Tails

[tahoe 50]

I had some deer tails given to me. They are very fresh. Any ideas as how to save them for tying? Drying ect. Thanks in advance.

[CrappieStalker1]

borax, or salt cure them. You tube has some good videos on it

[Fatman]

Done a bunch of them - First thing you need to do is get some borax (I used to use salt but once I tried the borax never went back, 20 Mule team is what you get)

Next take a razor blade knife or x-acto knife and on the underside part of the tail slice from the cut area down all the way to the tip of the tail. You need to get the bone out of it, or it won't cure right. Get as much of the meaty stuff out of cut area as you can.

Next - Get some Dawn dishwashing detergent and some hair conditioneron. Use warm running water and wash the tail in the Dawn detergent and get all the dirt and any blood off the tail. Next work hair conditioner into the bucktail and then rinse it out really good. At this point with the tail still soaking wet I take an old hair brush and brush the tail to get any snarls out of it, this also straightens the tail out.

Lay out some paper towel and put the tail hair side down on the paper towel - put more paper towl on top and press down on it, this will get a bunch of the moisture out of it.

Next get a good size piece of board - plywood works great but what ever you use it has to be bigger than the tail. Brush out the tail one more time then lay it hair down on the wood - take some small nail and tack it down on the wood, make sure you stretch it as much as you can to the sides. When this is done rub some borax onto the meaty part including the edges. When that's done cover the entire tail with borax. Check it every day and if you see any wet spots in the borax take an old spoon and get if off put fresh borax where you took off the wet stuff. I do this for anywhere from 1-2 weeks. After this get a big bag and with the tail still tacked on knock off all the borax. Look at the cut area part it should dry and have hardened.

Even if you think it's done - put a fresh coat of borax on it and let it sit for a week. After this amount of time it should be all done. Knock off the borax, pull the nails, and using a brush comb it out again = this helps get all the borax off - even better is a can of compressed air or a air compressor and blow the borax off.

It should fit into a gallon size zip lock bag - and I like to put a piece of flea collar in with it just to be safe. For about an additional two weeks I keep it away from all my other materials for quarantine.

Seems like alot of work but trust me you will love how it comes out.