Bucktail vs. Deer Hair

[knotnot]

Hi

When making a fly that calls for 2 or more colours of bucktail
can you sub in deer hair for one of them ?
Is there a buoyancy or absorbency difference ?

knotnot

[phearless]

To answer your questions, yes and yes.

Deer hair is hollow and likes to float, hence it's use in dry flies.

But it will also absorb water after awhile as well.

If a pattern calls for bucktail, I would stick with it.
Deer hair long enough to wing streamers with, will also flair tremendously,very difficult to work with.
You could sub bucktail with various other hairs or synthetics though.
Half the fun of fly tying is subbing something in and making the pattern " new "

Have fun and post us a pic of your creation.

[geoffvl]

I don't like working with deer hair. The other day I bought 6 different colours of buck tail for 10 bucks. It's really cheap.

[11th Warrior]

To add what Phearless said, I tie my Clouser minnows with polar bear instead of bucktail and it works great.

[_HOOK_]

another alternative to bucktail like 11th said is Polar Bear. i also like using Calf tail if i cant get the color im looking for in PB hair

[11th Warrior]

calftail was actually my first choice (since i couldn't find flo pink bucktail), but the guy at my shop said pb was better and balanced out the bigger barbell eyes I was using.

[knotnot]

Hi

Thanks very much for the info and advice.
Much appreciated.

knotnot