Printable View
After seeing responses to my bucktail post, I also thought of 🐿️ tail too. I’ve got a TON of them in my back yard. They raid my bird feeders, garden, fruit trees, etc…. During hunting season, I shoot quite a few. I remember Mepps used to pay people for squirrel tails (or send free lures) when I was a kid. Wondering how well Squirrel tail would take dye…. Anyone do that?
All the best,
Glenn
Sure people use and dye them all the time. I bought some a year or so ago from Skiptomylu and have yet to use it….lol. He has the dyed combo pack in his signature still.
Pull the bone out of the tail. Cover in salt to let it dry out and you are good to go.
This is the way we do it, we do slit it with a knife to get the salt to the inside.Quote:
Originally Posted by DockShootinJack
Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com
I use a wire to push the salt down into the tail
just hang it up and let it dry out , it shouldn't require anything fancy with your knife skills to remove hair from it ...
its a bear to skin a squirrel tail , they typically tear off about 2/3 down the tail and you lose the bestest hair still on the bone part
dont ask me how I know this stuff ....:Rofl
i have a gray and red squirrel tail . one tried to eat the christmas wiring,other didnt know how tocross the street. i washed the tail, let dry then cut the hair off and laid in a small plano box with 5 dividers. i just take out hair as i need it. i used some moth crystal to kill any bugs
I don't bother skinning them out either. Salt and borax on the stump. Stick it in a bag where the flies can't get at it. Once it is dried out, ready to go.
Maybe the squirrels here are different. I don't know. I haven't tried skinning a tail on one in VA. But the big ones we used to shoot in LA when I was a kid were easy to skin. Basically,I cut around the base of the tail before I cleaned the squirrel (so I had something to hold onto). I pulled with pliers until it stared to come loose all the way around, and then I just pulled it in one motion until it pulled completely off the boney tail section - inside out. I'd then put my knife inside the hollow of skin / hair I just pulled off and cut down the whole distance. Once done, laid flat on a table outdoors, with non-iodized salt sprinkled all over the skin side and left out until cured. Never had an issue. It's been a while though... wow... just calculated. About 40 years. So I may be out of practice, or forgetting a step. We will see later this year.
:biggrin
All the best,
Glenn
Road Kill is how I get my coyote and squirrel tails... Cut the tails of and dry, no deboning you just waste the good hair. I even gotten some long haired cat tails that way. :deadhorse
I got a road kill red fox tail, the blood hadn’t dried yet but he wasn’t using it anymore. Salted the stump and let it dry but it stinks. Given some to others to tie with. I do the same with any gray squirrel tails I get but bought the red tail that I use. The fish really like the stuff.
I just hang the tail in my garage until it’s dried. I do put salt and borax on the meat end before I hang it.
it make very good tail material!
Skip
Sometimes i strip the tail with tail stripper when i clean the squirrel, sometimes i leave bone in. I would think dying would be much easier deboned.
I just cover any exposed meat with borax and hang in the garage to dry. Then freeze in deep freezer for 2-4 weeks to kill bug eggs.
Gray squirrels take dye well, youll just dye the tips of the hairs though for the most part.
Sent from my SM-A516U using Crappie.com mobile app
Any that I get I wash with Dawn dish soap and use an old hair brush to comb it out and it gets the dirt out of it. If you want to die them, make sure they are really soaking wet and leave the bone in!!! or alot of the hair will fall out.