squirrels and traditional pocket knives

If you've got a few hairs on the meat, you can singe them off quickly with a propane torch. Although I don't know about burning the hair off of the whole squirrel like I've been reading about where the guy set the place afire. :p
 
Modoc ED said:
Nice story. That's a good peaceful way to pass time while hunting squirrels.

300Bucks - After you make the slits in the squirrels skin (around the tail and legs) in order to skin it, wet the squirrel down with water before pulling the skin/hide off. The wet hair will stick to the pelt and not get all over the carcass.
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Hey... now there's a heckuva good idea. Sometimes the easiest solutions are the best. Thanks!

Robert
 
One other thing about skining a squirrel or any other game for that matter- don't have your knife too sharp.

Yes I siad that. Sometimes we can get carried away with the hair whittling, shaving the leg of a knat thing. A knife can be too sharp, or actually to put it right, too smooth. If you're going to be slicing through hair, membrane, and tissue, a toothy edge works better. Those old timers I saw in my youth never had sharp makers, edge pro's or any other wonder gizmo. But they did have an old dished in 'carborundum' stone and the back of a belt. The edges they had were sharp, but would just manage to shave arm hair. But it would cut through wet bloody fur and under tissue like you wouldn't believe. Next time you go squirrel hunting, use the bottom of a coffee mug to touch up your knife and don't go any sharper.
about a 300 to 500 grit is good.

Carl.
 
I too was in the woods squirrel hunting/whittling on Saturday. Sat for an hour or so and tried my hand at a wood spirit.
I didn't fire a shot, but had a great afternoon loafing around the walnut trees.

Thanks for the tips Modoc and Jackknife!
 
I wonder if your squirrels is the same reed rats that climb around the treas here. I have taken down a few to protect my barns from them living inside making a lot of damage and in the old days the pelth was valuable but i have never heard them to be eaten in this parts of the world.

Jackknife Has exteamly much wisdom in that post. I never keep my huntingknifes as sharp as my EDC slipjoints. Easy to damage the hides and no real point eather as he skinning dulls them rather quickly anyway. Just about shaving armhair or even hang to the finger nail is actually good enough and keeps the thin edge from rolling and make the knife less usefull.

Cant stand my EDC knifes that little sharp though and as I rather often use them for animals and fishes I know that also a SHARP knife is possible to use for the line of work ;)

Bosse
 
Until I started around here, I was never inspired to put a mirror edge on my knife edge. This has been debated much around this site, so I will say that FOR ME, I find a less polished edge more useful and less prone to damage. The only highly polished edge goes on the blade that cuts my cigars.

The rest of my knives I get to about 600 gr, sometimes a bit higher, then a bit of green compound on a strop for a few quick swipes and I am done. Now my edges suit me better again. I tried the other way for a couple of years and the mirror edge just didn't work for me across the board.

Cutting flesh and skin is much easier for me with a bit toothier edge. I use my Old Hickory carbon butcher knives to cut pork loins for the freezer, and I use an old classic patterned carbon knife I rehandled (maker unknown) to cut up chickens, pork butts, etc., and both of them are run over a 600 gr diamond steel before using. They whistle through their cutting chores and hang onto the edge a long time. The same with my classic patterned Chef's knife that does most of the other kitchen duties.

I hadn't thought of it until Carl brought it up, but one of my favorite old hunting knives that I used for years was a Schrade Golden Spike. The carbon steel was pretty soft and it sharpened easily. Besides the outstanding shape for dismantling bigger game, the great thing about that knife was that it came with a small carborundum stone in a pocket on the sheath. The stone was pretty aggressive, but with the lightest possible strokes you could easily have the sharpest knife in the camp. It was great to sit at the camp fire and tune up the edge with that little stone the day before the hunt. While that little stone was too coarse for my folders, it was a perfect marriage for that Golden Spike.

Robert
 
Carl is dead-on in his assessment of knife edges for hunting knives! And Bo, I ate a LOT of squirrels growing up! They constituted a large portion of the meat consumed by my family each Fall where I grew up in Southern Indiana in the hills.

Regards,
Ron
 
jackknife said:
One other thing about skining a squirrel or any other game for that matter- don't have your knife too sharp.

Yes I siad that. Sometimes we can get carried away with the hair whittling, shaving the leg of a knat thing. A knife can be too sharp, or actually to put it right, too smooth. If you're going to be slicing through hair, membrane, and tissue, a toothy edge works better. Those old timers I saw in my youth never had sharp makers, edge pro's or any other wonder gizmo. But they did have an old dished in 'carborundum' stone and the back of a belt. The edges they had were sharp, but would just manage to shave arm hair. But it would cut through wet bloody fur and under tissue like you wouldn't believe. Next time you go squirrel hunting, use the bottom of a coffee mug to touch up your knife and don't go any sharper.
about a 300 to 500 grit is good.

Carl.
Click to expand...

I don't think this is what you meant, but I sharpened my buddies hunting knife. I went all out and made it as scary sharp as I could. He told me it was WAY TOO SHARP. He said it was cutting anything it even came near and it was making it difficult to do a clean job. Whatever that means.

Kevin
 
richstag said:
I don't think this is what you meant, but I sharpened my buddies hunting knife. I went all out and made it as scary sharp as I could. He told me it was WAY TOO SHARP. He said it was cutting anything it even came near and it was making it difficult to do a clean job. Whatever that means.

Kevin
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If you're slitting the skin around the tail to start skinning it and your knife slips and punctures the anus and lower intestine you've got ruined meat and a not so clean job! That's what "making it difficult to do a clean job" means.

I don't think a knife can be too sharp - you just have to be careful when using it. I do like a sharp grabby edge though.
 
Thanks, Ed, thats probably what he meant. He said something about when he cut the belly open too. I knew he was going to be using for field dressing deer so I made it super sharp, but also VERY aggressive with very fine micro serrations. I think maybe you hit the nail on the head. Maybe he just wasn't used to being careful enough.

Thanks for the insider info, ED :)
 
The smaller gray squirrels get fried, the Fox squirrels get thrown in the crock-pot.
 
Frying them or cooking them in a crock-pot will work as said above. You can also boil them up, mix up some dumplings, add a touch of bacon grease and away you go. I like to brown them befre putting them in a crock-pot.
 
Or you can cok them up with some corn, lima/butter beans, okra, tomatoes, potatoes, in a tomato based Brunswick stew. That was a fall traditional dish when I was growing up. When the leaves start to turn and the air gets cool, Grandma always had a pot on the stove on a regular basis. A chilly evening, a hot bowl of stew and fresh baked bread was a slice of heaven.:thumbup:

Carl.
 
I won't eat any game meat but you guys seem to be loving how you cook it. I'm enjoying the thread but no game meat for this girl.
 
This is slipping into a "squirrel stew" thread folks. Let's get it back on track please. Thanks!
 
bladeblabber said:
how do ya'll like to cook your squirrels? I've always liked em' fried, but have put them in a crock pot to.
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Fried; save the grease and make gravy, put the put the gravy over the meat with it on biscuits. I'm glade I did the same with left over pork chops for breakfast or I would be getting hungry all over again!
 
ok to take moderator advice....

what knife works best for YOU when your skinning a squirrel?
for some reason a trapper comes to mind, but i bet my texas jack would do the job just fine :D
 
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