Cleaned my first squirrel today...

[zachomega]

I watched a bunch of videos beforehand.

And cleaned my first squirrel.

The worst part of it was dealing with mosquitoes.

I've heard squirrels have tough hides but until you are pulling one off, you don't appreciate that. I used the slit perpendicular to the spine mid back and insert 2 fingers from each hand and pull method.

However, i managed to get a fair amount of hair on the meat. Next time I'll wet the squirrel first. I hear that helps? Any tricks other than patience to get the hair off of the meat? Soaking it and rinsing it has gotten most of it. But there are still some holdout hairs. I realize the best strategy is to avoid getting the hairs on the meat in the first place.

I also used a pair of gerber shears to cut the feet, tail, and head off as well as cut the meat into the portioned sections. They worked incredibly well.

I had a bit of trouble getting the guts to all come out. Particularly the stuff hidden behind the ribs. I cut through the ribs and this helped but at the top of the spine behind the ribs, i just cut a bunch of it out because it didn't look like the videos i had seen.

I don't think i wasted too much even though i errored on the side of scrap if i wasn't sure.

Bone in but portioned meat weighed 14 oz.

-Zach

[streaker69]

Not what I was thinking....

[gghbi]

Now you need a good recipe for squirrel pot pie!

[zachomega]

Now you need a good recipe for squirrel pot pie!

https://practicalselfreliance.com/tr...runswick-stew/

-Zach

[Hodgie]

I watched a bunch of videos beforehand.

And cleaned my first squirrel.

The worst part of it was dealing with mosquitoes.

I've heard squirrels have tough hides but until you are pulling one off, you don't appreciate that. I used the slit perpendicular to the spine mid back and insert 2 fingers from each hand and pull method.

However, i managed to get a fair amount of hair on the meat. Next time I'll wet the squirrel first. I hear that helps? Any tricks other than patience to get the hair off of the meat? Soaking it and rinsing it has gotten most of it. But there are still some holdout hairs. I realize the best strategy is to avoid getting the hairs on the meat in the first place.

I also used a pair of gerber shears to cut the feet, tail, and head off as well as cut the meat into the portioned sections. They worked incredibly well.

I had a bit of trouble getting the guts to all come out. Particularly the stuff hidden behind the ribs. I cut through the ribs and this helped but at the top of the spine behind the ribs, i just cut a bunch of it out because it didn't look like the videos i had seen.

I don't think i wasted too much even though i errored on the side of scrap if i wasn't sure.

Bone in but portioned meat weighed 14 oz.

-Zach

Tail method is by far the fastest and easiest with zero hair on your meat once you get it down, and game shears are great.

[Hodgie]

Same tail method done in less then a minute.

[Hoppy]

This is the video that helped me a few years back. He explains what he's doing well.
Nice job hunting. I usually wait for a good frost before going out for small game. I've been out for dove only so far this year.

[ar15jules]

I love squirrel....enjoy!

[zachomega]

Looks like i have some videos to watch. Hodgie, i tried to rep you but i have to spread the love first.

-Zach

[TooBigToFit]

If you do the tail method, sooner is better. Do it later on and you tend to just pull the hair off of the tail.