Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Small Game Red Squirrels

Idaho opened their first Red Squirrel season this year. Never hunted tree squirrels before because I never lived where there was a season. I have seen lots of them over the years but don't know a lot about them except they like to holler at you in the woods when your trying to be quiet.
They seem small to me but I was wondering how they were to eat? I have heard a lot of stories about how good squirrels were to eat from other parts of the country. But I don.t think I have heard anything specifically about Red Squirrels. Inquiring minds would like to know?

We have them up north and they are only targets of opportunity that get buried. I have never heard of anyone eating red squirrel probably because they mostly eat evergreen seeds. I do know that they will chase out about every other larger more desirable squirrel in the area, so if you have red squirrels, you won't have much else including birds. When dad bought our vacation place in northern Wisconsin, it was actually spooky quiet because there wasn't a bird to be heard. There were wall to wall red squirrels however and for a kid with a .22 and 20 gauge, it was a bonanza. I de-squirreled the entire area every weekend and a year or two later the nesting birds were back. I've never seen such a complete ecological turnaround. There was a time that I de-squirreled my deer hunting areas too, but now I figure that seeing a deer for a red squirrel must be the highlight of their day and that they will tell me about it long before I get to see the deer.

Growing up in PENN I saw tons of them when hunting. Never shot many of them, they seemed to be active in even the worst weather. On ugly days grey squirrels were seldom seen, but reds were always out. They also seem to be more prone to getting inside of attics and garages than grey squirrels are.

Blueduck: In our neck of the woods ( and yours) they are creatures of the piney woods...and they taste like that..As you mentioned, they are very small...and frankly not worth the trouble unless you are lost and starving...

I also have a place in north west Wisconsin and there were a lot of red squirrels , much like Windfall . Then, my kid got a .410 and we blast all we see. We now have a few more gray squirrels and happy to see them. Red squirrels are nasty. I dont know what happened to the reds but there are few the last few years. My son did not kill them all . Maybe they got mange.

All over Maine. Obnoxious creatures. But I have seen places in Maine with grays, but never together.

Here in Hoosierdom, we call em pineys. If they are causing problems, you can kill them year round. My buddy tells me to shoot em whenever I see them. Fun in the spring to mix it up with a little bluegill fishing.

Some other pics.







Some show a grey squirrel coloration.

Have never heard anything good about them, and rumors run rampant that they force out the more desirable squirrel species...

I grew up where the red and gray squirrel ranges overlap, the reds feed on seeds from softwoods cones (pines and spruce), and the grays like the hardwoods with mast crops (maples, oaks, beech, ...).

The larger grays will run reds off when they find a food source like bird feeders. Good news is that reds can't jump as well as grays and are easier to keep out of bird feeders.

The red tree rats love to move into your attic, garage or shed. Hauled over a bushel of cones out of my father's garage one year.

Growing up in Pennsylvania, we hunted squirrels (red and gray) a lot in the fall. Great animal to start new hunters out on as it allows them to hone stalking skills. Grays were always preferred due to more meat per animal, but I never noticed the reds tasting different than the gray's, often they all went in the same pot. Hunting red squirrels in a stand of eastern hemlock with a 22 is a fun and challenging hunt. I haven't been back to hunt PA since moving west, but still miss squirrel hunting each fall.

Or doing service survival courses and then they don't taste to bad!!. Cheers NC Especially in the winter at 40 below, ask me how I know. Cheers NC

One of my uncles used to shoot them when hunting in PENN and give them to my Grandma.....her cat loved them

Once in a while i'll see a Red here or there in one spot we hunt a lot, but they seem few & far between....the few i've seen acted very twitchy, high-strung, and didnt stay still for long.
As a kid, i used to hunt a band of timber that wrapped around a local lake, very thick stuff; used to see them in there quite a bit. I recall they were noisy when spooked. Dont think i ever saw one out in open timber, always been in thick stuff.

havent seen one at all this year, only shot 1 in the last 2 years that i can recall....single red on the left side of that pile:

cook them in creamed mushroom soup after they are browned in a cast iron skillet,, very good.

I'll eat either one. But if I go hunting I hit the woods before daylight. The first animal moving in our heavy mast woods will be grays. After the reds decide to get up, and have several coffees they saunter out and get active all of a sudden. But there is really a lot more eating in a red compared to our grays in NW Misery. I have had a red walk over my boots while I was sitting up against an oak just watching. I let the ballsy little guy live. Be Well, RZ.

I picked up calling them FairyDiddles, I guess from West VA....some people confuse Red Squirrels and Fox Squirrels..

when I hunted in Northern MN, there were millions of them....this was 50 miles or so south of International Falls or 50 miles north of Hibbing.

