Making zonkers from magnum zonkers

smalljaw

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Aug 25, 2012
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Pennsylvania
Well I never would have imagined myself cutting my own zonker strips, especially after reading what Fatman said but it has happened, sort of, out of necessity. Cabela's had a clearance sale on fly tying stuff and they had their zonkers on sale, now for those who don't know Cableas regular cut and cross cut zonkers are 4 bucks a pack but you get 6' instead of 3' so it is a good deal. Well they had barred ones at a good price, 6' of those for $4.29 so I'm in, and remember, these are regular not cross cut, well they got here and I was disappointed, they are magnum strips, very hard to use those for tails on small jigs so I called them up and told them that they are magnum strips and I only got a little over 30 inches in each pack. After some talking they said yes, it is a mistake but to make it right they are going to fish the description and give me 3 more packs for free because I was supposed to get 6 feet. Well I'm looking at it wondering what to do with it and I was going to see if I could do it with a razor when I got a good idea, why not try my exacto knife, after all it is sort of like a razor. Well it worked great, now I have almost 6 feet from each pack of zonkers as the exacto knife not only cut them down but I was able to just cut the leather so I lost very little hair and it cut the leather with ease, it took me 20 minutes to do 3 packs of 36 inches per pack and I'm getting 3 more sent to me this week so I'll have a lot of rabbit for awhile!! So if you find a sale on magnum zonkers and you have an exacto knife and a fresh blade, get them and cut them down it is much easier that you would think!
 

Fatman

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May 1, 2011
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Northfield, Vermont
SJ - yeah it works good. Just stretch them them out and I used a metal edge laying on it and cut slow and easy. Glad it worked out for you!!!!!!!!
 

Shoemoo

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Nov 1, 2011
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Boise, ID
They had the clearance on magnum zonkers at the stores too. I picked up a couple of packs in different colors last time I was there. I've just been cutting very short pieces of the hide, folding the hide over, tying in the hair and cutting off the hide strip. Works great as long as the hair is of decent length, and makes for a very small body.
 

AtticaFish

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Mar 22, 2010
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Attica, OH
Sounds like you got a steal. I would keep a few of the uncut Mag size just in case you want to make some bigger jigs with fat tails.

On other thing i have done before is to cut the length zonker i want then slice it into thirds leaving a tab (uncut) on the end to tie to the hook shank. Picture a tabbed silicone skirt made of rabbit fur. The individual strips flow randomly from each other on a slow retrieve and separate if the come to a stop on the bottom.
 
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