Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Small Game Does one type of squirrel taste better than another?

We've got grays, fox, and a few others around.

I'm thinking about how Mallards taste alot better than any diving ducks - which are just plain nasty.

Are any of them better eating than the others?

and NOPE - you couldn't pay me to eat a red squirrel

Spot

I always heard that greys and foxes from Pecan groves eat pretty well.

Sort of like a "feedlot" for squirrels..

IME you about got it right, fox and grey taste the same to me. I ate a red squirrel once.
Once is the operative word....

Probably depends more on what they are eating. Pine cones spring to mind. miles

When I was munching on that one Red Squirrel..Pine cones came to my mind too...

We've got reds, greys and fox around here and I've eaten them all. Young greys are the best eating.

I like em all, but do drool for the litle grey bastids. Its a love hate thing. Hate em all deer season, love eating them in winter and summer.

Ye ole Weatherby 22LR is going out Christmas afternoon, tradition in my family.

Joseph

Greys that live in farming areas taste the best.
Had a housecat that wouldnt touch a red squirrel, but
would eat chipmunks all day.

I'm with Ingwe, greys and fox squirrels taste the same to me. However, on average, I think the greys aren't as tough. But you can tenderize both.


maddog

Young grays make great table fare.

You anti-reds are nuts.

Ever eat an Abert's (tassel-eared or Kiabob) squirrel?. They eat more ponderosa pine cones and bark that reds and they are fantastic eating - as good as any fox squirrel.

If it's a tree squirrel - it eats!!!!!!

From past experiance, I like the grays best. Reds are smaller and more gamey to me. No fox around my part of the woods.

Squirrel are much like any other meat animal; what we get depends more on their age and their diet than the brand. Young of any kind tends to be tastey, especially if he's been feeding on some farmer's corn. But an old boar that's been feeding on red oak acorns and pine cones does not taste, or chew, good!

Oh how I love limb bacon!!!! We grew up on it here in the Ozarks and I have not lost my taste for them. To my palate the grays have always been the better of the two. Especially the young ones taken in May/June and the next littler in October/November. We are blessed that we have the longest squirrel season in the nation here in Missouri. Runs from Memorial Day weekend in May through Feb. 15 following. Ain't much better than squirrels and gravy along with fried okra, smashed taters an' bakin' powder biscuits!! I'll certainly eat a fox squirrel but they aren't my preference.

I have heard them called as sorts of things, rackless rats, tree rats, and so on but limb bacon - now that is a new one. I like it!

I read somewhere that squirrels, not big game, were the staple food of early European settlers. But back then, squirrels ran in herds that would rival the shortgrass buffalo.

I like the gray's. They sure are a PITA to skin though. Anyone have any "easy" methods of skinnin' 'em?

Brent, I can't take credit for naming them limb bacon. That has to go to a dear friend of mine, a man of the cloth, down in Arkansas. He loves to hunt and eat squirrels as much as me. As with you, I liked it also and appropriated it for my own use, with his blessing. If everyone were like TE there would be no problems in this world.

RS, mostly just keep skinnin' 'em and you'll get better. Are you cutting the hide in the middle of the back and taking their shirts and pants off or slicing through the tail, up the hind legs and pullin' the hide off over their head? Both work fine for me.

certainly someone will post the 25 second skinning technique where the guy steps on the tail and pulls the rest of the sqirrel out of his skin by the hind legs. Google it on u tube.

Look up squirrel skinning on youtube. The second video, that is 46 secs. is the one you want.

skinning a squirrel the easy way

here you go...(I think)