How do my rats look?

[tryinhard]

First time doing them.


This is the first one I caught. I fleshed the saddle off so I can tan it.

[robertw]

Trynhard,
If you intend to sell any of your rats and you continue to do them on wood, pull the skirts of the pelt (sides) lower and let the center piece come up almost level with the skirt (edge). Get that extra 1/2" -3/4" of length by doing this......it is all about the size or total length of the pelt.

[tryinhard]

Thanks Robert! No videos I found showed doing them on wood. All on wire. I was shooting from the hip on these.

[krank]

NAFA prefers wood except on muskrats. Shroeder on the instructional video says he prefers wire only in the instance of rats. I only own 6 rat stretchers but that is OK as they are dried in two days at 65 degrees. Another thing Shroeder says is not to scrape them to death and not to try to dry fast using stove heat. He said 65degrees is perfect. I put a tiny bit of borax on the face area too.....

[silverfox]

Dec 2, 2013 9:07:07 GMT -6 krank said:

NAFA prefers wood except on muskrats. Shroeder on the instructional video says he prefers wire only in the instance of rats. I only own 6 rat stretchers but that is OK as they are dried in two days at 65 degrees. Another thing Shroeder says is not to scrape them to death and not to try to dry fast using stove heat. He said 65degrees is perfect. I put a tiny bit of borax on the face area too.....

I have 30 wire stretchers and did 30 rats yesterday. I cut the lower part of the belly off and just hook in middle of back and pull down. Belly is straight across and not hooked. Never has hurt my price. Your rats look good, tryinhard! Better than mine and I am totally happy with mine. Keep up the great job of trapping!!

[trapshooter25]

m.youtube.com/watch?v=x6zEi9TMETo

[trapshooter25]

I thought that video is pretty neat