Live muskrats in a trap can easily be killed by a sharp rap on the nose with a stout stick. Muskrat pelts are handled as cased skins with the feet and tail cut off. Brush and clean the fur before skinning, remove excess fat from the skin and stretch the pelt carefully. Stretch your pelts uniformly and do not over-stretch them. A basic muskrat stretcher is eighteen inches long, eight and one-half inches wide at the base, tapering to five inches wide one foot from the base and down to a rounded end.
Many trappers use commercial wire stretchers which insure uniformly stretched pelts.
Some fur buyers pay as much for unskinned muskrats as they do for prepared pelts. By doing this, they are assured of having well prepared, uniform pelts. They sell the carcasses to pay for their work in skinning. Check on this with your fur buyer before the season starts. If you do your own skinning, look for a market for the carcasses as selling them would increase your profit.