# Squirrel hunting



## alleyyooper (Sep 5, 2011)

Back many years ago when My brother and I started hunting by our selves we hunted squirrels walking thru hard woods with our shot guns. We would get a few but it took nearly the whole day.
Then one year while sitting by a big old beech tree deer hunting I watched a lot of squirrels running around the area and even had them near run me over. The ligh bulb lit up big time.
After deer season was over and squirrel season was still open I grabbed my Remington Nylon 66 22 and a pocket full of shells and revisted that beech tree. If memory serves me right I missed a bunch but also collected a bunch of them for a decent squirrel stew.
Since then that is how I hunt squirrels, no longer have that old 66 that was stolen from me but I have a real nice Rugar 77-22 with a good 3x9 scope on it. If I cut notches for every squirrel I shot with it it wouldn't have a stock left.
Eighteen years ago I got a choclate Lab puppy I trained to retrieve. She would go in the squirrel woods with me and lay down next to me while I sat and shot. After I had a few down I would send her out to retreve them. She hunted with me like that for 16 years then one day she said I can't go any longer. Just stood in the back yard and watched me go off into the the woods.
I still hunt them like that today but retreave my own self and shoot a bunch with the camera instead of the rifle.












 Al


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## alleyyooper (Sep 7, 2011)

Squirrel Stew 

3 squirrels, cleaned and cut up
~ 1/4 cup all purpose flour
~ 1 teaspoon salt
~ 1/2 teaspoon pepper
~ 2 slices bacon
~ 2 tablespoons butter
~ 5 cups of water
~ 1 - 28 oz can whole tomatoes
~ 1 chopped onion
~ 1 heaping tablespoon of brown sugar
~ 2 potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
~ 1 - 10 oz package frozen lima beans
~ 1 cup frozen corn
~ 3 tablespoons all purpose flour 


Combine 1/4 cup flour, salt and pepper. Coat the squirrel pieces.

In a Dutch oven, combine bacon and butter over medium heat until butter melts. Add squirrel and brown.

Add water, tomatoes, onion and brown sugar and bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Remove squirrel pieces and let cool. Remove meat from bones.

Add meat, potatoes, beans and corn to Dutch oven. Heat to boiling, reduce heat and cover. Simmer until potatoes are tender.

Mix 3 tablespoons of flour with 3 tablespoons of cold water, then stir into stew. Heat to boiling. 

Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened, bubbly.

Serve with warm rolls and enjoy! 


 Al


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## alleyyooper (Sep 7, 2011)

Bacon-Fried Squirrel 

4 x young squirrels each cut 6 to 8 pieces 
1/2 tsp salt 
1/2 tsp freshly-ground black pepper 
1/2 tsp garlic powder 
1/4 cup all-purpose flour 
8 slc bacon chopped 
1/4 cup onion sliced 
2 x celery stalks sliced 
1 tbl fresh rosemary leaves minced 
2 tsp lemon juice 
1 cup chicken broth 
4 cup warm cooked rice 

Directions: 

Combine salt, pepper, garlic powder and flour. Dredge squirrels in flour mixture.
Cook bacon in a heavy skillet over medium heat until browned. Fry squirrel pieces in bacon grease until medium brown. Add remaining ingredients and reduce heat to simmer. Cover and cook for about 1 1/2 hours or until squirrel pieces are tender.
Serve with warm rice. 

Servings: 4 

 Al


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## alleyyooper (Sep 7, 2011)

Ingredients: 

2 young squirrels, dressed whole and halved 
2 crushed bay leaves 
1/2 c. thick honey 
1 pt. apple cider 
1 tbsp. cornstarch, mixed with 2 tbsp. water 

Directions: 

Wipe squirrel halves dry and lay on broil rack. Coat completely with honey. Broil about 6 inches from heat for 8 minutes. Turn, coat again with honey, and broil 8 minutes more. Transfer to large, shallow baking dish or bottom of roaster. Pour in the cider and add bay leaves. Place in preheated 350 degree oven and roast for 1 hour or until meat is well down. Transfer to serving platter and keep warm. Strain pan juices into saucepan over medium heat thicken with the cornstarch mixture. Serve on side.

Servings: 4 


 Al


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## John Ellison (Sep 7, 2011)

Alleyyooper, you should get you a squirrel dog pup. Its a heck of a thrill seeing a young dog tree their first game.View attachment 198274

Looks like some good recipes, will be trying them.


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## alleyyooper (Sep 8, 2011)

When I can walk into the woods just a few feet from the house and shoot a limit of squirrels in one sitting I don't have a use for a treeing dog. I could how ever use my Vislua to do that if I cared to. She hunts any thing even though she is my pointing bird dog. A rescuded mutt of the litter my friend was told to get rid of and could not bring is self to *get rid of*the way get rid of was ment to be. 
He got rid of her and I got one of the best hunting dogs I have ever owned although I wish she retreved too.

 Al


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## John Ellison (Sep 8, 2011)

Yep, I know what you mean. This time of the year I would do better without the dog(too many leaves) but it just isnt as fun to me if the dog is not involved.


