I have a new box of sleepy creek coon stretchers.. how do you get them 7” wide, am I supposed to re shape the stretcher? I don’t care how hard you pull on the pelt, about 8” is the narrowest I can get, without tying some wire around the base to draw it in..

Yep, i just squeeze the wire in.

7-1/2 is as narrow as I ever went, wider on big coon.

Are they wood stretchers?

Wire

What size are they ? There are 2 sizes of coon wires, the size your looking is number 4.

Mine are 4’s

Make that 90 degree bend more than 90
Is one way.
All of mine have wood on the bottom
is another way.
Solid wood is my favorite.

Gotta squeeze the stretcher down as your pulling the hide down. That helps narrow the stretcher. The wood mod of them is the way to go though.

You don't want 7 inches for coons.Keep them 7.5 to 8 inches. Way back I used number 5 wire forms. I took a standard sized wood board and bent my wire ones down to those dimensions and then put a couple rounds of packing tape to keep that shape the way I wanted it. Most of the hard bending is up about 5-6 inches below the top.

Bryce

Not too many coon in TN that could be stretched to 8"...

I know what you mean. Our NC raccoon, you could read a newspaper through it if you made it 8" wide.

Squeeze the top of the stretcher in not the middle

I've always stretched them to 7 1/2" or 8", PA coons most were 7 1/2", Iowa coon usually 8 on the monster 8 1/2" or even 9" inch coyote boards!

https://furharvesters.com/pdf/pelthandling.pdf

A good reference.