Have youeaten squirrels that tasted gamy, though tasted bad is a more accurate description. The squirrels had been shot through the abdominal cavity and poorly cleaned. Any meat will taste bad if allowed to marinate in gut contents and urine, and that is exactly what happens when gut and bladder contents touch the meat, be it squirrel or any other game animal. Typically, gamy taste comes not from the natural flavor of wild meat, but from wild meat tainted through mishandling.
If you accidentally shoot a squirrel through the abdomen, skin the animal and remove its entrails immediately. Then rinse the body cavity with water. Removing the entrails is a fairly easy task. Using the tip of a small, sharp knife, make an incision where the ribs meet the abdomen. Cut toward the animal's hindquarters, taking care not to puncture the internal organs.
Once the viscera is exposed, look for the urinary bladder. If it is full, pinch the neck of the bladder between thumb and forefinger and carefully cut to remove it. This prevents spills. With the bladder removed, split the pelvis and pull out the rest of the insides. That's all there is to eviscerating a squirrel.
Even if a shot leaves a squirrel's abdominal cavity intact, removing the internal organs immediately is a good idea, for it allows the meat to cool quickly. I often skin and clean all the squirrels I kill on the spot and place them in a two-quart, resealable plastic bag. In separate plastic bags I keep wet and dry paper towels to clean my hands. Cleaning squirrels after the shot keeps them in fine shape during the two or three hours of a hunt. To wet a squirrel's hide, I'll use water from a creek or spring branch.
Cleaning squirrels afield may seem like extra effort, but it's not. Not only does cleaning squirrels in the woods render them prime for eating, but when I get home, ready for a shower and rest, I have already completed most of the game-cleaning chores. All that is left is rinsing the squirrels and putting them in a bowl of water to soak in the refrigerator.
Clean up the meat
More squirrels than not are placed on the dinner table with hair clinging to the meat, which is unappetizing to say the least. Skinning squirrels is difficult, regardless of how you go about it, and hair is easily transferred to the meat. My skinning method, however, handles the problem.
To skin a squirrel, first immerse the animal in a bucket of water. Slosh it around a few times to ensure that the water soaks all the way to the squirrel's skin. This treatment will cause the hair to hold together and reduces the chance of hair contacting the meat while you skin the squirrel.
With this done, make a slit along the hide beneath and at the base of the tail. Cut through the tail, but leave it attached to the back skin. Cut an inch or so further up the back and extend the cut along the squirrel's flanks. With these cuts made, step on the tail and pull on the hindlegs. This will strip the back and belly skin down to the forelegs.
Pull the skin over the forelegs and hindlegs, then cut off the head and feet with a knife. During this process, frequently dip your hands and knife in the bucket of water to rinse off any squirrel hair that could cling to the meat. This method greatly reduces the number of hairs that stick to a squirrel's carcass.
To remove any hair that still adheres to the meat, place the carcass under slowly running water and pick the hair off by hand. Though tedious, this work is necessary if you wish to turn a squirrel into fine eating.
