All of the above, plus you might try waxing your boards by rubbing a cake of parafin or trap wax along the edge of the board around the neck and shoulder area before you put them on the board.

I use to have trouble removing coon hides until I took a serious look at my boards . If you look at the "Fur Harvesters" Coon board size. You will note that it is tapered nearly it's entire length.Be it ever so slight the further you go down the board.Never-the-less a slight taper exists.This and belly boards stopped all my problems.I bet if you look at your board after the pelt is removed, somewhere it is under-cut .