Solo Bushcraft in the Rain: Catch & Cook Squirrel

I head into the woods in heavy rain and use bushcraft survival skills to setup shelter, start a fire and catch my own food to eat. Now winter is here, the leaves are off the trees, which means small game can be more visible for hunting.
MY BUSHCRAFT & SURVIVAL GEAR SHOP: www.taoutdoors.com
Rollercam RopeRoller: www.rollercam.com/rope-roller
Life of Mike KZbin Channel: / lifeofmikeofficial
TA Fishing KZbin Channel: / tafishing
MY BUSHCRAFT & SURVIVAL GEAR SHOP: www.taoutdoors.com
My Bushcraft, Survival and Filming Gear (Amazon Shop): www.amazon.com/shop/taoutdoors
These are amazon affiliate links and I receive a small commission if you purchase through these links. It helps to support the channel and content I create. Thank you for the support!
TA OUTDOORS T-SHIRTS & MERCHANDISE: taofficial.com
INSTAGRAM: / taoutdoorofficial
FACEBOOK: / totallyawesomeoutdoors
TWITTER: / outdoorsta

[@bumpercarjoe6391]

EVERYTHING is harder in the rain. I spent 2 months starting in the sweltering heat of August through the September rains and October chills living in my tent here in NE United States. It wasn’t by choice and it was not easy. The hardest part was staying clean and dry. While the nicest part was taking a hot shower by fire light. I didn’t hunt, and had no gun. My trusted dog kept the Raccoons away. And she kept terrific company. It was as this Nov came and it started to become unbelievably cold I decided I needed to get my dog shelter and got her somewhere safer. I miss her. She’s with my daughter and ex and all of their dogs on a big piece of property. So she’s happy!

[@codassong]

You ok?

[@bumpercarjoe6391]

@@codassong thanks for asking. I am now. I have a roof over my head. I miss my dog and daughter. I blew a head gasket on my car and didn’t have the $4000 to fix it. But working a little part time job trying to get a new set of wheels. It’s weird though, I strangely miss some of my time in the woods. Definitely not the place to winter unprepared however.

[@windhamearl4544]

Sounds like you kept your head. Good on you. Hope you end up landing in a better place

[@willemvanthoff8708]

​@@bumpercarjoe6391stay strong!

[@kieranoconnell3423]

I'll be going with way next month. Though my company will be a bonsai tree and some of her baby's I have I a cup of water😅 gonna see if I can leave the plants at college though coz I don't want them to die in the frost😅 im worryingly excited about going homeless 😂

[@stephenbell5217]

“Lovely bit of squirrel Jackie!”

[@jonathansweetchunky]

Controlling greys is so important and you getting a meal out of this is a double win. And the rope clips are great. Keep up the good work.

[@aojohn2]

Tell me about it. I tell you what else needs managing. Earths human population

[@christophercarwile3983]

Squirrel hunting & camping. Got a new favorite video, plus nice looking sxs shotgun.

[@cash5627]

You know what I appreciate about this video? "A good teacher never assumes". Your describing all the little details as you go, such as burning a frayed Paracord end. Now, what if a viewer didn't know to do that? Now they do. Well done.

[@graceygrumble]

Went to the woods, not last night but the night before. I had six beers out of the eight. We had 8/8 hotdogs , 6/6 burgers and 3/3 baked potatoes, with ’accoutrements’. Nothing was shot... except targeted tree knots. Six egg banjos were consumed in the morning and the trail back to the car - through the snow - showed us we had been surrounded by wildlife. hey ho! I got back home, sorted the gear and still had two beers. Happy days!

