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What is your favorite small game to hunt and your favorite way to cook it.

Mine is grey squirrel, and my grandmothers squirrel gravy over homemade biscuits.

Cottontails in front of a small pack of beagles. A Belgian Browning 20 gauge Auto Five in the crook of my arm and the anticipation of fried rabbit and gravy for dinner makes the experience complete. Squirrel hunting is a close second. Most often an old Marlin 39A with an aperture sight is my sentimental choice for prowling the hardwoods. Fried squirrel and gravy is good on the plate too.

Cottontails out west here...in the high sage.....with a light rifle...head shots.

Fried in butter with S&P and gravy made out of the drippings....best meal ever.

Cottontails with beagles is first. Scalloped cottontail casserole is like heaven on your plate. Squirrel gravy and biscuits is a close 2nd.

Real hard to beat young squirrel fried, with biscuits and gravy, and fried potatoes for breakfast after being head shot with a good bolt .22 RF. Gratifying and relaxing while hunting and after the meal!!

Squirrels, but I don't eat'em, so I don't know how to cook'em.

Fried rabbit first, barbecued squirrel second.

Tree Rats With gravy, fried, grilled, etc. it's all good

Cottontail and squirrel are equally delicious when prepared alongside biscuits and gravy. A great day is when you have both on the table at the same time.

Squirrel, except I don't call em tree rats, I call em "Organic Free Rang Limb Chickens", Limb Chickens for short.


Lotsa good recipes. Fried with cornbread and gravy, limb chicken chowder, BBQ'd or teriyaki from pressure cooked, deboned limb chickens.

Here is a good recipe.

https://www.fieldandstream.com/blog...land-style-cream-based-squirrel-chowder/


and another.


http://smarthunters.proboards.com/thread/1415/pulled-squirrel?page=1

Squirrels because is can grab a gun and go hunting. Beagle packs are getting fewer around home. Bummer on that.

...you nailed it!

dave

grew up squirrel hunting, and still dedicate several weekends each fall to that.

Squirrel hunting with a good scoped 22 is my favorite and frying them up and making gravy from the crumbs.

Love squirrel and gravy and biscuits. Also like fried rabbit. Nothin' any better.

Squirrel for me...eastern gray and fox. I hunt them with a .22 and irons. Either my Grandfathers model 69 winchester or my cz 455. Great fun and a good way to scout the deer woods. I like it fried with gravy or with squirrel and dumplings.

Squirrel hunting is my favorite, last few years been killing 80-100 , love eating them and have a few older people that I give them to that can't hunt anymore.

Cottontail or snowshoe hare with my pack of beagles. Absolute favorite hunting. I love the chase more than anything, always bring my gun but rarely shoot.

Rabbit is my favorite, eating them is just a bonus, running the dogs is the fun part.


Lee

Used to love hunting the ruffed grouse in Western PA. Went out to some old hunting areas last fall but nothing there now.

I thought I was the only person in the world that put katchup on gravy.

FyrepowrX that fried squirrel looks awesome!

Nice pic polecat. I haven't hunted rabbits with beagles since I was a teenager. My Grandfather use to raise and train Beagles. Those were some fun times. Grandma use to brown em up in a skillet and put them in a pot of home made spagetti sauce made with tomatoes from the garden. let it slow cook for hours. That was the best pasta and sauce ever. Now I'm a granddad. Got 4 grad kids. just started them shooting a 22. Cant wait till they get big enough to take hunting.

Simply can't beat squirrel hunting however nothing beats fried cottontail!

Except fried snapping turtle that is...

When we were raising beef and owned our own farm I kept a patch of alfalfa going and provided cover for cottontails.....and kept a pack of beagles. We also had about 30 acres of timber, backed up to....maybe 100 acres of a couple neighbors timber lots. Between rabbits and squirrel I'd hate to have had to choose back then. Now that choice has been made for me. In these rocky, Ozark hills I now own there's maybe 2 bunnies....and 5,000 squirrels right now. Just breaks my heart.

Imported barbecued vampire Bats.

Squirrels, grey or fox. Rabbits seem to be getting more scarce.

