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Canoes and guns...

I gotta ask, and don't say chicken. What kind of squirrels are you shooting, and what do they taste like. I tried to eat one of the little red squirrels we have up here, and it tasted like a dog's arse.

Gray squirrels and fox squirrels are pretty good IMO. I never heard of anyone eating red squirrels. It is hard to describe the flavor. They don't taste like chicken. They are a bit more gamey than rabbit.
 
Grey squirrels taste a lot like turkey dark meat. They are my favorite game meat
 
Up here you are not slowed to hunt squirrels, unless you own a trap line and then you can shoot or trap them! They are considered fur barrier just like mink, beavers and so on!!
 
I gotta ask, and don't say chicken. What kind of squirrels are you shooting, and what do they taste like. I tried to eat one of the little red squirrels we have up here, and it tasted like a dog's arse.

that's because up there they're living on pine nuts and spruce cones, so they end up tasting like turpentine, farther south they're eating seeds and nuts, it's the same with bush chickens (grouse)
 
that's because up there they're living on pine nuts and spruce cones, so they end up tasting like turpentine, farther south they're eating seeds and nuts, it's the same with bush chickens (grouse)
What an animal eats does affect the taste. Where I grew up and lived the deer tasted remarkably different depending on which side of the state they came from. A deer that was fed up on corn, hay crops, and soy beans tastes a lot different than one who lived on acorns and other forest foraging. I don't imagine squirrels are any different in that respect.
 
Interesting, we don't have any f those big fellas up here yet, but who knows, southern species are moving up here at an unusually fast rate. If they do indeed taste like dark turkey meat, I will have to stock up on .22 ammo.
 
For northern Canada, I would take a Marlin Guide Gun. Stainless steel with a laminated stock and it comes in .45/70, with a 20 inch barrel. I would mount it to the canoe so it could stay put in an upset.
 
When I lived in LA (16 years total), I never went out without a firearm. I could hunt something year round, though the heat of summer was the equivalent of January in Alaska, and I didn't go out much between June and August.

In the canoe, where water mocs were an issue, and if not actively hunting squirrels, I carried a .357 revolver loaded with snakeshot. I had a Ruger 10/22 for squirrels, with a collapsible stock that made getting through thick brush with it a breeze. Both were easy/light. A shotgun with a slug barrel was heavier but still portable. A longer deer rifle was a pain.

Squirrels taste like what they've been eating... if they're in a pine forest, they aren't very good. If they've been eating acorns or corn, they're delicious... my favorite way to eat them is to cut every shred of meat off them until you have a fist-sized ball of it, and then just chop that into sausage. Divided into 2-4 portions, depending on the size of the squirrel, placed in a cheap plastic sandwich bag, and thrown in the freeezer, I liked to pull one out to defrost overnight, quickly stir-fried it in bacon grease in the morning, and added a couple whisked eggs right on top, for "squirrel-scrambled eggs". Delicious.
 
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