Mike,
If you are saving skins, when you dress the deer, don’t slit the belly like normal. Slit the skin at the color transition and remove the white belly hair as one piece before even cutting into the muscle and getting things bloody. Save some of the course back hair as well for the natural color.
Good hunting, I’ll be just north of you up by Vale (just north of Bear Butte) again this year. A lot of deer and pheasant out there = a lot of tying material.
Ok, thanks for the tips. The guy teaching me to skin this year may think I’m a nut when I tell him whaat part I want to save… 8)
okay. i tried yet again and this time i couldnt get the hair to go on all sides of the hook!!! any tips on how to do this???
first pick your clump of hair, hold the hair on top of the hook and make two loose wraps of thread. Then start to tighten the wraps, when the hair starts to flare slowly let go of the hair and it should spin around the hook.
After it it is flared around the hook, make a couple of tight wraps on the hair and a couple in front of the hair and repeat the steps. Remember to pack the hair in between clumps to make a tight body, and be sure to remove the under fur so it spins better for you.
Sometimes I’ll even make a couple of loose wraps and then help the hair around the shank by sliding my fingers (holding the hair) down around the shank a little before I pull tight.
Sounds like you are well on your way to stacking, another close method that I think is actually a slightly higher level because of the color variations you can do. Plus, you can simply thread rubber legs through stacked hair with a needle and have them stay, which you can’t do with spun hair.
Hi DixieAngler…if you have any nippers that arent “cutting it”, you can recyle them into hair packers. Just take a small needle file and file a hole in the 2 jaws slightly larger than the hook you want to pack the hair on. You can even file 2 different sized holes for different sized hooks. Just be sure to dull the rest of the jaws so you won’t cut the thread. Hope this helps…Jason
Bill is right about the deer hair! All Ive done this year is tie streamers mostly spinning deer for muddlers and the like. After spinning a few heads yourself you will know the difference in the hair.
Good luck!
Seege
im still just not getting the hang of it. 
my hair isnt quite flairing and i dont kno how/what to do/use to pack the hair, and since i dont pack, there are gaps between my clumps, and it sux. any tips on what to use and how to do it on packing hair??? i am not going to go buy a packer by the way.
David spin the hair then pack. Half hitch after every bunch of hair you add to hold everything in place. If you dont half hitch everthing will move or come loose. Then pack – I use the first three fingers(nails) on my right hand. then repeat. I also noticed some will add a drop of cement after each packing to hold it in place------BILL
ok. do u ever stab urself if you slip??? that would suck.how hard to you pack it and how do u kno when to stop. and why is there a after yer name??? :?:
Pack the hair till it looks nice–you said that you had empty spots and packing should help that problem. I’ll put a :? before the name this time BILL
It’s a practice thing. I actually used to bend hooks because I was packing so aggresively with a brassie packer. I also started packing using my fingers, and everyonce in a while I would stick myself on the hook, but more because I wasn’t paying attention. With my fingers around the shank, I don’t think I had problems with my fingers slipping off. Just make sure to get your nails along the shank so that you are packing where the hair is tied, rather than just folding it back further out from the shank, where it will fold back forward.
If you’re not going to buy a packer, try using a wooden dowl. Just drill a small hole in the end. I use this method myself, I use several dowls with different size holes in each end. I drill them about an inch deep on both ends, just big enough to slide over the hook eyes. I have four all together, thats eight different sizes total. They work great, and you can make them all out of one dowl, wich costs like $2 at home depot,or wall-mart. Good luck, Dave