Squirrels for Sustenance

[Black Jeebus]

Has anyone else ever been so broke and out of food that they started seeing the little critters in their yard as food sources.

All I need now is to create some homemade spears and I'm gonna go hunting old school style.

[Soldier]

Knife + Stick if you want a spear. Good luck with that, though.

You'll have better luck setting snares. Squirrels are lazy. Take a piece of a branch - ideally with several smaller stubs of branches sticking off of it - and lean it against a tree. Squirrels will want to run up and down it. Put little slip-loops of wire in the spaces between the smaller stubs of branches, since this is where the squirrel will run. Obviously, anchor the slip-loop of wire to one of the stubs. You can catch a lot of squirrels this way.

[geezer]

Ix-nay the spear, unless you really LIKE throwing uphill at about 70 degrees over about 15 yds, at a quarter sized moving target. Airgun or .22...killed and cooked more than a few in my youth, out of necessity. My mom make GREAT squirrel dumplings, with cornbread and green salads. UMMMM, that sure takes me back. I think the wheel had just been invented about a week before I got my .22 rifle. Like I told my kids, I was born two weeks after the last dinosaur died.
What....?

[Saber-Psycho]

*Slowly backs out of room with out making eye contact*

[cornflower]

Originally Posted by geezer

Ix-nay the spear, unless you really LIKE throwing uphill at about 70 degrees over about 15 yds, at a quarter sized moving target. Airgun or .22...killed and cooked more than a few in my youth, out of necessity. My mom make GREAT squirrel dumplings, with cornbread and green salads. UMMMM, that sure takes me back. I think the wheel had just been invented about a week before I got my .22 rifle. Like I told my kids, I was born two weeks after the last dinosaur died.
What....?

*sweetly* Oh, but there's nothing wrong with that! I just LOVE a man who can fend for himself! Oh yes....

[Soldier]

Just have to pick the right weapon with which to fend for oneself.

[Black Jeebus]

well snares require rope. Rope requires one of two things

a) money to buy the rope

b) saplings to strip and make the rope from

c) time to braid the rope

I have none of those. Oh wait... I live on a river. I'll just go get my gig, and use that to spear the squirrels.

[Soldier]

Actually, no. If you're making snares for squirrels, you want wire. Which can be quite cheap. Take a few days and pay a bit of attention to the ground; I'm sure you can find enough spare change to buy wire. Or if you're really that badly off, I'm sure some generous soul will be able to spare you a foot or so of wire - plenty to make several snares.

And if you live on a river, why don't you just fish?

[whtouche]

Um.
Leave the squirrels alone. That's kindof creepy. Squirrels are cute, not pests, and least of all food. If you seriously can't afford food that you're thinking of cooking squirrels, maybe it's time to stop paying for internet access.

[Soldier]

A very good point concerning finances.

But squirrels can definitely be for eating.

[cornflower]

I haven't been so broke that I'd see city critters as food sources, but I've been so broke that I've had to use McDick's napkins for toilet paper for the next couple of days.

[Black Jeebus]

Cause I'm armed only with gig, and the water is way too murky to gig anything other than gar. Gar can be eaten, I guess but it's something that's just generally not done.

[Soldier]

You'll have to elaborate on "gig".

[BrianH]

Originally Posted by Soldier

You'll have to elaborate on "gig".

Three-tined spear, like a small trident. Often used for frogs in some areas of the country. Native Americans used something similar called a leister, barbed with bone points.

[Soldier]

Try a hook and line.

[BrianH]

Originally Posted by Soldier

You'll have better luck setting snares.

Yeah, Hemingway had to snare pigeons in the Jardin de Luxembourg in Paris when he was too poor to buy food. I've never tried it, but it can't be too hard.

[Black Jeebus]

Mostly gigs are just good for "gigging" surface fish. The thing we use it for is gar. Gar is a surface fish that likes living under docks. At our dock we have two floating sections and when the gar swim from one section to the next there is usually a flash of light as the sun hits their scales. Mostly they're just good for crab bait (they draw the crabs much better than kittens).

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

If you want to kill a squirrel sniper style, use a blowgun. Squirrel=Tastes JUST like chicken. Only not quite like chicken. But it tastes good. Dont shoot with anything under 50 caliber, or you wont have a big enough wound channel, also, USE BROADHEADS!

[geezer]

*.22's always worked fine for me.
*I can't believe you don't know how to make rope...from scratch! At least snare quality, which works better on rabbits and bird traps, and maybe a fish line.
* Squirrels are dark meat , REALLY dark. Fun to skin too. Backyard one's should be real tasty.

[Schiavona]

Slingshots work. We don't hunt squirrels up here, we just have little parka squirrels. My wife always thought people hunting squirrels was stupid...untill she saw a grey squirrel!