back there but to me, it's actually the tastiest.  I cook up the whole back and then peel off the "backstrap" and eat them like string cheese.

[Ontario Buckhunter]

I'm heading out to hang one last stand tomorrow, the 22 will be riding shotgun in the truck in case the tree rats are are active.

[Pygmy]

I always skin and disjoint them in the woods....Google has a bunch of vids showing the easy way to do it, and it works slick and fast once you get the hang of it...I save 5 pieces..the 4 legs and the back...IMO the back has  sufficient good meat to save...

I have never gone so far as to ice them down,  but when I come out of the woods all I have to do is rinse them and pick off a few hairs and they are ready for the pot...If I have shot them with a shotgun, I usually soak them in a mild solution of salt water overnight to help draw the blood out of the shot wounds..

[wolc123]

29 minutes ago, Ontario Buckhunter said:

I'm heading out to hang one last stand tomorrow, the 22 will be riding shotgun in the truck in case the tree rats are are active.

I hope to get out over this holiday weekend and hang a stand over at my folks place (about 20 mi away).  There is a spot in the oaks over there where I always see lots of greys.    It is kind of tough hunting them with so many leaves on the trees. I like shooting them from a stand with a .22, not only to eat, but also to get some "live target" practice for deer hunting.   The kill zone is so small on a squirrel, that after taking a few, it really helps my confidence when shooting at deer later.   My little 410 would probably be a lot more effective at this time of year, but it would not provide as good of practice and the pellets would complicate the eating.

I like the idea of taking a cooler and an ice pack and processing them in the woods, especially early in the season like this.   Most of the squirrel hunting I have done the last few years has been after deer season, so keeping the meat cool has not been an issue. I have often mixed squirrels and rabbits together in the crockpot and the squirrel always tastes a little better.   It just takes a few more of them to make a meal.  I also think that the backstraps are the tastiest part.  I am getting hungry now just thinking about it.