Which two or three fur types / colors to purchase first?

[CDewberry 0]

So, for the beginner there are so many things to buy you can go broke out the gate.  What is the best bang for your buck when it comes to fur? Elk or Deer or other? Color choice? These would provide the beginner with the wider multitude of tying options.  What say ye? Thanks.

[cphubert 0]

it depends on your fishing and tying preference, streamers I would buy bucktail a natural and maybe red, yellow, and black sometimes you can find a bucktail piece color assortment. many materials can be substituted with synthetics and brushed out for streamers or made into dubbing for bodies and wings. Acquiring materials is another rabbit hole to get lost in, buy what you need for a chosen fly pattern or three and build from there - before long you will have more material than places for it.

[flyflinger 0]

Fortunately, most furs are not that expensive.  Given your favorite species, I would guess you tie small trout flies so can't go wrong with elk and deer hair. 

Check out Charlie Craven's tutorial:    

Regards, 

      

 

[SilverCreek 0]

For selecting deer and elk hair see my guide:

https://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?/topic/69829-what-to-look-for-in-comparadun-hair/&tab=comments#comment-522278

[Poopdeck 0]

I would suggest first determining the fly you want to tie and then buy the fur for that fly. Just going out and buying wholesale based on no criteria other then, “I have to have fur” is a poor plan. Then pick another pattern and buy the material for that fly. You will find that your materials will build all by itself since most materials crossover into hundreds of patterns and one little patch of fur can tie many flies. 

[CDewberry 0]

3 hours ago, flyflinger said:

Fortunately, most furs are not that expensive.  Given your favorite species, I would guess you tie small trout flies so can't go wrong with elk and deer hair. 

Check out Charlie Craven's tutorial:    

Regards, 

      

 

Thanks. I watched that video recently. Good stuff!

[CDewberry 0]

36 minutes ago, Poopdeck said:

I would suggest first determining the fly you want to tie and then buy the fur for that fly. Just going out and buying wholesale based on no criteria other then, “I have to have fur” is a poor plan. Then pick another pattern and buy the material for that fly. You will find that your materials will build all by itself since most materials crossover into hundreds of patterns and one little patch of fur can tie many flies. 

I hear what you are saying, just trying to add to the stock of other materials that I have been accumulating. Cheers.

[niveker 0]

Good advice above, but if I was to buy a gift of hair for someone targeting trout and who just starting this tying adventure, it would be deer hair.  Natural, in lighter and darker shades, not dyed.  I think its more versatile than elk, or maybe I just like tying with it better than with elk.  If you have friends or family that hunt, you can have a near unlimited supply, and its easy enough to dry a patch or two.  I've got a plastic bin full of the stuff.  

After that, bucktail, without a doubt.  Again, hunters are your friends.  Start with natural and then I would go with olive, maybe chartreuse or yellow.  Unfortunately, really nice bucktail is stoopid expensive compared to what is was 3-4 years ago, and quality is in the toilet for a lot of it. 

Hare's mask would also be on the top of the list.  Natural brown to start with,  then maybe black or olive.  Yellow would be nice, but since I don't have yellow I'd keep that one for myself instead of giving it as a gift.  The variation of dark and lighter hair on one mask gives you a good range of shades you can get by blending, not to mention the mix of short spiky and long soft hairs give a nice range of dubbing types or use as tails or in a dubbing loop.

I know you asked about hair, but an underrated and relatively inexpensive bird skin to buy is a male ring-neck pheasant, get the whole skin with the wings.  You could tie flies for months and months, in a huge range of shapes, sizes, and colors with just one of those.   

That's enough damage to your pocket book for one night.  Good luck, have fun, and don't overthink it.

[CDewberry 0]

15 minutes ago, niveker said:

Good advice above, but if I was to buy a gift of hair for someone targeting trout and who just starting this tying adventure, it would be deer hair.  Natural, in lighter and darker shades, not dyed.  I think its more versatile than elk, or maybe I just like tying with it better than with elk.  If you have friends or family that hunt, you can have a near unlimited supply, and its easy enough to dry a patch or two.  I've got a plastic bin full of the stuff.  

After that, bucktail, without a doubt.  Again, hunters are your friends.  Start with natural and then I would go with olive, maybe chartreuse or yellow.  Unfortunately, really nice bucktail is stoopid expensive compared to what is was 3-4 years ago, and quality is in the toilet for a lot of it. 

Hare's mask would also be on the top of the list.  Natural brown to start with,  then maybe black or olive.  Yellow would be nice, but since I don't have yellow I'd keep that one for myself instead of giving it as a gift.  The variation of dark and lighter hair on one mask gives you a good range of shades you can get by blending, not to mention the mix of short spiky and long soft hairs give a nice range of dubbing types or use as tails or in a dubbing loop.

I know you asked about hair, but an underrated and relatively inexpensive bird skin to buy is a male ring-neck pheasant, get the whole skin with the wings.  You could tie flies for months and months, in a huge range of shapes, sizes, and colors with just one of those.   

That's enough damage to your pocket book for one night.  Good luck, have fun, and don't overthink it.

excellent. thanks  

[WWKimba 0]

I'd say deer (can be used as a sub for elk), bucktail, rabbit (I like to use zonker strips) and squirrel (squirrel tail if concentrating on streamer patterns).  As far as colors go, start with tan, grey, black, olive and brown - if tying mostly nymphs/wets and white, grey, chartreuse, black, red, yellow, and black - if tying streamers (orange, green and yellow if you have the added budget).

Kim

Check this article out (especially the bottom) for some helpful info - https://globalflyfisher.com/tie-better/dont-tie-flies

[chugbug27 0]

I'm with poopdeck on this one. One step at a time

[niveker 0]

1 hour ago, chugbug27 said:

I'm with poopdeck on this one. One step at a time

I agree with you both in general, but to answer his 'best bang for the buck' question (no pun intended), it's hard to beat a quality chunk of deer hair, a nice bucktail, a hare's mask, or a ringneck pelt.  Those are staples on the tying desk.

I dare say that with those, well chosen, a resourceful tyer would do great wiithout adding anything other than thread, wire, and hooks to their tying inventory.

But who the heck would want to limit themselves in that way.