PEP BB foraging.sand.squirrel - catch/prepare a wild squirrel or rabbit

I know the title says wild squirrel or rabbit, but what about a deer? I found this road kill deer last year. Idaho allows you to pick up road kill and gives you a permit to do so. I went to town to run a few errands. This deer wasn’t on the side of the road when I left, but was on the way back. Still warm and pliable. Took it back home, guy and skinned it and let it hang for the night. Next day I processed it. I don’t have electricity, so most of it was pressure canned except for the back straps and tenderloin. Pressure canned venison is excellent in stews. It also makes some pretty good shredded “deer” tacos.

brad millar wrote:I know the title says wild squirrel or rabbit, but what about a deer?

Not for this BB.

I think deer hunting would be a straw badge or higher.  But the whole road kill stuff ...   I'm gonna leave that out of PEP for now.   Might be worth a re-visit in a year or two.

It looks like I'll be the first for this BB, and I can understand why - rabbits and squirres are cute, taking a life isn't easy, and around my region squirrel isn't really culturally considered acceptable to eat.  But I try to keep an open mind and will usually try almost any food at least once.  I planted two walnut trees almost 20 years ago and they are just starting to produce a few dozen walnuts each year.  But the squirrels get most of them so they were frequently in the walnut trees.  I've never been a hunter, nor raised with hunters, so my experience is severely lacking in this department.  I spent about an hour and a half shooting and completely missing the squirrels with the air powered pellet rifle before deciding it would be wise to go make a target and get the scope sighted in.  My first shot after doing that was dead on head shot, deed done.  I placed the entry wound toward the ground in the picture to make the picture less gruesome.  I skinned and gutted the large male like in the video linked in the BB description. From what I read online, it is best to harvest squirrel in early fall through winter to minimize risk of disease and parasites.  Since fall doesn't officially start for 18 more days, rather than baking for 1 hour at 350, to be on the safe side I baked it for 2.5 hours with it wrapped in foil the last 1.5 hours to prevent dehydration. I was a bit surprised to find that it didn't taste gamey or odd in any way. It tasted similar to dark meat chicken.  Unfortunately I did not detect any pine tree flavor as some online sources claimed, but that may have been conceiled by the rosemary twigs I stuffed it with and the black pepper and garlic powder I added to the breadcrumb and salt breading I applied after a 20 minute soak in milk, or the paprika and butter applied over the breading before cooking. Or maybe because it was feasting on walnuts rather than pine nuts!

Wanted to give squirrel a try (and wanted some fur for a paintbrush), so I went out to a wildlife area where I'd spotted a few out and went hunting. It didn't take long before I shot this one- it seems to be a good squirrel year in my area. Not my proudest shot, I didn't account for the strong wind that day, but it got the job done.

Took the squirrel home and skinned it there (the park was really close and didn't feel like field dressing there)

I saved the meat in the freezer for a few days because I was super busy but ultimately ended up using it in a roast. My husband ate the flaps and started into the back legs before I got to take a pic- (not very photogenic- the half eaten plate of squirrel, but he liked it at least) and the ribcage/spine will be going into a stock.

Roast recipe was pretty off the cuff, squirrel was coated in melted butter, sprinkled in salt, black pepper, sage and cayenne. 1 garlic clove was broken up and scattered around it and a whole onion was chopped up and sprinkled over it.
Then I wrapped everything in aluminum foil and put in the oven @325F for ~120 minutes. I put it in a bit longer than I meant to because I lost track of time, but it came out great- delicious, savory & fall off the bones soft. I enjoyed the flavor a good bit, but I'm apparently quite a fan of gamey meats.

This is awesome. I figured the PEP foraging thing was "go eat some dandelion leaves" so I never paid much attention to it. I've shot and eaten a lot of cotton tails in my life so I'll definitely have to get in on these badge bits. Plus wild game birds, excellent.

I never thought that I was capable of shooting or touching a carcass but, today's a new day! It took many, many, countless attempts with shooting a BB gun before I figured out how to aim well enough. I hope to improve my shooting to get direct shots. Fortunately for me, Rebekah taught a workshop at the 2024 SKIP event on how to dress a rabbit and I was so grateful to be able to call Rebekah so she could guide me through it in real time amidst my shakey hands! I cooked the liver and kidney promptly and it tasted like meat. Apologies, I've been a vegan for so long that I don't really know how to compare it to other meat and I don't think I've ever had organ meats before. Either way, it was good. I thought that I dry aged the rabbit for 3 days in the fridge but I think next time I'll brine it for 24-48 hrs instead?  I made a stew with produce that I had on hand: red potatoes, onions, garlic, green beans, tomatoes, kale, rosemary, black eyed peas, and hatch green chile peppers. As for the flavor of the meat, it tasted like chicken and perhaps it was a bit tough.
   
To document your completion of the BB, provide the following:
 - A picture of the harvested animal with the tool you used to harvest
 - A picture of the dressed out carcass
 - A picture of the prepared dish
 - description of how the animal was harvested, how it was prepared and how it tasted

Clarifications:
 - This is "Foraging" so it has to be wild game