Tail feather: how long

I've always heard that 35 stripes or more is trophy material...what about it UPH; any ideas on this one?
 
25" or longer is pretty special. I have a lot of 23" sets and a few 24's. Usually 24" is the longest any given day in the area I hunt. I've seen pictures of them up to 26" or 27", but they most likely came off of a pen-raised bird.
 
I've been trying to find the same information for a few years. I even tried calling a few places that had "longest tail contests" but didn't get any good info. There is always someone who claims to have seen a big tail but there are no photos or proof to go with it.

I've been hunting around Dumas, Texas the last 2 years and am going again this year. In 2007 I shot a huge bird that a 24" tail. Since then the guy I hunt with has been checking all the birds they take for long tail feathers. Last year he shot 3 with 24" plus tails, and I shot one that went 24-3/4". The average are more like 18-20".

I hunt in Kansas very year too, but haven't ever shot any near that long there.

Here are some pics of the ones we took. The first one is the big bird that got us started. (There is not much to show scale there, but those are 3' bales behind me stacked 2x high.) The next ones are Tim with a couple of long tails. The last ones are of the two I shot side by side.

I've never tried to count the number of rings, but as you can see from the pictures the width of the rings vary a lot, so I wouldn't consider that very reliable.

Thanks,
Cass

IMG_0997e.jpg


IMG_1599Le.jpg


IMG_1598Le.jpg


IMG_8146e.jpg


IMG_8139e.jpg


IMG_8142e.jpg
 
kansasbrittany said:
25" or longer is pretty special. I have a lot of 23" sets and a few 24's. Usually 24" is the longest any given day in the area I hunt. I've seen pictures of them up to 26" or 27", but they most likely came off of a pen-raised bird.
Click to expand...
Pretty much my experience in over 50 years of hunting SD. Got a 23" Sunday.
I have a 24.5 in the collection. It's partner was darn near 25b but I turned it in at a contest, won the biggest at that bar and got a nice vest from Bud. It did not hold up overall, but I do not know what the best registered.
The best wild I ever saw was 26" shot by what else--a brother-in-law.
________
WEED VAPORIZER
 
Last edited:
Here's the wife with one over 23" from last year
 
I seems that something around 25 inches usually wins the longest tail feather contest out here. I've heard of some folks getting them up to 27-28 inches, but they never show up for the contest or never existed.
 
Long tail story

I had a good friend from San Antonio come up for opening day pheasant season this year along with his adult son and uncle. I lived in Texas for 13 years and we met while working for the HEB Grocery Company over 20 years ago.

On opening day we started walking a 15 year old shelterbelt and my friend was blocking where the pheasants usually exit. About half way through a rooster gets up at my feet and flies out the side of the trees where two flankers shoot at it, both missing twice. Then the bird swirves to the end of the trees over the blockers and my friend drops it on the second shot - the first bird of the season.

Later, after returning to the vehicles, he pulls the bird out from his vest and upon inspection we note that it is an older bird and that it had a rather long tail feather, about 23 to 24 inches, and long spurs too. That evening we stop at Cabellas, we were staying at the Hampton Inn, to have the bird measured and it was in first place. It held the top spot for the weekend so he won a nice M2 Benelli, the first place prize.
 
Last edited:
My wife's bird was in the top three at the casino in pickstown . She wondered what was up as she never heard anything. She called and asked after the season was over. They told her some bird that was a inch shorter had won the contests. She said how could that be, her tail feathers were longer. They said they put all the top tail feathers entrance in a hat and drew a name. What a crock! If we had known that was the case. we would of drove to Mitchell to Cabala's and entered it there. So watch where your entering such a trophy. What you may win can be a huge difference
 
onpoint said:
My wife's bird was in the top three at the casino in pickstown . She wondered what was up as she never heard anything. She called and asked after the season was over. They told her some bird that was a inch shorter had won the contests. She said how could that be, her tail feathers were longer. They said they put all the top tail feathers entrance in a hat and drew a name. What a crock! If we had known that was the case. we would of drove to Mitchell to Cabala's and entered it there. So watch where your entering such a trophy. What you may win can be a huge difference
Click to expand...
Lots of tricks go on. I had a 24+ at a bar contest and was advised I did not win once. I asked to see the winner and they could not produce it or mine. I beleive the locals are always going to win.
Landman---I do not understand re your 23-24' bird? If it won it must have been measured? What was it exactly?
________
Vaporizer Questions
 
Last edited:
landman said:
Later, after returning to the vehicles, he pulls the bird out from his vest and upon inspection we note that it is an older bird and that it had a rather long tail feather, about 23 to 24 inches, and long spurs too. That evening we stop at Cabellas, we were staying at the Hampton Inn, to have the bird measured and it was in first place. It held the top spot for the weekend so he won a nice M2 Benelli, the first place prize.
Click to expand...

Congratulations, that is a nice win!

Cass
 
WeimeranersRock said:
What is the normal method of measure? Is the tail bone included in the measurement or is it from the tip of the tailbone.
Click to expand...

I don't know that there is an official method. Maybe we need to lobby Boone and Crockett to come up with a new catagory and scoring method, ha!

I left the tails intact rather than pulling a feather out, simply because I wanted to dry them and display them that way. So I included the rounded portion of the tail in the measurement. Comparing to feathers that I have pulled out, the length of the feather alone is almost the same since they go so deep into the tail.

Cass
 
I just went and measured some feathers i have from birds so far this year.(keep them for fly tying) The longest one i have is 22", most are 18-19". So i would say that any feather in the 2ft range is pretty big.
 
I meant to post a picture of the spurs on the bird in the first picture I posted above. One spur was partially broken but the other is shown on the right of this picture.

Cass

IMG_0995.jpg
 
My brother (pictured) shot this bird three years ago. The best measurement we could get on the tailfeathers was
25 3/4", but I'm not sure how accurate you can be without pulling the tailfeathers.

Picture038.jpg
 
JMBZ71 said:
My brother (pictured) shot this bird three years ago. The best measurement we could get on the tailfeathers was
25 3/4", but I'm not sure how accurate you can be without pulling the tailfeathers.

Picture038.jpg
Click to expand...

Wow, that is a great looking bird and a great mount.

Cass
 
That is one great looking bird! around here you have to pluck the feather and measure that, and the longest i have seen is a 24 3/4"
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top