Dumb Squirrel question?
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You use a scatter shot on bushy tails? My gods man, have you never learnt to bark a squirrel???! 
:shake:
:shake: You use a scatter shot on bushy tails? My gods man, have you never learnt to bark a squirrel???!
Yep, I have barked them...
My pa didn't shoot muzzleloaders, so this is where the pellets came into play...
He was a 16 guage double barrel man from way back...
Now I have shot squirrels out of trees so high, that I had to salt the round ball so as the meat wouldn't spoil on the way down... :thumbsup:
Guest
We eat a mess of limb-bacon at Casa De Le Buffler. I always brine tree rats in cold salt water for about two hours right after I skin them. Once the water is good and bloody, I soak them in cold salt water for another 2 hours and then do what I need to after, whether freezing them or cooking them.
I like to make mine Italian style, being that my wife is Italian. Here's my recipe.
MORTE DELLA STRADA
Three or four good sized squirrels, brined and thawed, or two rabbits
Olive oil
Honey
Italian Salad Dressing
Fresh Garlic, 1 clove
Salt, Pepper, etc.
What you do:
Heat a large skillet over medium heat and cover the bottom with olive oil, a couple of tablespoons of honey and add about a 1/3 cup of Italian salad dressing. Adding these together will prevent splattering later. Slice up the garlic glove and add the slices to the mix. While this is heating up, prep your game.
Start off by cutting the squirrels (or rabbits) into pieces: legs and back meat, which is arguably the best part as it is always the tenderest, but for some reason people miss it. Rub a little salt and pepper into the meat.
Once the garlic starts to fry and the salad dressing begins to boil, stir it back together with a wooden spoon, and then carefully add the meat. Since this is probably a little damp be mindful of spatter.
Brown the meat and add more salad dressing as needed to keep the meat from frying too much. Cover the pan and let cook for about fifteen minutes. Do NOT let this cook down yet! Wild game has little or no fat and needs outside assistance to stay moist and tender. After you have let the meat fully cook and really soak up the juices, remove the lid and turn up the heat a little. This will help cook down the dressing/honey/olive oil mixture. When the mix has nearly cooked down, add another teaspoon of honey for each piece of meat in the pan. Coat completely and allow the honey to caramelize just slightly on each piece.
For anyone who just raised an eyebrow at
I like to make mine Italian style, being that my wife is Italian. Here's my recipe.
MORTE DELLA STRADA
Three or four good sized squirrels, brined and thawed, or two rabbits
Olive oil
Honey
Italian Salad Dressing
Fresh Garlic, 1 clove
Salt, Pepper, etc.
What you do:
Heat a large skillet over medium heat and cover the bottom with olive oil, a couple of tablespoons of honey and add about a 1/3 cup of Italian salad dressing. Adding these together will prevent splattering later. Slice up the garlic glove and add the slices to the mix. While this is heating up, prep your game.
Start off by cutting the squirrels (or rabbits) into pieces: legs and back meat, which is arguably the best part as it is always the tenderest, but for some reason people miss it. Rub a little salt and pepper into the meat.
Once the garlic starts to fry and the salad dressing begins to boil, stir it back together with a wooden spoon, and then carefully add the meat. Since this is probably a little damp be mindful of spatter.
Brown the meat and add more salad dressing as needed to keep the meat from frying too much. Cover the pan and let cook for about fifteen minutes. Do NOT let this cook down yet! Wild game has little or no fat and needs outside assistance to stay moist and tender. After you have let the meat fully cook and really soak up the juices, remove the lid and turn up the heat a little. This will help cook down the dressing/honey/olive oil mixture. When the mix has nearly cooked down, add another teaspoon of honey for each piece of meat in the pan. Coat completely and allow the honey to caramelize just slightly on each piece.
For anyone who just raised an eyebrow at
Anybody ever "bark" a squirrel with a muzzleloader. You're supposed to aim at the tree and the shock kills'em(I think)
Old squirrel is fine for Brunswick Stew. Use corn, potato, onion, okra, green peppper, tomato, etc. Better than chicken.
Old squirrel is fine for Brunswick Stew. Use corn, potato, onion, okra, green peppper, tomato, etc. Better than chicken.
