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Please pardon this if it sounds silly, but I've been wondering about the source of bucktails. If anyone is in the business, I'd like to know where the wholesalers get all of these.
Are the deer raised and processed like cattle? Or, do we get all these tails from hunters?
I've been tying a lot of streamers lately, and the mind wanders.
Thanks!
While I am certainly no expert on this subject, I would suspect that the very large majority of bucktails come from deer harvested during hunting season. To give you an idea of the numbers, in 2002, there were approximately 1,400,000 deer harvested in the southeast alone. That includes, Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Tenn. Many of the deer taken are professionally processed for their meat and I'm sure the processing plants save the best hides/tails if the hunters don't want them. Just an educated guess.
Jim Smith
Chris Helms goes to deer prossesing and has his pick of hides and tails.Last fall I know he dried over 30 hides. He shows up at fly tying shows with boxes of tails. [url=http://www.globalflyfisher.com/staff/helm/selecting:79cbc]http://www.globalflyfisher.com/staff/helm/selecting[/url:79cbc]
I teach tying to scouts---the cub scouts dont believe me when I tell them that the red and green tails that I show them came from a deer I shot.
[This message has been edited by William Fitzgerald (edited 29 April 2006).]
They also buy tails and hides at fur market from trappers and hunters and slaughter houses.