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?