Carrying Squirrels "The Old Way"

This will show you “the old way” of carrying squirrels while hunting. My uncle showed me how to do this, with his dad showing him. It’s easy, convenient, and no mess. All you’ll need to worry about taking with you is a knife, and your gun of course. It’s “The Stick Method”. I started out carrying squirrels like this, switched to an old metal sharpened shower curtain hook, and then went to a game bag, but that didn’t last long before I was back to cutting a stick to carry squirrels on. Game bags are convenient, but you’ve got to worry about washing them, and the weight of the squirrels weighing you down. With anything hooked onto your belt or pants (like an old shower curtain hook), the squirrels will get your camo bloody, and the weight of the squirrels will be constantly pulling on that side of your pants. And with either a game bag or a hook, it’s something else that you have to take into the woods with you, or potentially forget. With a stick, all you need is a pocket knife. Start with a dead squirrel of some sort. Make sure it’s dead before continuing. If the squirrel is still alive, they generally don’t care for what you’re going to do!

Next, find a forked stick, about the diameter of a pencil.

Cut your stick, leaving the fork on one end, with the main part of the stick 8” long or so. Sharpen the long end a little, and remove any bumps or buds on the main part of the stick.

Put your stick in the edge of your pocket to hold for a little bit while you prep the squirrel. I usually do the right back foot, but it doesn’t really matter.

You’re going to want to grab the outside toe on the squirrel’s foot (the one by my index finger) with one hand, and the toes with the other hand.

Now, pull on the outside toe, pulling it back toward the back of the foot and the tail of the squirrel. By pulling it like this, you’ll tear the skin on the bottom of the foot exposing the tendons in the foot. Gray squirrels will usually peel pretty easy. Fox squirrels are a little tougher, and you may only expose a little section of the tendons. That’s OK, in that you just need to be able to see the tendons.

After you’ve got the tendons exposed, take your stick and thread the sharpened end under the tendons from one side of the foot to the other.

Slide the squirrel up on the stick, and you’ve now got an easy way to carry the squirrels.

The length of the stick will determine how many squirrels you can fit on it. You may have to cut yourself another stick if you fill the first up. This method is an easy way to carry the squirrels while you’re hunting. You can lay them down and slip up on another squirrel if need be, or if you’ve got quite a few and you know you’re going to come back past a certain area, you can lay the squirrels down to retrieve when you’re coming back. No mess to clean up (other than the squirrels) and you don’t have to worry about forgetting anything.

Big58cal http://www.gutpilestyle.com

Comments

[Tom]

Thanks for the memories! I remember way back when I used to hunt the bushytails and my Dad teaching me almost the same thing. The only difference was that we slit between the achille tendon and the bone and put the stick in there. Now when I go I can't seem to find more than 1 or 2 so I don't have a need for carrying a lot.