Standard board top
Rockburn board bottom.

Which looks better to you?

Graders apparently like the Rockburn stretch

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The cost of shipping will get you. What about the guy who bought out Jerry LeBeau?

I use top lot and Latham boards. Both are top notch. If you can keep from it buy your boards at a convention or rondy an save a bunch on shipping

Nice looking fur

I've always made my own. Have tried different designs over the years and switched to split boards once. I far prefer solid stretchers and switched back shortly. I've got at least 15 split stretchers and at least that many solid ones, I use the split ones sometimes on little cats, but unless I have all the solid ones of the proper size filled up I never use a split stretcher on anything other than a yearling. I used to have very pointed heads on my cat stretchers, pointier than some coyote stretchers, you can gain 3 or 4 inches this way. I've since made some to FHA or NAFA sizes, and only ever use the biggest ones on jumbo cats, the others the necks were simply too wide and the cats didn't fit on them without the neck being loose and floppy. Narrowed the necks down on some while leaving the heads more rounded to the nose and really like that design. Gives a more catty looking head while the neck still fits nicely and you don't lose too much length. I like several widths of boards, that way you can choose the board to fit the cat. You want that 36" if you can possibly get it, but once you go an inch or two over that for just a bit of insurance against the buyer short stroking his ruler, you are better off getting width on that belly to make it look wider than stretching them very long and narrow.

Anybody else able to see Boco's pics? I can't and would like to see the difference between the two. I've never felt that the published sizes for cat boards by the auction houses fit bobcats well at all, maybe they fit lynx better? I'm betting Boco's preference will look better to me, he puts up nice fur.

Yeah you can use an otter board in a pinch, or a coyote board. Neither is right but you can get away with small cats on an otter board (head is too round though, may have problems getting the neck stretched properly) or a big tom on a coyote board, but one is too narrow and one is too wide for your average cat.

Ok, I post and then Boco's pics show up when it refreshes. Aargh!

If you held a gun to my head and made me choose, I'd choose the bottom one Boco, but I think the top one is a little bigger cat and might have fit on that standard board better than the bottom cat. Am I correct?

I have some of the top lot adjustable bobcat boards and I like them, but why is the nose section of the board squared off? Looks a little odd to me when dried. I think I prefer to look of the cats that come off of Otis' boards with the tapered nose/neck section

I’ll be the odd man out.

I have a couple Top Lot boards I wasn’t thrilled with. I’ve had to tweak for cats. They were way to wide through the neck and shoulders. After alterations I gained probably 2” in my stretch on average. Even more on some cats.

I’m in the process of designing solid boards based off ODs adjustable stretchers.

I’m glad it wasn’t just me. I know people swear by them but they were way too wide for me. Did you tweak them by cutting some material off the shoulder area?

Makes sense. I was wondering if I was losing length with that square nose. My last cat stretched 39" and I bet I could have got her over 40 on a board with a tapered nose/neck

Yeah, I did knock a little off the head width but taking about 3/8” off each side (about 3/4” total) starting just behind the ears, and reducing that width all the way down to about 15” from the nose really helped.

Those boards probably cost me four figures the first year I used them before I knew better.

I own more than few dozen OD boards. about half of them have been altered to fit misc, odd cats. Pretty rare that I use the Large Cat board. The Small cat will add quite a bit to a big cat. I use his Kitten board on all of the smaller/earlier cats. Od's boards are long, that allows for quite a bit of adjustments. These boards are meaty enough that a guy can saw and sand on them without them getting weak and warpy. Lots of tricks to getting length without thinning the fur.

A little personal Tweak never hurts anything. My boards are a little Steve Woods (Bobcatching),Otis Latham (Colorado cat), Rick Jamison (Calling Coyotes). You just have to use what the buyers like to see.

One thing I did to most of my OD boards, was put an adjustable nose in mine to open the head up to take out the neck slack.

That’s interesting ! Might have to include your idea in to my boards. Some of them big Toms need a little extra stretch up there.