Woops! I like them fried.

This thread makes me jealous. Here in Oz, you're pretty much limited to rabbits or Hares. Both are good fun, and tasty. I'd love to get over to the USA to have a go at squirrels. Interested to see how they compare to rabbit. Ultimate trip would also see me try my luck on a pheasant or two with my 20ga, and some small stream fishing for smallmouth and brookies.

Aussie, rabbit and squirrel are different but I don't know how I'd describe the difference. They're both delicious. Only thing about squirrels is if you get an old one, and you'll know, they don't fry up tender like the young gray's do. Slow cooked with any of a hundred recipes is the way to cook the oldsters.

Pheasant are both fun and delicious.

I've never taken the opportunity to fish skinny water brookies...or any other kind of water for brookies. Well...I did catch a few in some high lakes in Wyoming but they were incidental. Smallies….where I live is pretty darn good smallie water!! I don't remember who said it other than it ws an outdoor writer a century or more ago who said, "inch for inch and pound for pound they're the fightinist' fish around". From my experience I have to agree with him. They have the attitude of a street bully.

Squirrels. I like the fox squirrel the best.

Chipmunks.... you just gut them (I am civilized) and roast them over an open fire.. no need to skin them you would waste half the meat..

My favorite is woodcock and pats, if that qualifies for small game.

Pheasant. Fried or smoked with jalapeno and bacon.

Either you guys' teeth are better than mine, or I don't know how to fry a squirrel. Last one I tried to impress the kids with was so tough it couldn't be chewed. Look good all fried up golden brown though..

Sharptail Grouse... but grouse in general. We do a week long grouse/walleye safari every September... hard not to love limits of grouse and walleye, campfires and fish fry's, and grouse fingers, grouse stir fry, birds & beans, birds & pasta, birds & eggs, birds roasted on coals etc... etc... gotta eat alot of grouse to stay ahead of the possession limit.

Rabbits with my beagles are probably my favorite but I love to squirrel hunt too.
My boys kill 100 squirrels a year between the four of them. My 11 year old killed 30 this past year and I shoot most of mine with a pistol tagging along with him but he don’t let me shoot much, lol.

Back as a youngster, swamp rabbits ahead of beagles in Red River hardwood bottom land were a lot of fun and good eating.

I used my .410 T/C Contender, wabbits are not that hard to kill. We'd skin'em in the woods, put'em in bread wrappers. Three or four in a hunting vest got pretty heavy. Mamma made a great wabbit gumbo. I still remember eating gumbo in front of a roaring fire on a cold, damp Louisiana winter day.

Memories.

DF

I'm with RickyBobby and Dirtfarmer--cottontails East or West with a .410: an old 1970s 870 Wingmaster, a .410 barreled T-C "Carbine," or my old 1951 Win Model 37 single shot.

I use 4s because just one or two will kill the little critter without messing him up much, and the hair in the bigger wound trail shows you where to find the pellet before it gets between your back teeth.

Now in CA I have to use non-lead, so I load up fired .444 Marlin cases with the equivalent of a half-ounce bismuth load--that does the job. If they sit, I try to get the pattern a little high so a couple of shot hit them in the head. They don't often sit, though.

Wish I had the time and space for some beagles. Best little musicians ever! Some of the best huntin' buddies, too! And a real classy "paint job" on 'em by Ma Nature!

I didn't see any rabbits this last hunting season. They sure are tastier than squirrels. When I'm toting a shotgun I usually am loaded with #5's as those are what I like for small game. Fives usually always penetrate completely through.

Squirls

cottontails!

Sounds like you need to visit Minnesota!

I really like hunting squirrel. Bring a lunch, sit against an old oak, and wait for them to start moving. All while watching the leaves fall. Even if you don't see a thing, it's a great time to be in the woods.

The rabbits keep us busy until sap starts running

Most fun = cottotails with beagles, most practical ( and what my kids learned in so points there lol) squirrels

I've changed my answer about 50 times so I give up! Whatever I'm chasing that day is my favorite. If it was a good day with a limit or close than that is my all time favorite, till next time.