[@Timmyjg2004]

You really need to do a video about laws in the uk, about land, building on it and hunting

[@Beast-gx3rr]

I love how happy he is walking around the woods 😂 I’d love to get out more

[@chrisegnoto]

I hear you, I go camping every 3 weeks or so and the rest of the time, I am indoors :/

[@YorkshireBoyOutdoorsXtra]

What is stopping you.? 😊

[@Finwolven]

Back in the day, stamped money in Finland (in pre-independence times) was scarce, and squirrel skins became a semi-official currency. It's still a slang for any unit of money in use, at least with older people who consumed a lot of romanticized Finnish black and white films. There's also a tradition of making fur mittens or gloves out of squirrel skins, you might need a couple more for a pair but they'll make quite nice winter wear. Grey squirrel is a notorious pest and is crowding out red squirrel (which doesn't damage trees as much) even up here.

[@osu_zach]

Mike I’ve been a subscriber for such a long time. You deserve the growth and success you’ve seen. Happy for ya man. -Zach

[@suburbanhiker5975]

Those are pretty slick clips. You could put one at each end of the cordage and not need to tie any knots, if you wanted. Nice Shootin', too!

[@bretwalda8543]

Lovely bit of squirrel Jackie

[@_stoatchaser]

If you had driven into the woods in your light weight Land Rover that would have been video heaven complete. Great stuff

[@kevslife]

Hi Mike, you need to set up a feeder with peanut and aniseed in it.. the greys will use it and you sit there with an air rifle hidden whilst they come to you.

[@Slikx666]

And then the comments arrive.. "How could you? Killing poor innocent animals like that" "That's horrible! Why don't you just buy the squirrel meat from the supermarket like everyone else?" "I bet you don't even have a gun license!" "I'm going to complain to KZbin because i didn't turn off the video!" There's going to be so many.... Well done mike, sometimes things need to be done. 🙂👍

[@BraxxJuventa]

Thanks for filming Mike. 😁👍🏼

[@RainesMedia]

Really good video mate, makes me so jealous I don't have land to hunt and camp on hah! Keep them coming :)

[@glorfendell2967]

Great vid. It's nice to see another side of the woodland management. As far as hunting squirrel alone, we used to roll our thumb and forefinger together and "chirp" like a squirrel. They are so curious they will come back around the tree to see what all the fuss is. Thanks for the vid Mike!

[@jestr102763]

Reminds me of the old mcqbushcraft videos. Love these.

[@Koffling]

Sure do enjoy Mike's adventures, but I also miss MCQ.

[@naturesadventurer-theamate3140]

Great vid. Would love to see more bushcraft/hunting videos. 😊

[@TheHellfiremissile]

One of the best Bush-Craft vid's I've watched since one of Mick McQuilton's early vid's Cheers.

[@aquenecloud4238]

Love watching your videos. Extra special with your dad too. Great outdoors adventure today! Wish you all the best on the channel and Merry Christmas!

[@georgesakellaropoulos8162]

Unless the rain has been going on for a day or so, squirrels tend to hole up and wait it out. If you're just destroying drays, and picking up what happens to fall out, that's one thing. If you really want to rack up the numbers, your best day will be a still, sunny morning after a heavy evening rain. This really brings them out, and everything on the ground is still wet, so you can move quietly.

[@dazzbedford68]

Love those roller cams, great bit of kit. See if your dad wants a squirrel tail, a bloke used to have them off me and used them to make fishing flies

[@peterott-tn6pf]

Awesome hunt brother! What a great way to enjoy my lunch break!!

[@hugohammond1301]

Met the guys that produce your TA camp axe on Sunday. It really is a thing of beauty, would definitely recommend anyone to pick one up.

[@ArielleViking]

Great catch and cook Mike. Those roller pulls look like a real game changer. 👍🏻

[@james_lessick892]

Nice wet day in the wood. Great Tarp innovation with the rope rollers. Love the catch and cook. Stay dry...

[@NickGoldsmith776]

Great stuff Mike , Reminds me of the early days of watching MCQ bushcraft 😊 hope all is well 🤝

[@bluesleeper16v]

Exactly what I was thinking!

[@martystacey4429]

A great wee adventure Mike! And, love those rope cams😎My pal in the village is the 'red squirrel man' and works for a national charity conserving Reds and culling Greys exactly as you demonstrated👌Well played indeed👍

[@jockspice]

Great video, awful weather! Always something to learn in your videos, have now added rope rollers to the Christmas list.

