The Age Of Deer

[Fly Tyer Guy 0]

What deer do the best hair come from? Young, Old, Buck or Doe? :dunno:

[Guest]

I guess that would depend on what you intend the hair for? spinning, winging? etc? Different age deer, male or female, winter or summer , etc. Lots of things to factor in.

 

john

[Fly Tyer Guy 0]

Spinning and Stacking, Thanks.

[streamcaddis 0]

Fly tier. Here is the guy to ask deer hair questions to. He is the guru of deer hair here is the web site. he will be at Mason in December. www.whitetailflytieing.com

hope this helps. :hyst: :yahoo: :yahoo:

[steelie 0]

Good Day,

 

Indeed - Chris Helm's is a well of information when it comes to deer hair.

 

Steelie

[FKROW 0]

Call Chris Helm and tell him what fly you are tying and he will explain the proper hair and hand select the material for you,,,,,,excellent resource for any type of hair tying.

 

Regards,

FK

[Fly Tyer Guy 0]

I'm not really planning on buying any from Chris Helm, I was asking because, If, when I would go hunting what kind of deer would most likely have the best hair, If it would even be worth saving the skin. And most people try and shoot older deer....I don't want to shoot really young deer either

[Bruce Derington 0]

Buy the latest Hatches Magizine and read the artical about Deer Hair , which was written by Chris Helm. For spinning and stacking you want long coarse hair He says this " look for a hide from a deer that weighs at least 110 pounds (dressed). The deer should be between 1 1/2 to 2 years old. Early season deer hair is normally 1/4 to 1 inch, and hair shorter than 3/4 of an inch is real tough to handle. If your tying on size 2 or larger , hair should be 1 3/4 to 2 inches. The later in the season the longer the hair. Give him a call and ask him questions

[FKROW 0]

Every deer hide is unique and different,,,,,the early season deer has finer hair and the later season is thicker and coarser. Your location (weather patterns) and food available will also vary the deer hair quality.

 

One suggestion is when you do harvest the deer, try and have a taxidermist tan the hide for you, it will be easier to handle and store, the hide/hair should last for many years when tanned. The legs and face (mask) have nice fine hair for small caddis wings.

 

Call Chris Helm and explain what you are researching, I believe he will give you directions on how to select the best deer.

 

Regards,

FK

[chub 0]

If I can put in my two cents, I would have to say that you want to take fur from about 3 or 4 places of the deer. Don't take the whole hide it's way more than you need to tye with or try to clean. Cut about 6x6 squares off the animal, taking one off the rump, one off the shoulder and one or two off the back. You may want to cut a small square off the face and take the tail. Notice that the hair on the face is different from the body and the stomach is different as is the inside of the legs. There is a I think 3 or 4 different types of hair on a WTD. Check it out.

 

The tail is best to get when the animal is still warm. Carefully cut around the tail at the point where it meet the butt, be sure you don't cut the bone but cut to the bone and pull. The best tool for this is a utility knife with a new blade. A cold animal you can pull like hell but it may have to be cut down the tailbone. On a good year I can get 6 to 12 of these, then you die them with kool-aid, it works great.