I've been wondering what the differences were. Now I know. I also figured out that I need a wider board
There are a ton of pictures of Eric's ruler floating around, think I've even got one myself somewhere. But I know several trappers who claim to have lost money stretching to his dimensions. I think they are a little wide on the smaller cats, myself. But you don't want it stretched on a pencil either. Rule of thumb I use, once you get over 36" in length, you want as wide of a belly as you can have, without losing length. If your pelt starts inching back up the board you are going too wide, if you can do it wider without losing length, you are going too narrow. I try different stretchers every few years, always trying to get something better. Currently I like solid stretchers for my large cats and did my smaller cats on adjustable stretchers this year. I don't like the road cone shape you get on a truly big cat if you use an adjustable stretcher. Frankly I prefer solid boards for put up, but I have some adjustable stretchers I made that I am liking the finished product on small and medium cats better.
Plus they are just more versatile, I've got at least a couple dozen solid cat boards of various sizes, but it never fails when you are pulling cats out of the freezer at the end of the year and putting them up, you will end up with all the solid boards that are just the right size for the cat in your hand, already in use.
Pretty good video and explanation, but the cameraman should have spent more time with the camera pointed at the cats bellies while they were talking rather than at Eric and Alan's faces.