[@russeljohn3471]

Great video and good to see you doing important work controlling the invasive grey squirrels. 👍

[@murdered6046]

These roperollers are game changer. Going to buy some right now😮

[@spc3461]

Wow, what an amazing video! I really enjoyed watching you build a shelter, make a fire, and hunt for food in the rain. You have some impressive bushcraft and survival skills, and you make it look so easy and fun. I admire your passion and dedication to living in harmony with nature. Thank you for sharing your adventures with us, and I look forward to seeing more of your videos in the future. Keep up the great work!

[@christaylor9112]

Nice video and nice camp and particularly like those line tension adjusters on the tarp. As for the food who can beat a lovely bit of squirrel (Friday Night Dinner).

[@BeeseChurgar]

Love this type of videos

[@DimitriLambermont]

Those clips are really handy. 👍

[@greenvalleyoutdoors]

Love those rollarcam hooks. I'm always looking at ways to make my tarp quicker and easier to deploy. Great vid, thanks Mike

[@jameswatts9618]

15 dollars per clip😂

[@greenvalleyoutdoors]

@@jameswatts9618 😂 not into those prices 😂

[@jakesnider9365]

Will there be a separate video for the squirrel skinning? is that even allowed on YT? Interested to see the Opinel in action

[@jacobravenwood7968]

No, he said he didn't record it On another comment on this video. because of KZbin. KZbin is Overly sensitive about these things, but there are plenty of videos, on youtube showing animal skinning and processing But chances are those videos have been fully demonetized by KZbin. So no money can be earned on them. That seems to be how it works nowadays.

[@vincentrogister5006]

Love these videos that combine my two favourite hobbies hunting and camping

[@mosleyman3136]

This is certainly one of the bushcraft videos

[@stephencopps1561]

Those windproof lighters are great and I also take a small amount of newspaper and/or Amazon packing paper in the inside pocket of my jacket! It all helps 😁

[@gregoryluc2876]

Nice show mate! Bushy tails are delicious, I dig that side by side shotgun.

[@HonkyTonkHellraiser]

I've been subscribed to your channel now for a while. The new guy at work is from England and I told him about your channel. He's binge watching all your videos now. He wants to spend some time outdoors here in British Columbia this winter

[@youngking1310]

Our boy got +15 HP and +5 radiation from those squirrel bits.

[@jacobravenwood7968]

Lol fallout nice 😅

[@tomf819]

Have you ever thought about using an air rifle for hunting small game to avoid having shot in your food, I have a stoger XM1 bullpup which would be ideal for some small hunting.

[@kingrafa3938]

Nice shot Mike! 🎯

[@skyhighfootage53]

quality video yet again :D

[@user-cm1fn2ss1i]

this is so good omfg!!!!

[@benking5838]

Love this

[@marchood99]

Like the look of they rope locks 👍👌

[@Johnrag1000]

loved it..

[@natefish1]

Great stuff!

[@mahamedali920]

That's really cool, love your content

[@backwaterwoods]

Love those rope tensioners! I use them on all my tarps.

[@mnsadat1]

Would you happen to have a link for the ones in the video? Thanks

[@kevinduver]

You don't really understand how rain effects your mood and day until you're out in it. Still a fun challenge. Cool to see you hunting too. A further reminder of where we as humans came from before MREs and Ramen noodles lol

[@nelistheron83]

Whoohoo!! Nice one!! Nice axe !

[@leewaddell8561]

Love the clips..gona get some for sure.

[@PropTM]

Been watching you since the first bushcraft camp you made with the watch tower, been loving you videos ever since. You inspired me to start getting some gear to spend time in the woods myself! :))) would love to see a full kit collection from everything to clothing to tools.

[@tony_ofthe_north6604]

Hey man he posts his kit on his website based upon each episode

[@tony_ofthe_north6604]

In the description below With links to purchase the gear youself

[@PropTM]

@@tony_ofthe_north6604 appreciate it but i was meaning more of a video going through all the gear mike has collected over the years from clothing all the way to tools.

