First WA squirrel

[lokidog]

Picked off this little bugger just as we were serving up dinner.  Usually, they just run around on the ground but this one ran up a tree and sat there on the side of it for... too long.... 

They have slowly been expanding their range across the island and I really don't want them to establish around my place.

After it dropped in the brush, I sent Amber (my doggie) in to fetch it.  She did not see it fall, but knew something was there for her when I sent her into the brush.  After one false start and a redirect, she sniffed it out and fetched it to hand.

Time to skin it up for the slow cooker and serve as an hors d'ouvre tomorrow as no one else here has ever tried squirrel.

[hollymaster]

Might get a couple bites. 

[Axle]

 

[Bill W]

I hunted (and ate) squirrels back in PA.

[Brushcrawler]

 Crock pot and buffalo wing sauce. Good eating!

[pianoman9701]

Squirrel is really good battered and deep fried. Chicken of the Trees. Oh yeah, baby.

[kselkhunter]

Yep.  We ate a lot of fried gray squirrel in my youth.  Fried chicken, pretty much.  Especially on the day hunts.  Big game hunt in the morning, then on the way home stop by an area that held plenty of squirrel, quail, and grouse to shoot dinner and pull out the shotguns and 22s. 

[CP]

Nasty varmints.  You don’t want them to get established if you can help it.  My neighborhood is infested with them.  Some of the neighbors feed them so the bury peanuts in my yard, gutters, flower pots etc.  They chew the deck rails, eat all my cherries and strawberries before they can ripen.  They eat the nesting bird’s eggs and chicks.  Pretty much have displaced the indigenous squirrel population.

[Wacenturion]

Grew up hunting squirrels on my Grandfather and uncle's farm in eastern Iowa as a kid.  Hunted them as a young man in South Carolina while stationed at Charleston AFB.  I always thought of squirrel hunting as the big game hunting of the small game world.

Best way I found, especially for older squirrels who are tougher, was to quarter, boil for a certain amount of time, put on rack with seasoning and or bbq sauce and finish in oven.  Literally falls off the bone.

[lokidog]

The introduced gray squirrel and white-footed deer mouse are our only rodents on the island.  I'm mixed on the squirrels as another hunting opportunity is always nice, but these dang squirrels would be hard to hunt as they rarely seem to tree when they are spooked.  Plus, they've already eaten the foam out of the seat of one of my tree stands....

[NRA4LIFE]

That's a dandy.  Kill them all.

[Fl0und3rz]

Seems a pretty straightforward solution to me.

https://www.youtube.com/user/squirrelhuntertv

[Skyvalhunter]

I say do a full body mount on that one..

[DOUBLELUNG]

Thick tail, punkin head, I'm guessing a fully mature boar.  Hopefully the B&C scorer can get a full score off the skull despite the head shot.  Congrats!

[James]

My father has been hammering the grey squirrels in his neighborhood in recent years. I think he is making a dent because we are seeing more and more of the native squirrels. Up until he started I am not sure if we saw one every 10 years, now you can see them most days.