Hunting squirrels (MU 2-8)

[2chodi]

It's interesting that the topic of eating squirrels has come up in this thread as it has come up previously with a discussion of whether or not there could be a red squirrel hunting season in BC. As mentioned above, it is currently illegal to harvest red squirrels in BC other than by trappers.

If there are no conservation issues, would you support a hunting season for red squirrels in BC if there was a requirement to utilize the meat?

Take the survey for interest sakes to see what kind of support there is, or isn't: https://forms.gle/M6hPT1eEQBjcMe5c8

[adriaticum]

I'd support the hunt, good for kids, but I wouldn't personally hunt them.
They are survival food for me like grouse.
Leave them be until one day you may need them.

[wideopenthrottle]

those red squirrels might be twice the meat of a mouse...pretty slim pickins

[joshbazz]

We have a fair amount of big grey squirrels in our Okanagan crown land. While hunting snowshoe hare my brother took down a massive grey squirrel, almost the size of the hare. One big difference was skinning them: the hares you could literally pull the hide off, whereas the squirrel was a quite a pain to take the hide off.

My sister in-law made a hare/squirrel meat pie that was out of this world!

My wife bought me a 10/22 for Christmas, so I was hoping to do some hare hunting, and possibly squirrel, before bear season. I know a few spots around the Kelowna area.

Are hare good to hunt this time of year?
Is there an easier way to skin a squirrel?
Do squirrel hunters get a bad rap (crazy squirrel guy stigma)? -just kidding...

As a new hunter (still haven't bagged a big game animal) I've heard it's good practice to hunt small game - but I only shoot if I'm going to eat it.

Cheers!
Josh

[Bigdoggdon]

In Louisiana they hunt and eat Nutria(swamp rats)
Gotta be something to this rodent hunting thing. I hunt snowshoe hare's and eat em and they're pretty good. Just can't see how you'd get enough meat off a red squirrel to make it worth the effort.

[E-J Kooij]

theres enough meat on em, especially grey or fox squirells.

[adriaticum]

i think most of us associate the word rodent with rats and other human garbage eating things. but these other rodents are fully wild and dont depend on humans

[Redthies]

theres enough meat on em, especially grey or fox squirells.

Right. The previous post specifically mentioned RED squirrels. They are much smaller, and illegal to hunt, so it doesn’t matter how much meat they offer.

[Rieber]

I tried squirrel many years ago after ready about squirrel hunting and their wonderful stew in Outdoor Life as a kid.

Then, several years ago, I saw the video on squirrel melt - grilled open sandwich dish. When I remembered back to my previous experiment, I decided to leave the squirrels to their own business.

I have no good reason to ever shoot another squirrel - although I've had many bad thoughts after being busted by squirrels when deer hunting.

[Arctic Lake]

I need to revisit my wildlife books as I think the squirrels we see in the LML the black and grey ones are European . The Douglas ground squirrel are native .
Arctic Lake