Shopsmith Forums

Squirrels are tasty little critters I think they make the best sandwiches
that I have ever had.
The point has been made about the squirrels diet and the taste.
Well does corn feed beef taste different? I would not want to eat a
squirrels from an urban environment. Lots of toxic stuff gets sprayed and
spread around in the urban environment to kill everything from dandelions
to mosquitoes and any undesirable thing in between.
To shoot or trap a squirrel in Indiana and probably everywhere you would
need a hunting of trapping license. In corporate limits there will most likely
be firearms regulations.

If you ask if squirrels are good eating I would suspect you have never
skinned and cleaned animals before. research that before you try it.

have a heart traps catch then alive and can be relocated.

Oh yea red squirrels are tasty I've heard that gray squirrels are not.

charlese wrote:Here's a big black one, without a fuzzy tail.

[ATTACH]17186[/ATTACH]

Would you look at the size of that squirrel. I'll bet someone has been feeding him!

lightnin wrote:Squirrels are tasty little critters I think they make the best sandwiches
that I have ever had.
The point has been made about the squirrels diet and the taste.
Well does corn feed beef taste different? I would not want to eat a
squirrels from an urban environment. Lots of toxic stuff gets sprayed and
spread around in the urban environment to kill everything from dandelions
to mosquitoes and any undesirable thing in between.
To shoot or trap a squirrel in Indiana and probably everywhere you would
need a hunting of trapping license. In corporate limits there will most likely
be firearms regulations.

If you ask if squirrels are good eating I would suspect you have never
skinned and cleaned animals before. research that before you try it.

have a heart traps catch then alive and can be relocated.

Oh yea red squirrels are tasty I've heard that gray squirrels are not.

Actually I was taught not to shoot red squirrels they were too small, not worth the effort to shoot, clean, cook and eat. Grey squirrels are delicious if they didn't have to survive on acorns. Hickory nut feed grey squirrels are very good eating. Two nice sized ones made a nice meal.

We often fried them or put them into a stew.

What animals eat has a lot to do with their taste. Beef cattle in South Carolina that my In laws raised had to be corn fed for about two weeks before they were slaughtered to get the wild onion taste out of the meat. Their pasture had wild onions and if you took a steer from pasture to butcher the meat had a definite onion taste.

Deer shot in Pa where they often feed on mountain laurel tastes completely diferent from Deer from South Carolina that had access to corn. I never cared for PA deer but South Carolina deer to me can be better than beef.

I remember my daughter shot a SC deer and her friend who was a butcherer did the butcherinng. They butterfly'ed the tenderloins for her. No meat I have every tasted, tasted that good. The meat would melt in you mouth.

Relocating animals has it's own perils. There is always the chance of moving a sick animal in amongst healthy animals. Also I have seen raccoons that were moved almost 10 miles away come back in as little as a week. When relocating animals you have to insure you don't move them someplace where they don't have access to food and water. It may surprize some but there is many places in the wild that animals can starve to death if drop off there. Lastly a dropped off animal is exposed to predators until they learn the lay of the land and hidding places.

Ed in Tampa wrote:Actually I was taught not to shoot red squirrels they were too small, not worth the effort to shoot, clean, cook and eat. Grey squirrels are delicious if they didn't have to survive on acorns. Hickory nut feed grey squirrels are very good eating. Two nice sized ones made a nice meal.

We often fried them or put them into a stew.

What animals eat has a lot to do with their taste. Beef cattle in South Carolina that my In laws raised had to be corn fed for about two weeks before they were slaughtered to get the wild onion taste out of the meat. Their pasture had wild onions and if you took a steer from pasture to butcher the meat had a definite onion taste.

Deer shot in Pa where they often feed on mountain laurel tastes completely diferent from Deer from South Carolina that had access to corn. I never cared for PA deer but South Carolina deer to me can be better than beef.

I remember my daughter shot a SC deer and her friend who was a butcherer did the butcherinng. They butterfly'ed the tenderloins for her. No meat I have every tasted, tasted that good. The meat would melt in you mouth.

Relocating animals has it's own perils. There is always the chance of moving a sick animal in amongst healthy animals. Also I have seen raccoons that were moved almost 10 miles away come back in as little as a week. When relocating animals you have to insure you don't move them someplace where they don't have access to food and water. It may surprize some but there is many places in the wild that animals can starve to death if drop off there. Lastly a dropped off animal is exposed to predators until they learn the lay of the land and hidding places.

