Fly Tyers Question On Deer Hair

[Ken Drifter]

Ive been tying Flies for a few years and today
I had a strange idea, Got a Deer today while hunting, nice Buck about 85-90lbs. And while doing the skinning I was wondering if there is a way to save some of the Deer hair ? I saved about 3 square feet made sure it was nice and clean.....Any suggestions ?
Thanks

[Snake9t9]

Salt the raw side of the hide down real heavy. Shake the old salt off and replace with fresh salt every few days until all the moisture has been drawn out of the hide. Also, keep the deer tail. It can be "cured" in the same way.

[Ken Drifter]

Snake, Thanks for the help.Ken

[smilesforu]

Make sure to store it in a sealed package/container after drying. Little bugs will eat the bases of the hairs over time if left to the open air. Think they are the same ones that eat wool clothes (moths?)

[Snapset]

I especially like the short tan colored hair on the legs. I skin right down to the hoof. The real short hairs are consistent enough in length that you don't even need to stack them for caddis wings. One hide is enough hair for ten lifetimes of tying. What we all oughta do is skin out one real nice deer, and send it in for professional hair-on tanning, split the cost and the hide. Ten people, 75 bucks for tanning the whole hide,.....Hmmmm. I am going hunting in the morning. If I get a decent young buck, I will post and if you are interested, respond. If any of you have shot a nice smooth haired doe, that might be even better...
-One other thing- Watch for ticks

[garyk]

Regarding which pieces to keep, the originators of the popular comparadun style of dry flies recomend the hair off the face, or the mask as it is known.

You may to keep pieces from all over the body so you have a variety of thicknesses and lengths.