Really did not have many shot opportunities today, but managed to knock one out of the tree.  My Blaze orange arrows are working great so far. Have not lost a single one yet....although I have broken some!


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Cool!  

I wish I was regularly capable of "minute of squirrel head groups."  It would make deer hunting a piece of cake.

Very nice! Im better at hitting squirrels than I am deer apparently...hit two tree rats and missed two deer this year!
Nicely done.

Congrats - Went out today too, only saw two and was not able to get close enough for a shot.

Heck yah! Makes for a great stew!    'Course, a couple more in the poke would be a little more helpful.  

Nice shot Jon!

Shoot straight, Shinken

That minute of squirrel comment is to funny.  That is a really neat picture.  Did you spray paint some carbon or aluminum arrows or is that wood with a yellow stain I cant tell for sure.  Got to be wood surely you aint breaking carbon.

   

These are some of my favorite critters.  Nice shooting.

Mo Hunting, yea they are cedars.  I "stained" them by rubbing on blaze orange paint.  It's pretty hard to loose them.  Even after some misses at squirells high up in trees, I have always been able to find them.  They pretty much stick out like a sore thumb in the woods during this time of year.

By the way, does anyone have any really good recipies for cooking them?  I love to hunt them, but I have never been too fond of eatng them.  I do eat them, but not because I really want to, but rather because I feel I should since I made the decision to kill them.  A good recipie would make things better.  Everytime I cook them, no matter what I do they are always really tough and a bit "gamey".

In my experience, it's easier to cook one squirrel and have it come out great that it is to cook several and have them all come out great.

Reason being, the toughness varies SOOOOO much from squirrel to squirrel that cooking them together, it's impossible to have them all done to the same tenderness.  I guess if you sorted them as you put them in the freezer it would help.  

All the little baby ones would be "tender fryers"

Medium sized or small adults would be "boil and fry" candidates.

The hawgs and old geezers are "crock pot only"

Most of the time, I make squirrel by cutting into 5 pieces.  two front legs, two back legs and one back.  Then just cover with water and boil it with onion, salt, pepper and celery just like you'd make chicken soup.  When they are done enough to almost pull the bones out, remove, drain and allow to cool enough to handle.  They are actually pretty good just like this.  I think they taste a lot like chicken hearts or gizzards.  Next, whip up a batch of your favorite breading and bread the pieces and fry till crispy.  UMmmmmm Mmmmmmmm!  Ya can get fancy with gravy and stuff but don't need to.

Also, going back to the "cook them like you would chicken soup" angle, they make a very good soup or stew.  For that, cook until they are falling apart.  Let cool and debone all the meat.  Set aside.  Strain broth through a screen to remove the celery and onion and such so you have a nice clear broth.  Bring broth back to a low boil and add chunked carrots and some mushrooms.  A handfull of barley will make you think you went to heaven.  Allow at least 30 minutes for the barley to cook fully unless you are using the "quick barley" which is the barley equivalent of minute rice.  When carrots are about half done, add some potatos (they cook faster than carrots).  Also add some fresh parsley and put the meat back in.  Salt and pepper to taste.  

You can also really bump it up by adding home made egg noodles but I've done it with the plain old grocery store bow tie noodles and it was good.  For thicker soup, cook the noodles right in the broth.  For soupier soup, cook the noodles seperately and add at the end.

You can also mess around with about any sort of veggie you like.  Grean beans, corn, peas, tomatoes, frozen mixed veggies from the store.  If it's good in soup, it'll work.

If you have a mix of young and old squirrels, this recipe works great as all you have to do is take the young ones out as soon as they are done and leave the older ones cook longer.

Dang, I'm gettin' hungry!!!

Growing up in SE Oklahoma as a child, all the squirrels my dad and I killed usually ended up in a stew. After we cleaned them my mom would boil the squirrels then strip the meat off the bones and use it for stew meat. Always tasted pretty yummy to me!  

The deboned meat makes great chili verde:   tomatillos, mild green chilis, potatoes, onions, spiced with  garlic and cominio----sit around the fire with a bowl of this, warm your tortillas and dip
them in the broth----brings a little sweat on---just remember to vent the tent later.

dave bulla- you owe me a new keyboard! i drooled all over this one.  

He he he....Clint you sound like a fella who knows how to enjoy a good meal.  

I see you are in Canada.  Will you be traveling in the states at all?

I use them as a breakfast food.  Clean and debone them.  With such a small critter, this means you wind up with a pile of little pieces of meat.  Perfect.  Throw all that in a cast iron skillet on the stove and fry it up with garlic powder (of your choice of seasoning stuff).  I usually use an unhealthy spoonfull of butter too.  Remove the meat and set it aside, then add flower and milk to what's left in the pan to make gravy.  While you've been doing all this, have biscuites in the oven.  Pour the squirrel and gravy over the biscuets.  Good stuff.