Squirrel Hunting: Some Tips for Tyros

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Or if you want to get complicated, you can use a call to locate your game, or even invest in a trained squirrel dog (called a fice dog in the South), which will tree squirrels and circle the tree to force a hidden animal to give its position away.

Whatever method you use, keep in mind that a hunted squirrel can remain motionless, and all but invisible, for hours at a time. If you find yourself searching fruitless ly for a squirrel that suddenly disappears, you can follow several courses of action. First, if there's any breeze, look for the movement of blowing fur rather than trying to spot the whole animal. Or if you're with a friend, one of you can sit still while the other circles the tree noisily, perhaps causing the squirrel to move around the trunk to keep the tree between it and the more obvious hunter. If alone, you can try hanging your coat from a limb in view of the tree, then circling the trunk yourself. In fleeing you, the animal may think it's exposed itself to another hunter (the coat), and scoot into your view. Or, finally, you can just plunk yourself down and try to wait the squirrel out. It might take a long time, and you might even run out of day before that squirrel shows itself, but if you've never spent an afternoon sitting motionless in the woods, I can guarantee that you'll see and hear things that are every bit as rewarding as bringing a squirrel home for the pot!

SIXTY-SECOND SKINNING

Winnie H. Hodgson

A lot of people dread skinning and cleaning animals. However, there's probably no factor that has more influence on the flavor of wild meat than the speed with which the carcass is cleaned and cooled after the animal is taken. It stands to reason, then, that a quick method of skinning and cleaning will result in better eating and less wasted meat . . . and wasted meat is among the worst possible outcomes of a hunt.

Virginian Dick Charlton recently passed on some squirrel-skining secrets that should help a lot of you eat well this fall. With his technique and a little practice, you'll be able to remove a squirrel's pelt in less than a minute.

Here's how it's done. First—and, Dick notes, this is the most critical step—make a horizontal cut across the underside of the squirrel's tail at the base. Slice through the skin and tailbone, but don't cut the skin on the upper side of the tail. Next, extend that cut, from each of its ends, about an inch down the inside thigh of each hind leg, put the squirrel on the ground, place your foot on the base of the tail, grab the hind legs, and pull slowly. This will peel the hide from the animal's back and around to the middle of its belly, leaving a V-tipped patch of fur on the belly, with its point facing the head.

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