Have tried it with mixed results. Works great in oaks and hickorys. Doesn't work for beans in white pines. If you're good enough to hit the tree 3/4" below the squirrel's head, you're good enough to hit the squirrel's head, so why bother the tree? I aim for the eye, and sometimes I miss and hit them in the head . . . or somewhere near the head, or not. :redface:
Guest
I learned to do it as a youngster with a .36 flinter. I was living in the hills of North Carolina, little place called "Indian Grave Hill". Lots of Oak trees in them woods. The trick was to spook them so they'd lay flat on the branch or trunk and aim under their "armpit". A good shot would flip them off the branch. Occasionally, you had to whomp'em to finish the job. Nothing to get you going like one of them waking up in the gunny sack and freaking out. I much prefer my new fangled .22 Mossberg 377 Plinkster with its 3-9x32 scope for bushy tails. Not really a challenge, but it puts meat in the pot. :m2c:
Guest
My 13 year old daughter, was 2 fer 2, last weekend. Both of'em head-shot with her TC Cherokee .45,.... thet kid is outshoot'n her dad sumpthin fierce!! :: ::
YMHS
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YMHS
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Gordy,
Give me a holler next time you're in far west Texas and I will make ye some biscuits in a dutch oven.
Give me a holler next time you're in far west Texas and I will make ye some biscuits in a dutch oven.
KyFlintlock
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I also shoot em' with the old .32 flinter. I used to use a .22 and a .22mag until about 3 years ago, when I picked up the .32 flinter. I now am almost as excited to go squirrel hunting with it as anything!
Here is another good way to cook em', young or old (I didn't come up with the recipe, but can validate that it is GOOD):
7-8 Squirrels (or more if you like), debone the meat and cube into small pieces, just a touch smaller than you would if using beef.
4 carrots peeled and sliced
4 potatoes peeled and cubed
1/2 large onion roughly diced
1/2 Jalepeno finely diced, use the whole thing if you like it spicy.
3/4 cup frozen corn
3/4 cup frozen peas
8 ounce tub of mushrooms, they come sliced. Not the canned ones, but the ones in the produce section.
1 packet of beef stew mix
Crock pot, and it's KEY.
Now what I do to prepare this is mix the stew mix and water in the crock pot, then add the prepped veggies. Cook on HIGH for roughly 30 minutes or so, give or take. Then add the squirrels and turn to LOW and slow cook it for 3-3.5 hours stirring periodically. Season with salt/pepper to taste. The squirrel meat comes out so unbelievably tender and tasty it's unreal.
Here is another good way to cook em', young or old (I didn't come up with the recipe, but can validate that it is GOOD):
7-8 Squirrels (or more if you like), debone the meat and cube into small pieces, just a touch smaller than you would if using beef.
4 carrots peeled and sliced
4 potatoes peeled and cubed
1/2 large onion roughly diced
1/2 Jalepeno finely diced, use the whole thing if you like it spicy.
3/4 cup frozen corn
3/4 cup frozen peas
8 ounce tub of mushrooms, they come sliced. Not the canned ones, but the ones in the produce section.
1 packet of beef stew mix
Crock pot, and it's KEY.
Now what I do to prepare this is mix the stew mix and water in the crock pot, then add the prepped veggies. Cook on HIGH for roughly 30 minutes or so, give or take. Then add the squirrels and turn to LOW and slow cook it for 3-3.5 hours stirring periodically. Season with salt/pepper to taste. The squirrel meat comes out so unbelievably tender and tasty it's unreal.
Must be a lazy New England recipe(?)
Shoot squirrel-
Slit skin on back-
Insert fingers and rip-
Cut off paws-
Filet like frog legs (keeping front & rears together on sides)-
Cut strip connecting front/rear in middle-
Insert garlic clove (apple, pepper, onion, or even an oyster, shrimp, whatever by the leg bone and fold over the flap and hold woth a finishing nail.
Favorite BBQ sauce is nice sometimes, And grill it all up on the coals with some nice roased sweet tatoes, corn, and mybe some stuffed srooms. (don't forget the "grog").
A honey mustard dip for the legs works too. :m2c:
Shoot squirrel-
Slit skin on back-
Insert fingers and rip-
Cut off paws-
Filet like frog legs (keeping front & rears together on sides)-
Cut strip connecting front/rear in middle-
Insert garlic clove (apple, pepper, onion, or even an oyster, shrimp, whatever by the leg bone and fold over the flap and hold woth a finishing nail.
