Squirrels

[doug krueger]

#3038

Anyone ever eat an Abert squirrel? Or a Pine squirrel. I cant find any rabbits to shoot at and I want to hunt! I also eat what I shoot and am just curious if it is even worth it.

Thanks

DK

[paleoman]

#15913

Heck, with Chefs and exotic ingredients all the rage (I do watch Chopped!) I’m sure you could make a real festival out of one:P You won’t have much competition that’s for sure.

[Ralph]

#15928

We substitute the chicken with squirrel, no mass type squirrel, in chicken and rice casserole. Slow cooking makes them tender. Good with rabbit or pheasant or quail, any small game. Hopefully after tomorrow we’ll try some wild turkey breast.:D

[William Warren]

#16112

A quick study on the net turned up information on both squirrels. The Pine Squirrel is our smallest squirrel and may not be worth the effort unless they are easy to bag and you can get enough to make a meal. The Abert is a larger squirrel closer to the size of our grey squirrel. This is the one I would go after if they are plentiful and legal to hunt. If these are anything like our greys they should be a challenge. Good luck and post some pics of your hunt.

[archer38]

#16126

We have loads of Red Squirrels here in Ontario. They’re not legal to hunt here though. Only Blacks and Greys. Can’t imagine they’d be worth hunting anyway. The Abert, I’ve never even heard of it until now. Looks a bit more substantial.

My Mom used to make meat pies with the squirrels and pigeon we’d shoot when I was younger. Hope you whack a pile of ’em !!

[doug krueger]

#16647

I will let you guys know how I do. Thanks

DK

[Doc Nock]

#21380

If Pine Squirrels are those li’l red mischief makers that ostensibly chase off greys, amid other more vile behaviors on male greys reportedly, I can say that at least ONE of them tasted like drinking turpentine!

I hit one with a rock… I never could throw anything and hit it, but it was pestering me on Mt. Helena above that city’s town amidst a lovely afternoon stroll and irritated my solitude. I picked up a stone and heaved it, boinking it square in the head to it’s unexpected demise.

I felt bad, took the piker home and skinned, soaked in salt water and tried to eat it… I never tasted anything so awful in my life! It was as I’d imagine sucking on pine sap would taste… The friend’s dog wouldn’t touch it!

While they were always giving away great stalks in elk country in MT, I never was tempted to air my irritations at them again.

I surely hope it was an isolated situation! For your palate’s sake!:lol:8)

[David Petersen]

#21399

Doug– so you done et up all that bull elk you killed in Sept? You must have some serious carnivores at your house!

I have heard a few, very few, folks claim that pine squirrel is OK. My experience agrees with the opinions above–they are too tiny to justify killing for food unless they were a seriously delicious delicacy. Which they are NOT. I forced myself to eat one once, long ago, in penance for killing it for no good reason other than anger because it wouldn’t shut up and was ruining an elk hunt. It was one of those, “Oh hell! Now why did I do that?” immediate regret situations. So I built a little fire on the spot and cooked and ate it … if it had been more than a couple of bites I couldn’t have choked it down. Really bitter, dry and disgusting. Of course you can make almost any meat edible by jerking it or in various spicy concoctions.

While I’ve not eaten an Abert’s (aka tassel-eared squirrel), I’ve been told they eat just fine. But they are rare around here if no way endangered–abundant in some prime young Ponderosa forests and totally absent everywhere else thus scarce overall–and so remarkably “dumb” when it comes to survival I’m amazed they aren’t extinct. You can have one eating from your hand in no time, which we’ve done here back when they were here. And to my eyes they’re the most gorgeous of all squirrels, esp. the black variety that lives only in the high Ponderosa forests of the North Rim Grand Canyon. I could never kill one unless in a survival situation.

Bottom line is that I’ve always considered this a non-squirrel hunting area due to lack of suitable species, which I miss a lot, as I grew up hunting and eating fox and grays. We haven’t had a good cottontail pop here since the fires 11 years ago, even in areas that didn’t burn. And the bunny cycle is supposed to be 8 years. I seriously miss hunting and eating them but don’t think I’ll ever resort to local squirrels. I’d much rather shoot and eat carp from Navajo Reservoir, if it came to that. And it will be a very hungry day indeed before it comes to that.

[Doc Nock]

#21411

David,

What a great treatise and proof positive why YOU’RE the writer and not me…I laughed aloud reading your narrative.

You have a way with words, David!

I soaked mine, parboiled it with garlic and parsely and then tried to fry it… OMG! I’m pretty sure eating CROW would have to be better!

[David Petersen]

#21436

Actually, Doc, I thought some of the references in your version of a similar story, like turpentine, brought the bitter point home far more sharply than my wordiness. But at this point I think Doug should kill and eat a pine so we can see how he chooses to describe it’s … flavor? For the past many years I’ve enjoyed an unspoken truce with pine squirrels that live around my favorite regular ambush spots. They just flat totally ignore me, as if I’m just another old bear bedded down for a few hours. They don’t sit on my hat like the chipmunks do, but they often run over me, bouncing off a knee or leg. But in the very rare instances another hunter is sitting in the same place, the truce is off. After over an hour of relentless heckling by a pine a few years ago, Alex Bugnon lost his jazzy cool and nailed it to a tree as it was running down headfirst. That big single-bevel Brown Bear shut it right up, let me tell you. Both halves of it. Alex, alas, did not do his duty and eat it. 😛

[Doc Nock]

#21591

LOL, David,

Actually you have chippies run over you and piney’s bounce off your body? That is a hoot!

My new nemesis are chippies…stinking things make that clicky sound for an hour if I but move in a stand one inch! Grrrrr! I’m pretty sure even a .22 LR would not make it to where they were if I shot at one, let alone an arrow!

I’d read Piney’s would chase and castrate a grey squirrel and run them all clean out of the territory… cause when Piney’s moved in, Grey’s disappeared, so I thought it possibly gospel, but don’t know for sure.

You are quite the “ghost” if they just tolerate your presence…great line that alex didn’t do his duty and eat his halved critter! 😆

I’d say such a running shot would excuse otherwise less stellar behavior!

[Mark Middleton]

#21617

I just cooked up some abert’s squirrels for the first time 2 weeks ago. I quartered them and cooked them in a skillet with some olive oil and butter and they were really good, although a little tough. I’m sure there are ways to prepare them so that they aren’t so tough, but flavor wise they are very good and certainly worth the effort.

[Doc Nock]

#21621

A bit of aging the meat in the fridge doesn’t hurt, and par-boiling (Partially boiling for 20 min) can help… but letting strong muscled critters age some really helps out…

We have a phrase here for our January rabbits…we call them “bubble gum rabbits” that defy seeming to make them as tender and tasty as they normally are once cold and snow settles in… no clue why.

[doug krueger]

#22153

Guys,

Sounds like its a good idea to avoid the pine squirrel. Abert season opens the 15th I believe and I see plenty of them while I am turkey hunting. And I believe Dave when he says their population is on the downward trend, I dont think they have much to worry about as I am not a great shot and just looking for something to do until the lakes ice up. Thanks for all the input.

DK

[Doc Nock]

#22162

Looks like the “Daves” (Petersen and Landis) screwed the pooch for finding out if anyone else agrees Piney Squirrels taste like…well, Pine Pitch! 🙁

Oh, well….:shock:

I’m sure Doug you will have a grand time chasing them other kind…

BTW, them red piney things can tie up a few nice flies! 😮

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