Squirrels this morning

Good shooting'..........I've noticed the same thing...lots of squirrels this year.

Squirrels are very thin around here. I think the drought has done a number of the food supply. We had so much rain earlier this spring, (got no peaches at all) then none to speak up since. Trees are turning brown and dropping leaves to stay alive. Fire bans in effect for most of East Texas. There were a few areas that got some good rain last week. You know it's bad when even the weeds are brown.

Looks like someone going to have a good meal. The grays have pretty much ran off all the reds in this area.

Numbers seem to be up, here in the woods. But, squirrel season is open all year around. It's been so hot, I haven't chased any lately. Shot one a while back just waking through the woods, but I wasn't really hunting, just going out to check my game camera.

We have lots of rabbits, too, and there's no closed season on THEM, either, but I don't like shooting 'em in hot months.

Just kinda curious about the large males. I've been told they aren't much good to eat, but I'd rather have some feedback in this regard from people that actually shoot and eat the little critters.
I got on a binge a few years back and shot a bunch of them. I had enough to fill a pretty good sized cooler and my cousin was saying how much she liked squirrel, so I emptied out my freezer of squirrels and gave them all to her. I've eaten some other people fixed and they were good, but never knew which gender I was eating.

He's got two species in that picture. The little one on the right with the white belly is a grey squirrel AKA around here "cat" squirrel. The red ones get bigger, are red squirrel AKA fox squirrels.

Bigger ones, no matter the sex, I like for stews. The smaller ones I'll fry. I do the same with rabbits. The bigger ones are fine, just a little tougher and the crock pot will make danged near anything fall off the bone.

We have both kinds up in my end of the state as well. I guess I need to start taking a few and do some experimenting. I always have buckets of corn in the back of my truck sitting outside my back door, and there is usually some right there. We have no shortage of them around here.

In east Texas the greys, cat squirrel are prized. You find more of 'em than the reds down in the bottoms. I've always wondered about WHY they seemed to prize the greys, but they do fry up more tender. The reds have more meat on 'em, though, and make great stews. You'll generally find more reds up on the high uplands, but I've always found that the bottoms offered the best hunting. East Texas is ate up with squirrel and they do have a season for 'em, during deer season in the fall and a spring season in May. Most of Texas has no closed season. I think this is because they're more popular to hunt in east Texas.

Want some good hunting? Find a pecan orchard that the owner will let you thin the squirrel off of.

BTW, if you're anywhere near Dibol, there's a state WMA there that is AWESOME squirrel hunting down on the Neches river in the bottoms.

Good start to the morning, Longhunter1700.

I haven't noticed any uptick in population around our area in Southern IL. I find more grays than reds, but the reds definitely get bigger.

I've missed the whole month of August. Need to fix that.

To me, squirrels are the best wild game for taste. I've eaten everything from bears to rabbits and squirrels are the best. There is zero difference between males and females. Grays are a bit more tender than reds. The older reds just need an extra half hour in the oven and they can be fall-off-the-bone tender. It's rare to find aa tough gray.

What rifle is that? I like it!

If you have mature older squirrels and don't want to make stew or noodles with them, put them in the crock pot or even into a regular pot, add chicken stock and whatever spices you like. Cook them until you can stick a fork through them, remove roll them in seasoned flour and fry them to a golden brown in a cast iron skillet. Personally I toss them into the crock pot overnight, pick the meat off the bones, sweet talk my wife into making gravy with the stock and adding in the squirrel meat, ladle it over some fresh biscuits and enjoy. Dog gone I am hungry right now. Will be a while yet befor I can go out and collect a few.

Deer is hard t find where I go hunting. However, there are lots is squirrels. Think I will start the season hunting them. Do they BBQ well?

Only BBQed one once but it was on an open fire and was very hungry, pretty good at the time. Probably not so much now.

They are very good fried however, basically like chicken wings. Flour and some cayenne pepper seasoned to taste. Pan or deep fry, whatever you're set up for.

I don't chase them like I used to but still a good time with friends. I like to find a likely spot and set up with a rifle or shotgun depending on leaves and safety.

I will say I hate hunting them in the height of summer because of bugs, I just finished up my first round of antibiotics for what the docs believe to be Lyme disease. However they are the most available and fun animal to hunt. It's a shame more hunters don't start off on tree rats as kids.

HB

Sheepdog1968 said:

Deer is hard t find where I go hunting. However, there are lots is squirrels. Think I will start the season hunting them. Do they BBQ well?

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No they're usually too tough.

But if you quarter them, put em in a pan covered in bbq sauce and bake for awhile they get tender and delicious

and I thought I was the only one that hunted squirrels! I been hunting them for years and really enjoy eating them. I use shotgun when leaves are on the trees and once leaves are gone I use a 22 rifle.

I haven't seen a squirrel around here all summer, my pecan trees are thick with pecans this year. Don't know what happened to them this year.

As a teenager I patroled a lane between standing corn and woods in the fall.The squirrels would be up on the corn stalks chewing on the ears.They would hear me and dash across the lane to the woods.I used a Winchester model 12 12 guage to take snap shots.Granddad helped me skin them and grandmom cooked them.

Tree rats are plentiful around here too. We have both species.