[@tony_ofthe_north6604]

@@PropTM I swear he used to have a link on his website talking about all of it

[@markbillingham3011]

I love your videos, as a wildlife manager i spend a lot of time controlling grey squirrels, we are fortunate to still have reds in our area. It would be great to see how you prep and use the skin, keep up with the pest control.

[@bipolarkornbread2821]

lov'd itt mate!

[@gkeyman565]

Nice gun, good luck hunting. Have a great day

[@chrisegnoto]

Wow, your channel is rocking, man. I remember when you started. Hats off to you. I need to bring my camping channel back, instead of filming camping filled with wildlife documentaries lol. I walk ten feet and end up filming the secret life of an Antlion or picking up a and filming a Black Widow or something - lol

[@elsathal7359]

Thank you for sharing ✌️✨️🧚‍♂️🤟🌻🐝

[@Tosadar_Outdoors]

Amazing experience and amazing forest 🔥👌🍻💯

[@Travis_Hackney]

This is cool, Glad you’re sharing this aspect of survival I’ve always wondered about personal hygiene tips to include going potty…🤷🏼‍♂️👍🏻

[@jasper4574]

Great video again mike. Plenty of ground coverage plants availabile for a nice pinch Such as ground Ivy or Herb robert around this time of year if youre ever in a pinch for a nice hot drink. Very ingenious with the tarp pulleys!

[@outdoorsbeyondnature1980]

Mike, you are truly a outdoors man survivalist. What does squirrel 🐿️ taste like?

[@TAOutdoors]

To me it tastes a bit like pork chop

[@timtate8520]

@@TAOutdoors pork chop… really? Your English greys must taste vastly different that ours over here in the States!

[@earlgrey691]

The shot in the meat could cause absolute carnage to a tooth and would have me using the most powerful air rifle i could acquire rather than such a blunderbus (grin) as seen here, but l appreciate this is land management thing and the food is a bonus.Whoever introduced those pesky greys here from over the pond has a lot to answer for, given they've all but decimated our beloved, gentler,indigenous red squirrel populace ?

[@samajier2566]

Amazing

[@andrewharris4940]

Finally a real Man camping with a shotgun

[@pyeitme508]

Awesome

[@cee8mee]

Even people here in the Midwest US often don't recognize squirrel nests, even though I can walk out my front door and look up into the barren trees and probably see at least 4 or 5 in about 30 trees. People think birds use them. I laugh at them.

[@clarky4492]

Squirrel dray

[@guaporeturns9472]

Why do you laugh at them? Is that funny? I don’t understand

[@cee8mee]

@@guaporeturns9472 They're huge! Bird nests are tiny and not very noticeable. I laugh because it's absurd, and anyone giving it any thought should be able to recognize that. But people don't think about it and then make silly assumptions. I find that funny.

[@guaporeturns9472]

@@cee8mee It’s not really that absurd. I watched a magpie make a nest up in a tree right next to a tree the squirrels made a nest in… in the winter after all the leaves came off it was kinda hard to tell them apart. I could but to the untrained eye they were very similar looking from the ground . Instead of laughing at and ridiculing people why not just be nice… maybe try to educate them in a nice way?

[@ajherring92]

I've got a squirrel nest directly behind my back porch but I agree, most people I know don't recognize them. Cheers from Illinois!

[@thelaiq]

Inspiring

[@davehumpleby3440]

I couldn't help but laugh at this edit, Mike. You are so excited by the ingenuity and time-saving advantages of those roller cams, then lose all the time saved fashioning tent pegs. Prussik loops have the same adjustability of those cams yet weigh considerably less. So carrying prussiks and a few light weight tent pegs means less time setting your tarp up, they have the same adjustability, and they no doubt cost a lot less too. Using a traditional ridge line also has the advantage of giving you a dry line under the tarp to hang gear on; so is more versatile to boot. I know this from experience as I've been using the NiteIze camming karabiners for various tasks for years.