I have a 410 in a Savage 24 that was my grandfathers....a single shot...

in Sept and October before deer season, I use to go out and walk that area on weekends and waste every FairyDiddle I heard...

a 410 is great for that... ya don't have to be overly accurate.... throws out a patter about the size of a steering wheel...

a box of 410 was pretty cheap back in Minnesota.....cost 5 times as much for them here in Oregon...

sure killed a lot of them when I lived in Minnesota....

where i live we have all 3 red,gray and fox sguirrels i kill all red squirrels they are a real pest and chew and ruin things sometimes i have in storage,reds are jittery squirrels i use a 410 most of the time on reds. gray squirrels taste the best and fox squirrels the meat seems a little tougher so gotta cook them long and slow. reds eat mostly pine seed so those get thrown away.

Fox and greys are game here, reds are considered pests.

My little deer thicket loaded w reds. Not one friggin pine in the place

I took to hunting them out of boredom and convenience (open hunting area two minutes drive from my door). They're surprisingly good! It takes several to get a decent meal, but the meat isn't piney or gamey at all. I liked it better than snowshoe hair.

Up in Maine at my in-laws summer home, they get into the house and chew holes in the walls and ceilings. They are pests. Good air rifle targets though.

Yep. Here in VT too. Vile, hole chewing, insulation munching, leak creating creatures.

Shoot on sight.

When I was a kid down south, the hillbillies would eat fried squirrel brains with their eggs.

They will chew the crap out of an unoccupied cabin if they get inside.

Never heard of anyone hunting them to eat; too small and turpentiney. None hereabouts anyway.

Some call fox squirrels “reds”, apparently. Those are like trophy squirrels, lots bigger than grays, and have different habits.

My mother talked of, squirrel, and dumplings.

Here in Colorado we have Albert, Pine, and Fox squirrels. I never found a big enough population of Albert Squirrels to hunt. You would see one here and there but not enough to make a hunting trip for. Pine Squirrels are to small for me but they should be shot on site for being so obnoxious and noisy. The Fox Squirrel on the other hand makes some good eats. I love fried squirrel. I haven't hunted them for years now, but I can stand on the back porch and count 10 of them at an given time. I live across the street from a public park, thick as flies around here.

I think our "red" squirrels are actually Fox squirrels. Sorry for the miscommunication. Be Well, RZ.

used to be lots around where i hunt in SC PA but haven't seen one there in a long time. i own an old overgrown christmas tree farm in western PA and i just saw one last fall in there. i didn't even know they were around this part of PA. i kind of like them little buggers. they are obnoxious. kind of like chihuahuas.

Plenty of red squirrels up here in Maine. I don't hunt them, as I don't eat them. I have plunked a few reds with my .177 pellet rifle when they got into my shed and made a mess, but I don't actively hunt them.

when I was a kid ,I ate every squirrel I shot.. no matter the size.. a bite of meat was still meat.. there was no wage limits then...

This exactly

I just had a conversation with a friend who has a camp in PENN and he has a red squirrel that has taken residence in his garage. Hopefully its only one and it doesnt start chewing electrical wires

This ^^^

Good target practice.

Few years ago we had a fox that lived nearby and would watch us toss red squirrels on a brush pile and get free dinner.

Fur and tails useful for fly tying. Meat for crawdad bait.
No one would confuse a Red with a Fox squirrel kinda like a Beagle and a Newfie...really big size difference.

I know for a fact that a 200 grain RN from a 35 Remington will over penetrate, gloriously over penetrate, the little bastards.

It’s just a regional lingo thing. I suspect the places where they call fox squirrels Reds, don't have any actual reds.

A picture from 20 years ago.... Some Arizona Albert's ---- Photo taken by AZGFD Photographer.

We only have the "pine" squirrel up here - quite small. Really not worth shooting for meat, but maybe for sport.

They keep my Dachshund entertained. Combined, they make a lot of noise! My Labs used to hunt them - both the first and last learned to lay patiently just within range of one reaching the ground - sometimes it took awhile! Sometimes they would even catch one. Once even a half-grown flying squirrel that panicked and missed it's mark to the next tree.

The current Lab-mix doesn't bother to initiate, usually, but she'll back up the doxy.

I only shoot them if they are a problem. The yard squirrels no longer get up on the deck since I removed the beetle-killed tree from 15 feet out. The run is now about 20 yards to safety.

The dogs are going to miss that tree too- it was their winter-sheltered pee spot.

Those at the remote cabin might also get whacked if the cabin has been gotten into- but mouse/rat bait left inside controls that pretty well if they do get in. They have made some terrible messes before I started leaving poisoned bait inside.

Incidentally, a Yukon? NWT? study showed red squirrels to be the #1 predator of hares under the age of 2 weeks. I've personally seen them feeding on grouse remains, both guts and body (someone shot one and did not retrieve it).

I think a lot of us here in Missouri incorrectly call fox squirrels red squirrels. For that I apologize, but some of these fox squirrels get huge. A slow cooker or pressure cooker is your friend with them. Taste good but can be tough as hell if not cocked correctly.