Beav - you seem to contradict yourself on muskrats on wire stretchers.

October 9 - no one should use wire on rats. It just isn't right.

November 2 - my small rats are put on wire

So which is it??

Must be a slow day In North Idaho.

But for those that actually trap and put up muskrats I will answer the question.

Since small rats are just about worthless there Is no sense In putting a bunch of money Into buying small boards for them. And for the most part If your trapping rats during peak primness your not going to be catching a lot of small rats so there is no need for a bunch of boards.
A couple of wire forms will do just fine for the job at hand.
Out of the few rats I caught this year I only had 2 that I would consider small and I tossed one since It was all bit up.
I did have some rats that went 18" and I was happy about that.

Looks nice BC.
How long does it take you to carefully process a rat---start to finish?

A minute to skin about 15 seconds to scrape and about a minute to board.
In other words about 3 min If your a bit on the slow side. LOL

This is on Groenewold's website (it doesn't say they are referring to muskrats...it's an answer they wrote for a 'general fur' question on the 'Frequently Asked Questions' part of their website):

"At GFW, we use wire stretchers because they are efficient to work with and when animals are skinned properly the true natural pattern can be achieved on wire stretchers. Board stretchers are fine but are sometimes used to try to get more inches. This can result in over-stretching, weaker furs and patterns that actually make the fur look worse because belly fur is put on the back which makes the fur look very weak."

I figured you were fast Beav. You once said there have been days where you trapped 100 rats.

I can do a squirrel in three minutes but a muskrat probably takes me 5 minutes or a bit more, to skin, flesh and board.

There were times when we were bringing home 300 rats a day. You had to be fast or spend all night In the shed.
I always had 4 knives at the ready. And you never used your opening knife on the head. 2 cuts to open and then It's all finger and hand work till you get to the head.

If you wear those latex gloves you should always wear a pair of knit gloves over them. You just can't get a good grip on that pelt with just bare latex gloves.

Practice practice Is were It's at.

And I can't keep up rat a minute pace for ever. I will normally skin for half hour then turn all the pelts fur out and then bag them. Then start skinning again.

I took the op's statement, "from start to finish", to mean skin, flesh and board.

10-4

When is peak primeness, or does it vary from year to year?

Groney Is full of crap. you can't make a rat any bigger then It Is. Your just presenting the whole rat.

Think about this. Wire Is like a spring It's always pushing against the hide as It dries. What you have Is opposing forces and that will certainly thin a rat hide. And over drying Is the other culprit when it comes to thinning a hide.

Groney wants to pay you for a medium rat when In reality If that hide Is stretched correctly will be a large rat. Like I said you can't make a hide bigger then what It is.

When trapping In late Oct or November your trapping 3 age classes. So your going to be trapping lots of small young of the year rats. And small rats don't prime up as fast as older rats.

February and March caught rats have a chance to grow to full size and will be as Prime as they can be. Even April caught rats are at the top of being prime but they can be going down hill at this time.
In ND the season closes In May and I have seen these rats still In prime conditions.
BUt I don't think we here In WI will ever see a May or even an April closing and that's to bad.