I've looked in archives and can't find or looking in the rong spot.Me and the boyz are catching rat's,and want to skin and freeze.The won's caught on conibear run's are dry.The drowners and conibear water set's are wet and the fur won't dry.I comb it a couple times through the day but it stay's matted and wet?It's been is the 50's so I don't want to wait to long.I wait a day and skin the next.There are some wet mat spot's on some will that hurt the fur?We are not in it for the money but don't want waste.

I use a leaf blower. If you don't have one, set up a fan on them.

when i take them out of the trap, i rap them in old newspapers this soaks up some of the water and they dry faster, then put a fan on them or rerap em

a car shammy cloth works great dries them quik

Thank for the reply's I was getting frustated!They wouldn't dry!What about the couple I froze with some wet mat's?

I dry all my animals by hanging them upside down and they will dry in a few hours.

I use newspaper and put a fan on them for a few hours.

komodo I hang all my catches.The coon dry fine but the rats don't even after a day and brushing to open the wet spots up.I just put newspaper around two hanging now.All comments are good and valued.What about the frozen with a little wet mat?

Pull them back out and see what happens.

Another thing, try to squeeze out as much of the water from the rat as you can at the set before putting it in the bucket or pack basket. If you got snow on the ground, roll them in the snow a bit and that will dry up the water too.

Once they're skinned you can snap,(like a whip), the hide ,(holding it by the nose end), and the majority of the water will fly out of the hide.

Yep, wrap them in several sheets of newspaper. It will soak up most of the water. Learned that from (the late) Charlie Dobbins.

You can also roll a wet muskrat in snow...

You should never freeze a muskrat whole anyway. They're mush when you try to skin them later on.

We set our out in the sun on wire stretcher on a warm breezy day for a few minutes. You dont want to leave them on there to long or they will dry on to the stretcher.

When you remove them from the trap, hold them by the head and wrap your hand around them. Squeegee the water out of the fur by sliding your hand down their body. If there's snow, roll them in the snow. If not, wrap them in newspaper in your vehicle. Most all water will be gone by the time you get home.

I do just like this except I keep a couple of bath/beach towel in the back of my truck I save newspapers during the summer just for this reason I fight the it don,t get that cold here either temps too.

i learned mine from his books

Yes, a wealth of info there!

Dry towel.If still wet got a set up where I have a hair dryer blowing warm(Not hot) air on the wet rat while I skin another one at the same time.

Yes but make sure you put it on the low setting or you will shrink them


c hartman

I roll them in the snow and rub clean snow on them, then wrap them in newpaper and put them in a pack till I get home, they usually are dry, then I brush them before skinning. I use the newspaper as I unwrap them for wiping off the fleshing beam, then discard and burn the paper. The newspaper works better for cleaning up than paper towels.

I do similarly for under ice beaver, except I dont wrap them, just lay some paper down in my sled, layer the beaver between newspapers. I dont like to let beavers freeze either cause they get mushy too. dont let them freeze to your truck bed or metal tools, or you will be sorry.