Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Small Game Skinning Squirrels

What method are you guys using, Wet, Dry, and Shears, and how soon do you skin them?
I've pretty well settled on wet, I like the shears, but I have a heck of a time getting the skin off and it doesn't seem to matter if they are fresh, cold, cut across the back and pulled each way or tail cut and pulled.

Look up Ridge Runner HuntingnSupplies. Also think he might have some YouTube videos.

That may be the ticket, something solid on 1 end so i can actually grip and pull the other way.
Got 1 on the way. Thank you.

You don't need that gadget. That's still the hard way to skin a squirrel. Wet the squirrel prior to beginning to work on him. Give him a good dunk, head through tail. That eliminates about 98+% of the hair from getting on the hide. Make a cut through the tail bone at the bottom of the anus. Leave the tail attached. Step on that and pull straight up on the hind legs. That skins the front half of the squirrel. Grab the hide on the belly of the squirrel and pull. That skins the rear half. Use game shears to cut head and feet off. Cut the guts off the carcasses, cut into five pieces, four legs and the back saddle. Done! Takes a couple minutes per squirrel going slow and is easy peasy and leaves you nothing but the frying pieces with no muss and no fuss. Looks something like this...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FtspCxIfWuI

It takes a lot of strength to pull the skin off of a squerril.... and when you get old your strength goes away....doncha kno

It helps a lot to use fish skinning pliers to grasp the hide for pulling, whichever method is chosen.

I think I will invent a automatic squrrell skinner .. you put the squrrell in one end and it comes out the other end skinned and gutted... do youalll think I could sell a few..

P.T. Barnum said, "Every crowd has a silver lining!"

One of my dad's friends in PENN would skin and gut them as soon as he shot them in the woods and always carried plastic bags for each squirrel.

Because the meat can cool down wrapped in a plastic bag?

Wet to minimize hair sticking to everything. I use kitchen scissors. Cut the middle, like he's wearing a belt, and then pull each direction. Cut feet and head, gut, done. Same with rabbits.

They are way tougher to skin after they cool down.

With the cut thru the tail method, the skin pulled over the hind legs makes a handi hanger to hook over a limb. Gut with the shears, cut the head and front legs off and let it hang there while you put another round in the magazine, clean up the shears, and open up a zip lock. Cut the pieces into the bag. they are usually nicely cooled by then.

I do have a spare gamebag that'd easily fit in my vest. May try doing them as they fall. Love hunting squirrels, but am very slow and bad at cleaning the darn things.

slow is good ! Usually another squirrel will show up during the process.

Dip it thoroughly in water first, use game shears on the bones, but yeah he basically has it figured out.

There is only one satisfactory method of skinning squirrels I know of and it takes less than a minute to accomplish. I have heard it called many thing like the tail method or pants method but once you learn it you'll never do it any other way. Works on them hot or cold. But of course warmer is better. Any other method I tried in my misspent youth had all the charm of pulling up glued down carpet. I could never square the joy of hunting squirrels with the misery of skinning them. One day whilst struggling with a bunch of hard won squirrels as a young autodidact sportsman I remembered the comic like drawings in my Hunters Safety Class pamphlet/book of the dressing of various game. I remember laughing in class about how absurd the exercise appeared for squirrel but I dashed from the garage to my room and after some bit of rummaging about found it and did my best approximation of the exercise and by the third squirrel I was from then on forever adept. I am sure there are probably dozens of videos on youtube on it and every so often I get an email with a link from one of my kids or old hunting buddy of some master of the craft. I always told everyone that I would skin any squirrels that were shot in the head, if otherwise they were on there own. My kids about wore me out some weekends at camp. But I have tons of fond memories of the feasts we would have after of stewed squirrels and homemade noodles. I'll never forget spying my then toddler daughter gnawing on a squirrel scapula with all the relish of the most feral human being ever to walk the earth. Such joy.

Best way is to train a youngster so you don't have to. Biggest problem is you only have two hands. Get a third hand. There are a few or more makers who sell them. I have a Brown's Squirrel Skinner at the cleaning station out back. Kid recommends it.

Three hands... for what?

Mostly Grays where I hunt. Normally I'm only out for squirrels for an hour or two and skin when I get back to the truck. A slit across the back and pull the skin off in opposite directions stopping at head, tail and feet, cut or snip these parts off. Skin everything I shot first. Sometimes I need to use my knife to free up hide that doesn't want to cooperate. Then I gut them. Rinse them with fresh water and store in gallon zip lock and in the cooler they go. During warm weather Hornets incent me to speed up this process.

I like to dunk them in water first. I then use a hatchet to cut the legs off then make a slice in the middle of the back and peel the hide off each end. then cut the tail off and same with the head. Then gut. You need a nice stump or log as your skinning station.

Goes much faster when you aint trying to video it.

https://youtu.be/QlGs9dBnoaI

You don't need the fish skinning pliers. The pliers are unnecessary in the skinning process. It's a simple thing to grab that bottom half skin on the belly with your fingers and pull the hide off.

This has been a very helpful thread, as I struggle with squirrels.

When I was a kid I would wrestle, tug, pull yank, jerk, beat them on tree trunks and come away exhausted with a hairy mess. Cleaning them was the one thing I disliked about squirrel hunting. Once I discovered the best method, it's an easy peasy couple minutes per squirrel and nothing but clean hairless meat. I do the chore at a creek or lake nearby and only take home the processed meat so there isn't any mess to throw away and deal with at home. Nothing to it!

Maybe on a perfect skin, but I've had it rip in half there and by the time you get both legs pulled out one at a time you have hair everywhere, the pliers just make it easier.

squirrels shin better when they are still warm period,as do all animals.

I use my hatchet and chop off the feet, head, and tail. Slit across the back and pull their pants and shirt off. Takes less than a minute each. Gut them and rinse them off.

I skin them both ways, whatever I feel like at the time. I don't see any difference in work involved but these old boys here in southeast Missouri defend their method like it was their sisters virtue, or breed of dog. The rimfire/shotgun debate is another topic around here I shy away from.

I have a little insulated nylon fanny pack cooler that I stick an ice pack and some ziploc bags in when I go squirrelin'. Skin and quarter and put them on ice as soon as they hit the ground. They shuck right out of their hide lickety split when freshly killed and I don't have to deal with skinning/dressing nasty stiff squirrels when I get home.

I've skinned a plenty both ways since the late 60's. I prefer to keep a pair side cutters, cut off the feet and tail. Cut across the back and pull apart, ring around the neck, pull head off, and dry. They are a little easier fresh killed, and blackhearts idea is a good one. I've used a hatchet also, but I've used the same side cutters since my dad used them when I was a boy. You pull as far apart as possible first pull, then work on each end separately, and with tail and feet gone, the hides gone in a jiffy. And what hair does get on dry meat, comes off much easier. Get it wet, lot harder get hair off.

I saw this on Meateater’s YouTube page, and it’s worked well for me:
https://youtu.be/FtspCxIfWuI

You haven't read through this thread, have you?

I had, just didn’t click on your link to the same video.