This is my son’s first year trapping mainly by himself before school. He is starting to put up his first fur. This is his 3rd muskrat. What does he need to work on?

Could you post a picture of the back? Hard to tell from the picture, but is there some fat around the front legs? If so, that should go. Overall I think he did a good job. Better than I did on my first.

Looks to me like he just need to work on catching more rats to put up. That one looks very good.

I will get a pic of the other side in the morning fellas. He is getting the nerve up to try raccoons

Hoosier trap supply has a good video on YouTube of rat skinning and put up. Sure it’s easy to find if you look it up. Looks good to me but like mentioned above it looks like some fat around the arms could be taken off

That looks really good to me. I leave the saddle on like he did. Easy to over flesh a rat imo.

It's okay to leave some fat on rats. Scrape off the chunks and blobs and call it good.

To me that belly looks good. I would not worry about the small amount around the front legs at all. Fleshing rats too clean is not wanted in the market by most buyers. Good to not put any holes in the belly and or any where on rats as getting rats down graded to slight or damaged costs a lot in this market.

Bryce

That looks perfect!

Is he available for hire?

The fat will be absorbed into the leather and keep the hide pliable. And that's a good thing.

The one thing I do is to cut off about 1 inch of the tail. It's the last thing to dry and has no value. When rats are measured, they measure from the nose to the shortest part of the hide.

Your son did good job.

Looks great. Good job son and dad.

did a great job, change nothing,

Looks good from here.... Good job fellas!

Over all good job. Maybe scrape a little more around front legs. Hard to tell if the white area there is white fat. Just a little more maybe around shoulder on the next one. But a very good job for 1st year trapping and putting up your fur. Marty

Looks like a nice rat.

Some advice on skinning that will hold up the nose on its own. Once you cut past the eye, continue on each side and open up the cheeks. A hole will form behind teeth. Pull to nose and cut shallow just thru membrane. Grab skin skin and slip down over front teeth (not out). There is an attached flap of skin around the top teeth that will hold the nose up.

Hope I explained ok. It’s real easy once u learn it

Looks better than mine.

Does not need improvement. Good job.

only thing he could change is to clothes pin the sides down on each side, to keep them from riding up as it dries. glad to see a young guy developing an interest, and doing such a good job on the pelt prep.

Looks darn good to me