Favorite BBQ sauce is nice sometimes, And grill it all up on the coals with some nice roased sweet tatoes, corn, and mybe some stuffed srooms. (don't forget the "grog").
A honey mustard dip for the legs works too. :m2c:
I use a 30 cal Bill large flintlock! It uses as little as 7 grains of powder! Very quiet. Remember when 22 shortHP's could be found? Only CCI makes them and they are so loud one might as well use LR's. Anyone who thinks the 22HP didn't work best on sq's never shot as many as I!! The "experts" decided the HP's didn't work at the slow velocity. Years of experience tells me they are wrong.
IF YOU can find any old rem/win/fed 22 sh HP's please send them to me!!! I will gladly buy!
I honestly believe the barking came from saving the lead AND not shooting up the delicious tounge and brains? A low belly shot doesn't mess up good meat either.
An ancient lady showed me how to skin sq's in a few seconds. If the hide isn't wanted.
She made a slit across the back just in front of the tail and slapped he foot on the tail as she pulled off "the "shirt. Holding the skin up around the head (inside out, now, she pulled off his "breeches". She could do this incredibly fast and merely had to sever the paws, skin and all, discard the head, as we eat brains no more, and gut and clean.
Small greys shot in summer mulberry are the best. Fox squirrels are fit for boiling first, then frying or roasting.
Shot and skinned/ate thousands over the decades. I killed almost 300 one year when we had a migration! At times I quartered them and merely cut off "hams, shoulders and discarded the back, etc. as few eat them today.
After frost is best as they don't have "wooves" where worms are burrowed in their meat!
Roasted over fires on Elm sticks, ala weinie roasts, adds flavor to any camp! :results:
IF YOU can find any old rem/win/fed 22 sh HP's please send them to me!!! I will gladly buy!
I honestly believe the barking came from saving the lead AND not shooting up the delicious tounge and brains? A low belly shot doesn't mess up good meat either.
An ancient lady showed me how to skin sq's in a few seconds. If the hide isn't wanted.
She made a slit across the back just in front of the tail and slapped he foot on the tail as she pulled off "the "shirt. Holding the skin up around the head (inside out, now, she pulled off his "breeches". She could do this incredibly fast and merely had to sever the paws, skin and all, discard the head, as we eat brains no more, and gut and clean.
Small greys shot in summer mulberry are the best. Fox squirrels are fit for boiling first, then frying or roasting.
Shot and skinned/ate thousands over the decades. I killed almost 300 one year when we had a migration! At times I quartered them and merely cut off "hams, shoulders and discarded the back, etc. as few eat them today.
After frost is best as they don't have "wooves" where worms are burrowed in their meat!
Roasted over fires on Elm sticks, ala weinie roasts, adds flavor to any camp! :results:
Guest
I love a good squirrel mulligan, and biscuits or cornbread cooked in a dutch oven over the coals.
when my son was only 4 years old i took him "squirrel hunting" with my dad. he carried his little toy gun and we our scatter guns. We killed 3 or two squirrels just before dark. I had brought some yard bird pieces, taters and carrots and onions and a big dutch oven pot. As we were skinning the squirrels he asked "Daddy, why you makin' those squirrels nekkid?" i told him we were fixin' to eat 'em and we didn't want to get the hair in our teeth. when that pot of stew was finally ready to eat i ladled him up a batch and he sat there eatin' like any hungry man would with a special attention to his food and he said with a grin "Daddy, this is the best squirrel stew i've ever had!" course it was the first he had had, but that didn't matter. We still remember that to this day almost twenty years later.
when my son was only 4 years old i took him "squirrel hunting" with my dad. he carried his little toy gun and we our scatter guns. We killed 3 or two squirrels just before dark. I had brought some yard bird pieces, taters and carrots and onions and a big dutch oven pot. As we were skinning the squirrels he asked "Daddy, why you makin' those squirrels nekkid?" i told him we were fixin' to eat 'em and we didn't want to get the hair in our teeth. when that pot of stew was finally ready to eat i ladled him up a batch and he sat there eatin' like any hungry man would with a special attention to his food and he said with a grin "Daddy, this is the best squirrel stew i've ever had!" course it was the first he had had, but that didn't matter. We still remember that to this day almost twenty years later.
