Squirrel Skinning Made Easy

[CJ5]

Strutter.........A rabbit hunting buddy of mine showed me that trick years ago. The first time I saw it, I was amazed. Works like a charm.

[Linc]

TTT

[Killdeer]

That video was done where I met the incredible shrinking squirrel!  

   

Killdeer  

[celticknot]

I had heard & read of this method. But i never could figure it out. WOW. Thatll cut about 10 minutes off my previous times.

[akbowbender]

I haven't shot a squirrel in a while, but if I do get one, I'll know what to do!

As far as saving the video to my harddrive, I found that when you view the video, a file is created in my /tmp directory. For this video, the file was FlashdH54NJ. I just copied this file to another location and named it something meaningful with a *.qt extension, such as Squirrel_Skinning_Video.qt I'm using Fedora Linux with KDE. I don't know where the files go in Windows or on a MAC.

[Killdeer]

Photobucket offered to save it in my album, so I did.    

[bwana]

I just right clicked on the video pic. Then click "save target as" and it downloads where ever you want it..bill. Great video by the way..thanks

[Gordon martiniuk]

Do most hunters in the us eat Tree Rats up here I have never ate one but may try but our tree rats are fairly small (take 3or4 to make a meal what brand are good to eat ours up here are Red Squirrels      

[Doc Nock]

Gordon,

Don't you have those li'l red squirrels up there? Or as we called them out West, "piney" squirrels...

I ate one on a dare out in MT and it tasted pretty much like turpentine smells!   :eek:

[tradtusker]

sweet video, man iv wasted time skinning squirrels thanks for sharing that.

[Dave Bulla]

Wow!  I've heard about this method for years and never saw it in person.  Now since I saw the video it looks so much simpler than how it was explained.  Gonna have to try it.

Also, somebody said "I would like to know how he sharpened that knife. That knife was waaaaay sharp. I couldn't believe that he just took the knife and cut through the leg bones (even at the joint it still dulls a knife). I always used a big pair of pliars or side cutters to do that so that I wouldn't dull my knife that I had worked so long to sharpen. Great video. Thanks for sharing. Brokenwing"

I noticed that too.  Now, I can flat sharpen a knife till it makes the hair jump out of the way and mine are every bit as sharp as his was but what I liked seeing was his was just a lil' old pocket knife.  Always bugs me when people have dang near a bowie knife for skinning small game.  Heck even my knife for deer only has about a 2 3/4" blade.

If you noticed, he didn't even cut through the joints but he cut up the shank a ways.  Looked like he kinda gently cut in to the bone then snapped it over the blade by pushing down on the foot with his thumb.  Probably saves the edge when ya don't go sawing on the bone.  Just pushing it down till it snaps makes sense to me.  Gonna have to try that too.  I usually use a pair of wire dykes.

Thanks for sharing!!!!

[b.glass]

Awsome!! Thank you!

[b.glass]

There you go again Killdeer, sav'in everthing!

I did too, good idea. I didn't see it the first time. Not too observant am I? Thanks for mentioning it.
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[James Wrenn]

I shot a limit last week and tried your method.It worked very well and made things easy and quick.I would have shot many more treerats over the years if I had not struggled so much skinning the darn rascals.thanks!

[Bill Tell]

Your knife doesn't have to be super sharp to do what he did.  He is actually snapping the leg bones at their thinest and then just cutting the little bit of flesh and tendon.  If you do this right where the leg meat ends it is very easy.  However having a thin blade like his little pocket knife really helps because it slides through the fracture better.

If I was a knife maker I would make a blade with a W on the top so you could wrap little leg bones through it so they would snap.  Then you could just turn the knife over and slip the blade through.  I have cleaned way to many pheasants in my life.

[McDave]

Thanks for posting this.  It was just what I was looking for when I asked the question in another post.

[Deadbolt]

Awsome I was always curious how its done...

Now the bigger question here...what do ya'l do with em after they are cleaned?

Anyone have some recipes for squirrel?  Ive always wanted to try them and its nothing for me to pop 4 or 5 in a given day in my back yard.

[Yolla Bolly]

Deadbolt---Try some Shaffer Mtn. squirrel--cut em up---shake in flour, brown in a little oil in skillet with lid,---pour in some water (or a can of beer)--lay some mild green canned chilis over the meat (and/or sliced onions)--cover and simmer for 30-60 min.  Pull the meat and make some gravy if you want---
Works with cottontails or young jacks too.

[Keefer]

Great video and makes me want to get a dozen and try that skinning process myself but first I need to hit em...

[WidowEater]

thats one for the books