Squirrel sniping

[Deleted]

Took about two hours for myself today and hit the woods where I deer hunt. I knew there wouldn't be any issue with busting deer out since they are non existent now so I took the custom Remington 541s and a box of cci standards. Did a little creeping around because I'm not known for my patience and collected my bag limit plus a bonus trophy. Longest shot was 62 steps from my leaning post to the base where the squirrel landed. Got a couple tough ones that are calling for crock pot magic.



Lots of headaches





We have had a major problem with hornets swarming the shop the last two years. I wandered upon the nest now that the trees are bare so I took a handful of shots and detached it. Hopefully that makes them move on next year.

[Deleted]

Burn the hornets nest, pretty cool though.

[Dave W]

Better pic of the peashooter?

[Deleted]

Here's my twins, probably the two best sticks of wood I've seen on 541's

[quillen52]

Beautiful guns and I enjoy squirrel hunting too. Been thinking of getting one of the high performance air rifles and give that a try.

[mrbuck]

Hey Cole !! Super shooting with ( as I've said before ) super looking 541's . Looks like all head shots .We don't have Fox Squirrels in Northern Jersey just Grays . Squirrel hunting is better than sitting waiting for a deer that will never come
Chris

[7mmfreak]

Those are awesome guns! I love the 541. Sounds like a good day out.

[jims]

Nice 541s. I have take down hornet nests by shooting the low branch off with a shotgun, good shooting to take the branch off that high with a .22, even multiple shots. I was going to tell you to hide two of those squirrels until I remembered the bag limit is now six. The fox squirrels are good eating.

[deadeer]

Yowzers. Wouldn't be many left if you kept that assault up for very long! Lol. Way to do some knoggin knockin. If you were in Eastern Kentucky you would be scolded for shooting them in the best eating part. Yuck!!! My wife's Papaw told me once, "Jay, you know why I'm so smart? Because I eat skurry brains"! No thanks, think I'll go and Puke now! Lol.

[madcityhoosier]

Cole, your squirrel guns are prettier than mine, but with no deer around here (west-central Indiana), I've been on squirrel patrol lately too. My bag limit is 5 here.  For me it's head shots or no shot at all.  

[Deleted]

Your squirrels likely eat better than mine! We have had grays around here for about 5 years now. They aren't as likely to be tough as heck.

[deadeer]

Congrats guys! Something to pass the time, fun and no pressure! Those grays are fast and skittish. Fox are big, fat, and lazy around here. Grays cook way easier and taste better IMO. We do not have a good population of grays where I am in NW IN, just pockets here and there. We have some jet black ones around too!

[muznut]

So the fox are tough and not as tasty?

[Deleted]

I'm betting some of these are gonna be tough, two of them had legs that look like they are from a large rabbit. No one hunts squirrel around here but people do kill all the natural predators so they live out their (un)natural long lives. I think the one was so old his nuts were moldy yuck!

Nothing's tougher than a squirrel! Coon even cooks up easier

[deadeer]

Dec 13, 2015 15:57:50 GMT -5 muznut said:

So the fox are tough and not as tasty?

IMO and experience, but that is mostly what we got. Just got to be creative. You can't make them too tender. As stated earlier, crock pot, steaming, baking in covered dish, or even pressure cooking is the only way to make some of them edible. I even pressure can them. Talk about good. You can almost pull the bones out of the meat in the jar when done.

[madcityhoosier]

I've got fox and gray squirrels around me. Most of my areas have a mix of both. It's interesting to note the different patterns of them in the fall. Sometimes first thing in the morning, the fox squirrels are busy in the tree tops and the grays are all on the ground. Then later in the day, that all seems to reverse.

I think the 5 squirrels in my post above are gray squirrels, as they have a white belly like a gray, but they all have a mix of brown and gray fur on their backs (the one in the middle shows it well). I've also shot ones with solid light gray fur on their backs out of this same woods, so I don't know if the ones in the picture are a hybrid or just a color phase.

I usually par-boil all of my squirrels before cooking in the crockpot, fryer, or whatever else. Basically I just boil the squirrel hole for 90 minute to 3 hours until the body feels like it's about to fall apart. Once it starts to get loose, I'll pull that squirrel out of the water and set aside and keep cooking the others until they're all loosened up a bit. Then I'll batter and fry, or sometimes I'll bone out the meat and make stew, soup, or spicy gumbo (my favorite!).

[deadeer]

Definitely all grays.