Hello, As I've posted under other topics here on hunting.net, I'm newly licensed and awaiting the N.J. squirrel season opener Sep. 28 and my first day afield as a hunter. But I believe I already have something to offer you and it's possibly important: Simply this;
If this is a "practice hunt" for you, and you will move on to deer and expect to eat them, Have you considered what it might be like to gut and skin your own game animal? I expect that for me at least, the most difficult adjustment I will have to make in becoming a hunter will be retrieving that first dead squirrel and sticking in that gutting knife. Shooting the squirrel? no problem, it's a target and I'm a long time gun owner. Cooking and eating that squirrel? I don't expect a problem as I've eaten supermarket meat 'most all my life. Skinning and gutting it? HEY... I'm from New Jersey and from the more urban areas as well. I've never had to do THAT!!! Noone in my family hunts! And I will even admit that I'm a bit less macho that some of you real guys out there.
I don't know if when I try to gut that first squirrel or two, I might experience the type of revulsion that will send me scampering back to the indoor pistol range shooting paper and eating pre-killed animal flesh at the McDonald's next to the range, or, if I might easily deal with it and go on to be a regular hunter. But I do know that if I'm not sucessful and I abandon my first kill or two because I can't handle the gutting, I will not shoot any more animals and I have only wasted a small animal as opposed to a large one like a deer.
My opinion: Don't eat that squirrel if you don't want to BUT DO gut it and clean it and bring the meat out. Give it to someone who will eat it or even to a hungry dog. Even if you are hunting with others who will process your game for you, there will come a day when you will wish you could do it yourself. (I'm obviously assuming you have never done this either)
Good luck!
May your game bag always be full...
BB