Forgive me if this has been covered before I did some searches and came up with nothing. My friend saved me the bucktail off a deer he just got,was wondering what the best approach would be to go about drying it out/cleaning it so I could tie some jigs with it. I also have to cut the tail bone out of it any tricks to doing this? Thanks

Slice up the tailbone in the brown hair (you don't use that anyway) and then rub some borax soap on the inner skin (where it lay next to the bone) to dry it out. That will protect the hide. I prefer to strip the tails from teh bone while still attached to the deer but you have to take them when you can get them...

I wash the hair side too. Any soap will work but I use dawn. If you don't wash the hair , there is some oil or something in the hair that will start to stink while the hair is in storage. I also find washing them makes it much easier to handle the white hair while tying.

Yep...forgot about washing...Very good suggestion. You can also dye them colors if you want but it is a pain in my opinion as white hair works as good as anything I've tied on a lead jig...

Thanks for the help guys!Would kosher salt work instead of borax soap? I don't have any of that soap kicking around..

You can salt the hide but if you have a chance and can get to a grocery store borax is the best way to protect the hide. It not only kills the smell but stops the hide from rotting and dries it properly. It is pretty cheap for a small box...less than $3 if I remember and it will last for a long time (works great for cleaning concrete and wetsuits too!).

For one tail you can just wash the hair and tie the jigs , etc and discard the hide before it gets to be a problem. One tail is not all that much to tie up.