Hmmmm, you are confusing.

You shoot them to get rid of them or to eat them but you are concerned about them surviving if deposited where they don't know the lay of the land.

Virginia has a law against relocating trapped animals for just that reason. Any animal trapped must not leave the land it was trapped on alive.

dusty wrote:Hmmmm, you are confusing.

You shoot them to get rid of them or to eat them but you are concerned about them surviving if deposited where they don't know the lay of the land.

Dusty
I see you share the same confusion that most people that never hunted or did any animal husbandry have. While we understand and are willing to actually participate in animal management and harvest of animals for food, we do not want to see animals suffer or die needless deaths.

In suburban areas where natural predators no longer exist animals like squirrels must be managed or they soon over run their food supplies. When this happens they invade man made structures seeking food. They are transformed from the cute little squirrel bouncing around in the back yard to a gnawing destructive varmite that will chew on just about anything including vinyl siding, electrical wire, lead roof flashing, wood, and yes even aluminium.

Because there is no natural predators and they live in such high density populations disease and parasites flourish among them. They become sickly and even more dependant on man made food supplies.

They will gnaw their way into your home, into vehicles, sheds and cause untold damage. Often because they are sick they die and many times people are sleeping mere feet from their rotting bodies. Think about the disease possibilities of that.

What predators they do have are not clean kill animals but rather house cats that love to play with the dying squirrel before it actually dies, and the cat walks away.

I have found dead squirrels that have died from wounds inflicted by neighborhood cats, that were forced to live with the wound often for weeks before rotting infection killed them.

Yes I'm concerned for any animal that has to die a horrible death like this or from starvation.

Ed in Tampa wrote:Dusty
I see you share the same confusion that most people that never hunted or did any animal husbandry have. While we understand and are willing to actually participate in animal management and harvest of animals for food, we do not want to see animals suffer or die needless deaths.

In suburban areas where natural predators no longer exist animals like squirrels must be managed or they soon over run their food supplies. When this happens they invade man made structures seeking food. They are transformed from the cute little squirrel bouncing around in the back yard to a gnawing destructive varmite that will chew on just about anything including vinyl siding, electrical wire, lead roof flashing, wood, and yes even aluminium.

Because there is no natural predators and they live in such high density populations disease and parasites flourish among them. They become sickly and even more dependant on man made food supplies.

They will gnaw their way into your home, into vehicles, sheds and cause untold damage. Often because they are sick they die and many times people are sleeping mere feet from their rotting bodies. Think about the disease possibilities of that.

What predators they do have are not clean kill animals but rather house cats that love to play with the dying squirrel before it actually dies, and the cat walks away.

I have found dead squirrels that have died from wounds inflicted by neighborhood cats, that were forced to live with the wound often for weeks before rotting infection killed them.

Yes I'm concerned for any animal that has to die a horrible death like this or from starvation.

False assumptions, Ed. I grew up on a farm in the midwest. I fully understand the laws of nature and the risks of living out away from civilization.

I now live in the desert southwest and believe it or not we have wild life here too and all the beauty and consequence that go with it.

dusty wrote:False assumptions, Ed. I grew up on a farm in the midwest. I fully understand the laws of nature and the risks of living out away from civilization.

I now live in the desert southwest and believe it or not we have wild life here too and all the beauty and consequence that go with it.

Dusty
Well if you fully understand why did you say

Hmmmm, you are confusing.

You shoot them to get rid of them or to eat them but you are concerned about them surviving if deposited where they don't know the lay of the land.

?

Now I'm confused.

Ed, as for your left over extra flashing... I made a grinding wheel shield for my mark 5 and used flashing to cover it. In addition, I put a bent piece of flashing over the way tubes under the wheel while grinding. You can see it in this thread... https://forum.shopsmith.com/viewtopic.php?t=6472&highlight=ptwfe+challenge

easterngray wrote:Ed, as for your left over extra flashing... I made a grinding wheel shield for my mark 5 and used flashing to cover it. In addition, I put a bent piece of flashing over the way tubes under the wheel while grinding. You can see it in this thread... https://forum.shopsmith.com/viewtopic.php?t=6472&highlight=ptwfe+challenge

What a great idea! Thanks!

I still have three feeders I need shields for but even after I build them I will have more than enough flashing for a grinding shield and way tube protector.