Best Way to Skin a Squirrel? The Tail Method

Sometimes, you find a jewel you didn’t know you were looking for, until you see it. That’s now it was for me with this video.

I’ve skinned a mess of squirrels in my time, and my preferred method is the way my daddy showed me. Pinch the hide in the middle of the back and cut a slit, then slip my index fingers under the hide and pull my hands apart. It’s like taking off his pants and shirt.

But now I see this “tail method” for skinning squirrels, which is shown in the video below. And it works pretty dang well.

You begin by holding the squirrel with his nose towards the dirt. You take a sharp knife — “You have to have a sharp knife” — and make a sideways cut below the critter’s grommet.

Your landmark is the squirrel’s anus.

You cut through the hide and gently feel with your knife blade for a joint in the spine/tail and cut on through. As soon as your knife passes through that joint, STOP cutting.

Step on the tail, grab the squirrel by the hind legs, and pull.

It’s a slow, steady pull.

Stop when the torso is bare meat, and remove the hide from the hindquarters.

They carry on through the entire process of removing the paws and head, removing the innards, and cutting it up.

The main advantage of this method over mine is that it’s much easier to keep hair off of the meat. Hmmm, I’m thinking I need to hit the squirrel woods with the ol’ Henry 22 Small Game Rifle before long…

Enjoy.

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.