Ray-
Yup, I bought one of their "premium" capes awhile ago. They sell for 49 bucks or so at regular price. It looks to be the same as a Hebert Miner Bronze grade. Hebert Miner is now owned by Whiting and as you noted has different genetics than the "regular" Whiting dry fly stuff sold in Red Labelled Whiting packaging. The Hebert Miner Line is packaged in Green Whiting labeling. On the cape i bought from Cabela's it's labeled "Cabela's Premium Hackle Grade 1" on a black label with orange writing, with the same "v cut" at the neck and "diaper" found on the hebert miner's.
The HM Grizzlies tend to have more of a cream cast to it than the pure white and black barring of the Whiting red label grizzlies. If it's labelled a variant, it may have something like a few golden badger feathers or whatever mixed in. On the grizz cape i bought (not labelled a variant) there were a few of these feathers mixed in.
On the cape I bought, it's a nice full cape and it looks like it will tie down to 20 no problem with a few 22's and some very short 24's. In general the HM line tends to have a rich range of natural colors- natural duns, browns, gingers and mixed shades like rusty duns, barred duns etc than the whiting line. Cabela's only carries the standard colors, so if you're looking for something special from the HM line, Jim is the person to go to. He normally carries a wide range of colors and always has some unusual stuff too. The HM line typically doesn't tie as small by a size or two as the whitings in comparable grades.
Hope this helps,
Mark
mark
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