***GRAPHIC!!*** Cleaning a Squirrel

They say there's more than one way to skin a catfish - which is true. But +1 on peeling then gutting - it's just cleaner. Trying to get all the hairs off once they're stuck on the carcass is a chore. That tutorial is great but is better suited for deer IMHO.
 
mete said:
Why do you have to warn that it's graphic ???
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This is off topic, but ESPN showed a segment a couple of days ago about high school kids in Florida who chase rabbits through the sugar cane fields because they have nothing else to do. The announcer warned that it contained disturbing images. You know what those images were? It showed breaded rabbit pieces frying in a pan. That was it. Thats the kind of spineless, effeminate metrosexual world we live in now, where ESPN chooses to warn its viewers that they might see something horrible - a rabbit being fried in a skillet.

Thanks for listening. :thumbup:

Very good thread and link, CanDo.
 
Skillets don't scare and appal you???
 
mete said:
Why do you have to warn that it's graphic ??? It's titled 'cleaning a squirrel' you don't have to apologize to the squeemish ! Anyway when it's skinned , cut into pieces ,marinate in apple cider vinegar ,soy sauce ,onion.Then roast and eat !!
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Some may think of cleaning a squirrel as the thing you do with a bucket of water and shampoo.

Seriously though, most of these instructions just use drawings, so the blood might scare someone.
 
Some people don't have the iron stomach like mete. He thinks we're ALL as tough as he is. ;)

I just find the squirrel meat to be tough. :D
 
Seeing this thread reminds me of olden times when I was taught how to clean a rabbit with no tools. The scenario was that you were stranded out in the wilderness with nothing. First they taught us how to trap the rabbit. Then we learned the "butt blow" method of cleaning. Basically, you stretch and rip the anus, grab it by the head with one hand, wrap other hand around the neck just under first hand, then whilst slinging between your legs, squeeze and jerk downward with second hand. All of the insides shoot out through the anus. Then you just rip them the rest of the way out. Then a few hours later, they taught us flint napping. Talk about some backwards sh!t. hahaha. All of us were like "why the hell would we do all this when we can just make a cutting tool and clean it in a regular way?" The answer was "What if you had been starved, managed to escape, needed food for fuel in a hurry, and there was nothing around to make a cutting tool out of?" What was really amusing was that later on in the training, we actually did run into that situation. We escaped in pairs. My escape partner, West, and myself made sure we were in the clear. Then we found a large patch of dry tall grass, Made a quick torch and lit it with a bow drill, then we did a slow burn starting from the outside working our way in. There wasn't much visible smoke and we weren't going to be there very long anyways. After the whole patch was burned, we just walked around and picked up all the crispy critters and ate 'em like popcorn. Then we were on our way. Most of the other guys in the group told us about how they had tried to catch wild game and the ones who actually caught something talked about how sick they got after they ate it having to move and just having something that heavy after having nothing for days. Meanwhile, me and West are sitting there with smiles on our faces and munchin on some wild edibles we found that were still in our pockets. Ah, that takes me back. I think a couple of the guys training us were just making that sh!t up as they went.


Ok. Back on topic. Yeah, squirrel, good eats. Rodents and snakes are my favorite small game. The best thing I've ever killed, cleaned, and eaten myself was a gator. That was quite an experience.
 
Diamond Dog said:
Making a slit above the anus and just below the tail bone an inch or so, step on tail back of animal facing your or your leg, hold hind legs and pull straight up. You may have to work the skin off around the feet or head or cut off the feet and head then proceed to pull tail and skin off. I like this way a little better because I do not like to open up the squirrel with the fur still on. For me it is a little cleaner. Good info and tutorial there!
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This is how I learned to do it from my huntin' buddies in high school. They even had a couple of nails stuck into an outside wall of the barn near the hose spigot. After they skinned (as aboved), they would impale a leg on each nail, then open the cavity and scoop the guts with their fingers. Then they'd rinse it with the hose. It's kind of cool to see someone do a bunch of them at one time.
 
Squirrel is fantastic! Skin 'em, boil 'em, then fry 'em and make gravy with drippings and some flour and pepper. Can't beat it.
 
Squirrels have their hide epoxied on. Not easy as rabbits. They are good, though. Ever clean an armadillo?
 
I'm not sure about armadillo!! Believe it or not I sure want to try it. I don't leave no where near armadillo but everytime I see someone cooking them up I want to try it. Looks like white meat!
 
Fiddleback said:
Sorry, but my way is much easier. It doesn't preserve the hyde though (what the hell would you do with it anyway?).

1. Squirrel facing down pinch the skin of his back and make a cut just through the skin perpendicular to the spine.

2. Insert two index fingers into hole you made and pull the skin off the squirrel like you're peeling off a sweater and pants.

3. Cut off head, hands, feet, and tail.

4. At this point you're left with a carcas (most of the hair isn't attached to the meat because you didn't gut it first.

5. Gut and quarter, and put in a vat of icy salt water to soak.


This process takes ~1 minute per squirrel and leaves a hairless carcas.
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I've used this with rabbits (never squirrel) as well. Several popular fly patterns use squirrel tail... just a thought.
 
Hey all -

I'm Ethan from Klippe. I wrote the tutorial. Thanks for all the kind words, and for the constructive criticism as well. I've been finding many different tecniques ever since I wrote that article.

A few notes:
When I clean a squirrel, the pelt is number 1, before the meat. This is because it's pretty hard to significantly damage the meat, while the pelt can be ruined by one slip of the knife.
After I tan a pelt, I trim the edges, down to a thin strip of white and the fine red. This keeps them all relatively uniform, and some small bloodstains on the edges don't matter.

Anyways, thanks everybody! Klippe can always use more articles, and we can even have multiple methods for doing the same thing (like cleaning a squirrel!)

~Ethan
 
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