:?: I need some help please. I just purchased a jungle cock cape from a well known East Coast supplier. It was a grade A cape, for $150. This cape does not look much different then the $100 cape I purchased last year. Quite frankly it does not look much better then the $60 POS I purchased on e-bay. My question is , what should I expect for $150? I don’t mind repairing some nails, but every nail having multiple splits for $150? Am I too picky? I would appreciate your feedback. Thanks.
I would return it if the nails are split. For that much money the cape should be top notch. Ron
No you are not too picky, for that type of money, the cape should be what was advertised.
Contact who you purchased it from and tell them what you told us, and then send it back. Either for a better cape, that you expect, or a refund plus postage.
Thanks Ron MT and Stephen H. I just packed it up and asked the wife to take it to the post office tommorow. I appreciate your feedback.
For that kind of money, only you should be picking out the cape and nobody else.
I would never buy feathers online or at ebay. I gotta handle and inspect what I’m purchasing.
I have seen Grade 1/A capes and I have seen what was purported to be a Grade 1. The true grade 1/A I have is almost totally without splits with lots of nails in all sizes.
What I do know is that there is A LOT of ungraded necks out there available to the fly shops. Many buy the ungraded Jungle C0ck and grade it themselves. Maybe this is the case with who you bought yours from.
One fly shop close to me has a bunch of lousy looking capes that he calls grade 1 with more splits than a Dallas Cowgirls dance routine. They are all ungraded capes but that doesn’t stop him from putting an outrageous price tag on them.
I guess Conranch needs to get in the Jungle C0ck business?
Yeah I’d ask for a refund. You can get a “super grade” cape for $150
I’d be screaming mad & ask for a refund !!!
Personally, I’d like to know the vendor…if it is a certain New England vendor that changed hands recently, it would explain some problems I’ve been having too…
Thanks all for the response. I called the vendor today and told them the cape was coming back, and they said they would credit my mastercard for the charges. For what it is worth, I talked to a vendor in the Chicago area today, and they told me that grade A capes are almost impossible to find right now. They tried to get one from one of their distributors, and could not find one that they would sell to me. I don’t want to name the vendor I was dealing with because they seem to be willing to make this right. Where do you folks get your Jungle C capes? Any help would be appreciated.
One of the problems with Jungle C capes to me is that there really isn’t a standard grading system. Like Whiting farms has with their hackle. Most of the legal jungle C come from England and I alway’s question the grading on the capes. It really seems to me that the quality is getting poorer and poorer. This is probably due to the decreased supply, increased demand and import problems with feathers the past year or so with the panic over bird flu. Price has increased greatly in the past 2 years. The best ones I have seen are imports prior to endangered species act, 20 years or so ago and probably from india. Best bet for obtaining high quality is at estate sales.
I keep trying to get one of my local broke hog farmers to look into raising jungle C birds for me. So far no takers. Course it could be the middle of Wyoming is not a prime area for raising these type birds.
I will add my 2? cents worth here.
In the past I have raised a large number of the beautiful JF.
Four years ago I found and bought several good pairs of breeding stock, thinking I would play with them again.
They are an easy bird to propagate. They are a difficult bird to raise. From the time they are 4 weeks old they are the wildest bird I have ever had.
Point of interest:
These birds must be over 2 years of age before the cape is fully colored and fully feathered. Most other birds are mature in one year. The better capes come from 3 year old birds in Jungles. They can not be raised together or you will have only one bird in the pen that has a nice cape useable for fly tying.
In order to produce a cape that would grade #1 the bird must be at least 3 years old (only my feelings and thoughts) They must be protected in winter to prevent toe freezing. Timing is all important for when to process when most nails are perfect. This is one of the reasons we tiers seldom see perfect JF capes.
I can sell breeding birds for $400 per pair all day long. Two to three year olds.
I recently sold all of my breeding stock and kept two mature males. Why did I keep them? Because I do enjoy them. Both these males are 4 year olds and one of them has the most beautiful cape I have ever seen, today the other is not fully feathered out this year but will be, eventually. I am not interested in selling either one of them. These birds are F1 stock, first generation out of French imports. Worth well over $400 each as breeders so why process them to sell for fly tying for $150? Do the math.
I’m not trying to be a smart butt, just trying to put this subject on an even playing field.
Like others above told you, return as you have done if you buy a product and it is not what you were led to believe. A lot of fly shop employee’s have no way of knowing about grading etc. They get stuck in the middle so to say. One of the reasons you will never see Conranch Hackle in a fly shop while I am alive.
My reason for selling was they take up space I could use for the genetics and at today’s price are not worth the time and trouble. (again, just my thoughts) 
Denny
I have a beautiful JC cape that I bought from these guys: http://www.fishermensfeathers.com/uk/ The shipping charges from the UK are high but the products that I have received have been excellent.
Steve
I know this will be hard for some to believe but I still have about 8 or 9 capes left that I bought from Herters many years ago. They had a sale on them and I bought 25 grade A capes for (I believe) $6.00 each. At that time they were getting them stright from Africa by the hundreds. All of the one’s I recieved were great capes. I sold a few and used many of them. But I still have some to tide me over.
This is the product that made Herters fold there door’s. They got caught buying them after the government said “NO” LOL Indangered
Believe it or not there use to be a grading on them and company’s held to it very well. It is just in the last 25 years or so that it went to heck. Poeple thinking they can make money on crap. It is a shame for sure.
I do know that you can still get some great capes from Canada and England. I have a friend that lives in Alberta that has some real nice one’s that he bought in his local fly shop were he worked while he was in high school. They are out there you just have to look around for an honest dealer. Ron
PS: Mine are not for sale. LOL
Another vote for Fishermens Feathers. They used to have tons of JC capes back in 2001, when I bought a couple of them. They were very evenly graded too. They also sell half capes if you don’t really need that many nails. Just make sure that you specify what color that you want. The orange part of the nail can go from a lighter orange cream color to a nice deep orange that you see more often on display flies.
If you go through eBay, just make sure that the cape that they are selling is pictured on that auction. They usually state if it’s unused etc. , but many that sell more than one cape just use one picture and grading does vary way more.
Regards,
Mark
The grower in Eastern Canada is Steve Thompson, in Amherst NS (Thompson Atlantic Hackle) He grows JC as well as exotic pheasants & turkeys for fly tying. Email is thompson.hackle@ns.sympatico.ca, ph 902-667-7247. Hope this helps some of you out. He is fully CITES certified with a number to export. I have used a lot of his feathers in my tying, whether for fishing or exibition flies.
I quit using the real capes a long time ago. The artificial ones look better, are 100% consistent, tons cheaper and virtually indestructable. Check out the eye on my “New Fly” post with pictures.
Semper Fi!
Bamboozle, RW here
I’d take a Grade 3 Dallas Cowgirl in a New York minute. I don’t care how many splits she has.
Later, RW