I was tying a few bullet head stoneflies the other day and I was looking for a tool to aide in making tight uniform heads. I looked online and found a company out of Oregon that made a tool. I had not seen them in local flyshops and then it hit me… I have a ton of spent rifle cartridge cases from my rifles so I started experimenting. This is what I came up with.
cal. for small yellow sallies sizes up to size 8
257 cal. for size 6-4
cal. or 282. for sizes for 4-2
30 cal for sizes 2 and large stremer patterns.
They all worked great and made some great heads.
For safety purposes I have marked these casing I use for this task so they don’t make it to the reloading bench form the fly tying bench.
After a quick web search it just looks like you tie the hair in with tips extending well beyond the eye and then fold them back (ala a thunder creek streamer) and tie the wing down, forming a thick hair head? Is that it?
In that case, I guess you are using the empty cartridge to ensure that the hair is all pushed back and in a uniform size/shape for the head?
How I tie them is I tie equal parts (dyed deer hair) on top of the hook shank and below with the tips of the hair facing forward. Then I simply slide the eye of the hook into the opening of the cartridge and if it goes on too easy I dont have enought deer hair (so I tie some more on) This technique works well to make nice tight uniform heads. This can be used on hoppers, stoneflies, minnow pattens and any other patterns that need a bulky head.
