Just thought I’d pass this along. Page 54 of the May issue of Field & Stream states, " The hide of one bull elk will produce enough hair for 984,376 flies-- give or take." Thank goodness there are no elk here in North Alabama. I might be tempted to harvest one.
I’d be more interested in those backstraps and tenderloins than I would the hide… Sorry!
I`m with you quivira kid backstraps sound good to me
That’s an interesting stat EL, makes me wonder how many flies one could get out of a typical white tail. Including bass bugs, muddlers, irresistible’s, compareduns, hoppers, humpy’s etc.
I want to know what unfortunate desk-jockey got tasked with finding THAT number. 
I’m a desk jockey, but not THAT one! :o)
I saw elk hair in the fly-tying materials section of Sportsman’s this week. I’ve been considering tying up some Elk Hair Caddis. I’m wondering…would deer hair work just as well?
Deer Hair will work fine. Just make sure it doesn’t flare too much.
Dave,
The short hairs at the top and towards the base of the bucktails we all buy make excellent wings on ‘Elk Hair Caddis’ and it’s something that many of us won’t use otherwise.
The tips of these hairs have just enough ‘flair’ for a EHC but too much for most bucktail uses.
Buddy
ps: Figuring out the ‘number’ of flies from a hide isn’t all that difficult…once you know the size of the average hide (it’s sure to be out there on the web someplace) in square inches, all you do is decide how much an ‘average’ fly uses, probably about 1/64 square inch or so, then just divide it. Since every hide will be different, that figure will only be accurate to within about 1,000-2,000 flies, but then we are talking stats, not reality. BS.
Shouldn’t be too hard. All you need to know is the average total square inches of an Elk hide. Then take a square inch of material and see how many flies you can tie with it. The big tanning companies have a a machine that when you run a full hide through can measure the total square feet in a few seconds (saw that on Dirty Jobs). This is how they figure the square footage they sell leather by. A simple multiplication of flies per square inch times total square inches on material.
Edit: Looks like as I was typing so was Buddy!
for all intents and purposes, who cares! 
whats next? how many royal wullfs can be tied using one 10 inch long calf tail?? 
Actually Norm I was thinking along those lines. how many zonkers from a rabbit hide? How much dubbing from a Hares mask etc. You’re right though who cares about most stats, just another reason to have another meaningless conversation, like most of these threads are. Entertainment if nothing else. Besides, for most of us, if we had anything worthwhile to do, we’d be doing it and not reading this, correct?
The value to these kind of stats though can be equated to the cost of x-amount of flies to figure the cost per fly that a tyer incurs perhaps?
Or like a said, a meaningless conversation.
Another way to figure it would be to count the individual hairs in a square inch of elk hide, multiply that by the size of an average bull elk hide, and then divide that by the number of elk hairs USED in tying a single fly.
And thanks for the replies about using deer hair in lieu of elk hair.
You’re an actuary, aren’t you?
“An actuary is a business professional who deals with the financial impact of risk and uncertainty. Actuaries provide expert assessments of financial security systems, with a focus on their complexity, their mathematics, and their mechanisms”
no. i design submarines!
An accountant and an actuary are driving across the plains when they come to a sheep farm. The actuary announces that there are 739 sheep on the ranch.
The accountand says, “how the heck do you know that?”
The actuary answers, “I counted up all the legs and divided by 4.”
Bass Bug!
“…to figure the cost per fly that a tyer incurs…” !!!
Oh no, don’t do that! You’re scaring me here.
I do not want to know that…I do not want to know that…I CERTAINLY don’t want She Who Must Be Obeyed to know that!
(I may have just had an accident-such a surge of pure fear tends to effect my bladder).
Buddy
Bass Bug!
“…to figure the cost per fly that a tyer incurs…” !!!
Oh no, don’t do that! You’re scaring me here.
I do not want to know that…I do not want to know that…I CERTAINLY don’t want She Who Must Be Obeyed to know that!
(I may have just had an accident-such a surge of pure fear tends to effect my bladder).
Buddy
Is it true that a Seawolf class submarine will rise to a well-presented, size 18, green chironomid?
More to the point, does submarine design carry over to designing streamers?
Ed
Now I know why your swap flies glow in the dark;).
Normand - Your post reminds me of a post I made a few years back where I counted the number of CDC feathers on a goose. I got several responses like “who cares”, “that all you got to do”, etc.
Tim