[@fletcher0601]

Cheers for the new video mate they are always great to watch, if anyone is trying to find them clips there is something similar made by nite ize, called cam jam

[@thanasisliosis2881]

Every man of woods has to eat squirrels. In my country we also eat hedgehogs. 🇬🇷 Nice video. Keep up the good work!

[@aka5742]

Can’t help but laugh at the excitement of how time saving and simple those rope rollers are, and then spending significantly more time on carving stakes… 😂 Wait till you discover titanium stakes! Just messing. Might have to get a set of those myself. Thanks for taking us with you.

[@TAOutdoors]

Haha I did laugh at that bit when I was editing 🤣

[@youfoundslag]

Awesome video, Mike. I was thinking once you said you could feel it in your mouth, and see it on the pan, that hopefully you're using some sort of lead-free shot, haha. Stay healthy, Keep it up!

[@herbsmith6871]

Very nice my friend 🤠

[@user-lg4nd4lt1b]

Helo from Ukraine 😊

[@tjk355]

i like those clips. very similar to the prussik knot.

[@seedy-waney-bonnie4906]

Cool.

[@rolfnilsen6385]

Great to see the shotgun get out! :-)

[@scottmcintosh2988]

We used 22 long varment loads like a mini shotgun shells !

[@stevenyemc]

I am surrounded by squirrels. My cat used to bring them home as friends. They do look kinda tasty!

[@freddyoutdoors]

Ace watch mate

[@user-jd4ff3sg7k]

Love from India ❤।।।

[@davidtoastivine707]

Great video we are hoping to get some woods our selves in the near future. I’m learning a lot about wood management from your vids, I do think a 12 gauge was a bit over kill though lol 😅

[@matrixis]

Those roperollers look great, shame they only ship to US/Canada. But loves the vids, keep em coming!

[@KJ-to3gz]

I'm in Canada. Do you know where can I get the roller cams? Do they go by another name?

[@theoneleggedraven1940]

Always fun to watch your excursions, Mike. Thanks again for the great videos and turning me on to the Steak Detective; order is in the mail on its' way to Texas for my folks Christmas presents! Cheers, mate and hello to your dad, Graham as well! Hope I spelled his name correctly.

[@TAOutdoors]

Fantastic! Glad to hear and thanks for supporting our old chap Steve!

[@theoneleggedraven1940]

@@TAOutdoors I love his descriptions on the website; so witty and quintessentially British! His emails are also in the old hardened British officer style: love it.

[@kokopelau6954]

Milk and/or egg wash, alternate flour and corn meal dip, season to taste and fry. Best way to fry rabbit, squirrel, fish or whatever strikes your fancy. Old time country cooking.

[@lewisdiamond7850]

First time watcher/subscriber, and I love the videos which are very informative on the damage that Greys do to trees, which i never knew. Only thing that was missing here was how you skinned they grey etc, think i might give it a go myself given the chance.

[@MattGoesOutside]

Lol. When you were sharpening your knife, I was thinking, that finger could easily get nicked. Couple of shots later: plaster on finger! Hope you're OK Mike, those little cuts can take ages to recover...

[@ashleyridge3854]

Evening, just subscribed. I really love your videos. Could you recommend a decent bushcraft knife that doesn't break the bank. You have really inspired me to get out in nature. Many thanks, Ashley

[@stephendavies923]

Excellent work Mike. It is wonderful to see people looking after the natural resources with great respect, though I just hope you don't fall foul of the YT whingers and get stricken down with a complaint.

[@wobba1981]

Cool device’s!, I have two pieces of paracord x4 connected by a tarp hitch I use the same way (I keep them on each corner of my tarp 👌

[@cerethpainting6606]

We put up the same type of fly for our gear last year at philmont in New Mexico USA.

[@typicalchannelname3796]

My mans was STRAPPED for a squirrel hunt lmao

[@CG8379Gaming]

can you do a video on all the knots you use and the fire starting kit