i’m interested in getting some jungle cock eyes, but am not very excited about spending more than $100 for a neck, or around $5 for 10 feathers for that matter. especially because i know i will be needing a lot more than just 10. Any suggestions??
Thanks
-RC
Nothing is more amusing to the heathen than the sight of his missionary rapidly growing demented through the futile practice of his own dogmas.
Tie something that does not involve Jungle Cock. That is the only suggestion I can come up with that would lessen the cost. They are not cheap and their is not a good subsitute if you need a lot of them unless you buy a cape.
RCream,
I am going to give you something to check out that will probably be totally worthless to you, but, I will give it to you anyway. For jungle cock eyes, which I never use in my tying, could you subsitute starlin feather tips. I noticed on my starlin skins that there are some feathers with bright colored tips very similiar to jungle cock. I do not know if this can be used or not and if this was a “stupid” suggestion, just let me know and I probably have some more stupid ones. 
Warren
RCream,
Dick Talleur gives some instructions on making substitute JC feathers out of Guinea hen in his book on salmon flies. Somewhere on the web I saw some reasionable substitutes that looked like they were made with fabric paint. JC feathers were generally used to imitate eyes on baitfish patterns from an era before we had synthetic materials. If you are just interested in catching fish, you could forgoe the JC and just use a stick on eye. I think if you look around the web, you might be surprised to find some better deals on lesser grade JC necks but who knows if they are legal 
Good luck
RCream and others,
Sorry but there is no ‘good’ substitute for jungle cock eyes. Starling, guinea hen, plastic imitations, et al, are junk. Period! The same holds true for some other natural materials. So your choices are: Don’t use the real thing if the look doesn’t matter; Use a lesser quality of the real thing if price matters a lot; Or, use a better quality of the real thing, along with paying its cost, if the looks of the end product are highly desired.
Allan
One of the sponsors here - Stone River Outfitters - sells Ungraded Jungle Cock skins for $60.00 each. Here’s a link:
[url=http://www.stoneriveroutfitters.com/qtp.htm:6bcb6]http://www.stoneriveroutfitters.com/qtp.htm[/url:6bcb6]
Scroll down to the bottom of the page and check under “Plumage on Skins”.
I would imagine they require some repair of the nails since it is an ungraded skin, but it’s a relatively easy procedure. In fact, I believe that there’s an article somewhere on FAOL describing how to do it.
I agree with everyone else, there really is no substitute for the real thing.
Hope this helps,
-Darryl
“If we carry purism to it’s logical conclusion, to do it right you’d have to live naked in a cave, hit your trout on the head with rocks, and eat them raw. But, so as not to violate another essential element of the fly-fishing tradition, the rocks would have to be quarried in England and cost $300 each.”
~John Gierach
A search on EBay will often find sellers parting with several lesser quality capes for reasonable amounts.
I agree that there is no real substitute for Jungle Cock, and I have tried them all when it was not available. Either leave it out altogether and I assure you the fish will not mind, or buy a second or third grade cape and put up with a few splits…
[url=http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/tyingtips/part88.html:907ae]“Repairing Jungle Cock Eyes”[/url:907ae]
A better and faster method. [url=http://flyanglersonline.com/flytying/atlantic/streamers/demon.html:657e5]http://flyanglersonline.com/flytying/atlantic/streamers/demon.html[/url:657e5]
Using liquid “cements” will bleed through on the good side ruining the feathers.
Happy Trails!
Ronn