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## indiansprings (Sep 8, 2011)

We enjoy hunting squirrels. I bought the boys a jack russell terrier about 7 years ago, he is a squirrel hunting machine. The oldest son just bought a blue tick hound pup, we'll start him treeing squirrels before transitioning to coon. We use .22 long rifles to hunt the hairy tailed rats. I use a Winchester 52 sporter with an old 4 power weaver with the post and cross hair reticle, the boys use Winchester model 61 pumps.
We only count them if they are shot in the head, we have a couple older gentlemen in their 70's who take all we can kill. It is alot of fun, we enjoy watching the dogs work as much as anything. We also shoot very few greys, we try to only take reds. When I was a kid I would save all the tails and mail them to the Mepps fishing lure company, they gave 10 cents a tail, when a box of shells was .40 cents and a stamp cost a dime it was a good way to pay for ammo.


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## dingeryote (Sep 9, 2011)

Got the 10/22 ready to go, and waiting. 6 more days till open season.

Just have to walk about 150 yds to a giant old White oak surrounded by Red oaks.
Using a rifle while the leaves are on, keeps things sporting, and the odds in the critters favor.
Half the time they end up cracking me up to the point I gotta let them pass. 

There is one Fox squirrel that hangs close to the house amnesty zone, that will be dropped into the pot first.
He keeps bullying the other squirrels, and has tried to break into the Garage more than once...he's gotta get whacked, not hunted.
I'm gonna let Sam, our Belgian, finally get ahold of him. He's put up with the Varmint for a couple years now, and deserves to get a good shake in. 

Stay safe!
Dingeryote


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## alleyyooper (Sep 9, 2011)

We used to have about all the red faze of fox squirrels seen in the above pictures. The last couple of years we have been seeing more of the grey faze foxes. The wife thought she saw a black fazed one in the oak tree out our living room window a few days ago.I was told that one was protected, by the act of woman.
We have a few of the tiny red squirrels nasty buggers that cause big problems. They found a way in the travel trailer we had at deer camp in the UPPER one year. Sure made a mess of it chewing holes in the cieling and side panaling. I declaired war on them so in the summer when we were there I was shooting them putting them in the fire pit to burn the next time we fired it up. They kept dissapearing form the pit the year we built the cabin.
We decided to build a perment cabin there, lumber was delivered and tarped till needed. Went out one morning to remove the tarp for the loft flooring and there was a weasle under that tarp with a stock pile of those red squirrels I had shot the last couple of days.
I like weasles but don't have chickens to worry about.

 Al


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## Buckshot00 (Sep 11, 2011)

Good story. I bought a remington nylon 66 with the chrome plating back in '79 and still have it. Haven't shot it in years.


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## Steve NW WI (Sep 11, 2011)

Grew up with a Nylon 66, it didn't fare well when our house burned down when I was about 15. I'd like to have another one someday just for nostalgia purposes.

These days, a 597 heavy barrel with a 6x18 target scope and bipod is the squirrel slayer of choice. I've got a 511 bolt gun with open sights that I take out when I feel like making the squirrels' odds better (much better LOL). I'm getting to the point where I might well take the camera hunting as well, don't need to kill everything in sight anymore.

Got a 8 month old Lab mix that loves to retrieve, we shall see how she likes fetching beady eyed bushy tailed tree rats soon. Small game opens Saturday here in WI as well.

Yoop, those recipes have me drooling!


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## PasoRoblesJimmy (Sep 12, 2011)

I never go camping in the national forest during quail or squirrel hunting season without a dutch oven. Dig a hole. Burn wood down to a nice bed of coals. Put the dutch oven in the hole an cover it with coals. Makes fine eating.


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## alleyyooper (Sep 12, 2011)

I agree it would be nice to replace that Nylon 66 because I do feel it was a real good rifle back in the day for the price. Problem with that is at the prices they are getting for used one is stupid high in my option.

 Al


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## deeker (Sep 12, 2011)

Going to chase a few greys and fox in the next two weeks.


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## PasoRoblesJimmy (Sep 13, 2011)

alleyyooper said:


> I agree it would be nice to replace that Nylon 66 because I do feel it was a real good rifle back in the day for the price. Problem with that is at the prices they are getting for used one is stupid high in my option.
> 
> Al


 
Too bad it was taken out of production. A friend let me do target practice with his Nylon 66. It is light and handy and I was amazed of how accurate it was.

I hunt squirrels with a Remington 541S target barrel, bolt action rifle equipped with a Bushnell 3-9x30mm full size riflescope. In black bear country with aggressive and belligerent bears, I carry a Remington 1100 semi-auto 12 gauge with a few rifled slugs for self-protection.


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## indiansprings (Sep 13, 2011)

+1 on the Nylon 66, one of my all time favorites, I still have one to carry when coon hunting, they are so light. I've never had it jam/mis-feed in all the years I've had it. I wish they still made it. 

I've been putting on a metal roof on my MIL's house which is surrounded by walnut trees, I've been seeing a ton of squirrels gathering up the walnuts, they sit there and scold me most of the time. They don't realize I'm creating a target folder on each one of them. I'm lucky in that the MIL hates the red squirrels, they get into her chicken feed, and she thinks they are mean to the little grey squirrels so I'll get to eliminate them. It's been kind of nice being up on the peak of the roof the last several evenings, you can overlook the about 3/4 mile of creek bottom. From that vantage point I've been able to watch several deer go into our milo food plots and watch beaver working on their dam.


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## Fifelaker (Sep 16, 2011)

I have 2 nylon 66's one apache black and one mohak brown. The black has a 2X7 weaver the brown open sights. Alot of kids and a few adults had there first experence with these guns. I have fired many thousands of rounds through these with few hang ups. one of remingtons better .22's.


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