Seal dubbing

[rookie]

You can get seal dubbing from John at FeathersMc or Steve at Cookshill. Both are good, reasonably priced and quite legal.

[Buddy Sanders]

Uncle Jesse,

Are you REALLY suggesting that taking up hunting will get you your deer hair for FREE???

Rifle and scope: $300 to $1,000.

Ammunition to practice with or you won't get no deer: About a buck a shot now days (pun intended). Ammo's getting expensive.

Licenses and permits: $30 to $300 depending on where you live and where you hunt (could be more some places, I don't hunt so I'm not up on the rising costs of deer tags).

Huntin' clothes: $200 (got to have that no smell camo stuff, plus the undies that keep you warm, that funny bright orange cap so other hunters don't mistake you for a deer and shoot you,etc.....)

TIME spent scouting around looking for the deer before you can go and shoot it: hard to value, but it could keep you from fishing for a few days...about $1,000/day if that happens .

Of course, then you have to be where you can shoot a deer during the hunting season...good luck.

Then, you got to see a deer you are capable of shooting...good luck.

Then, you got to actually hit it...Good luck...even good shots get buck fever the first time out..And if you only wound it, you got to track it down and shoot it again.....First time hunter success in the US is well below 50%

If you actually shoot it and manage to kill it, then you got to cut it open, take out the guts, skin it, then take the hide and clean it and then dry or tan it...lots of really messy work that even enthusiastic hunters wouldn't call 'fun'. And if you don't do it correctly, and most don't the first time, the stuff is useless and you got to start over. Depending on where you live/hunt, that may mean 'next year'...

$500 for a whole hide sounds like a bargain to me...and if you really want a full sized deer skin, you can get one already tanned for lots less than that.....but if you want it in various colors buying it already cut up and dyed from the fly shop is still WAY cheaper, both in time and treasure, than hunting it yourself.

Besides, if you find the piece of deer skin you want at the fly shop, they won't make you do anything but pay for it...no shooting, no walking around in the woods, no carrying a seeping, bloody carcass too far too late in the day...

Hunting ain't cheap. Success isn't assured.

I'll buy my deer hair, or get it from my friends who already hunt and know how.



Buddy




.

[bones]

try;

http://www.davemcneese.com/sealfur.html

[bowfin47]

Buddy's correct in everything that he said, except that he left out the fact that in many parts of the country, the deer hair is too short and not worth tying with...

I know, I still have a couple of "southern" deer hides that ain't worth squat!

[fishdog54]

Buddy,

I guess you could say the same thing about the final cost of deer burger or steaks, or trout, whether you eat them or not. Strange, but I never kept the hide from any of the deer I harvested. I did get a nice tanned deer hide from a taxidermist back about 1994 in Mich. for about $30.00. I got a big tanned deer hide recently at a garage sale for $5.00. I've found elk hides at swap shops for cheap etc. I have a small patch of natural seal fur, which I've yet to use. I've had it for at least 14yrs. Guess I better get tying!!!

Best regards, Dave S.

[Buddy Sanders]

All kidding aside.

Real seal is pricey, but you can still get it. I just wonder why anyone would want it.

There are synthetics and mixes of other furs that are very close to 'real' seal.

Does anyone really believe the fish care if it's real seal or not?

I know some tyers care, their reasons are their own.

I just can't believe it maters, even a little bit, to the fish....

I just can't get the image of those cute little white seal pups out of my head...guess I'm getting soft in my old age.

Buddy

[Uncle Jesse]

Buddy,

Obviously you did not see my tongue firmly embedded in my cheek as I typed out my reply. Is there more expensive meat in the world than that you kill while hunting? I think for most of us the answer is no. But there is something about vension from a fresh kill, just like fish caught, cleaned and cook taste the best.

[Cold]

All I'm gonna say is that I just recently started tying with real seal, both mature and baby. Baby is good for small flies, like small wet flies and nymphs for trout, mature is much spikier and buggier, and great on big nymphs and (especially) streamers. I've tried a few different subs and some come close, but none are 'practically the same'.

Mature seal is not hard to use at all. If the normal 'dubbing noodle' wont work, a dubbing loop makes it just as easy as can be. Dubbing loops are also, in my experience, more durable, so that's what I use all the time.

[DonO1]

I work deals with hunters for furs and feathers. I mostly deal for long elk mane that I need for hackles on the giant flies.
But for deer hair, I buy the hi-grade strips with the longest hair. Two reasons, one- the hi-grade strips are well maintained and dyed without being brittle.
Two- the strips come with well-tanned thick leather that is water-proof. I use these for legs and tails on many flies after I have cut the hair from the strip.

[DonO1]

"Unless your into only tying really big fly's and like agravation trying to get the hair to adhere to the thread, baby seal is what you want."

All seal, polar bear, mole hair, squirrel - anything- will rope-dub without having to adhere to the thread. This is the difference in rope-dubbing as opposed to other dubbing methods. The thread or wire does not twist, and the dubbing material does NOT adhere to the thread or wire, yet seal will dub tight enough to make segments.