Pheasant Tail Competition?

C

Cass

Member
I made another post about my recent pheasant hunt with Tim Ballinger in Dumas, Texas.

http://www.ultimatepheasanthunting.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1004

When I hunted with Tim last year I shot one really large rooster that had 24â?� tail feathers. Here are a couple shots of that bird.

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That got Tim started watching the tail feathers on the birds that his groups shot this year. The longest he had seen this year was also 24â?�, one that he had shot before I arrived. Then, as luck would have it, Tim got a shot on a monster bird while walking along a fence row. I could see the bird from the distance and it looked big even from there. Here is a shot of his bird. Itâ??s tail measured about 24-1/4â?�.

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Here it is alongside the tail of the one he shot earlier this year.

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Cass
 
Then on the last day I got a shot on a rooster that had managed to â??run the gauntletâ?� while being shot at by several other hunters. He was about 40 yards up and going full speed by the time he got to the end of the line and I managed to drop him. His tail looked long and I measured it using my 26â?� barrel shotgun. When we got back to Timâ??s truck we did a field measurement of 24â?�. I measured it more carefully today though and it looks like itâ??s a little longer.

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Here it is alongside the tail of the one I took last year.

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Does Boone and Crockett have scoring method for Pheasant tails? Ha!

Cass
 
The longest I've seen was 26.5,shot by my brother-in-law many wears ago. My personal best is 25.5. I used it to win first place in the BUD local competition 3 years ago and did get a nice vest. I still have the other leader at 25.25. Measurments after they have been pulled out. I hear of 30" birds, but have never seen one unless pen raised.
Seems like all the longtails I see these days are while traveling down the roads at high speed.
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Pheasant Tail Competition

Nice tail feathers! There is a local sporting goods store in Dickinson, N.D. that gives away a new shotgun every year for the longest tail feather (Andrus Outdoors).
 
I started collecting anything over 19 inches a few years ago, but the collection started getting a little large. Recently, I discarded anything under 20 inches. That brought it down to a coffee can full of tail feathers. The longest I have is a couple at 24 1/2 inches. I have one that is slightly longer that was hit with a pellet and just barely hanging together so not sure how to get an accurate measurement.

I have a coffee can full of feet with some long spurs. The wife makes me keep these out in the garage. :D
 
Thanks, guys! It sounds like ones longer than these are not common. Of all the birds I have shot over the years in Kansas and Texas, these are by far the biggest. I know I should pull them out for an accurate measurement, but they sure display better this way.

I remember my friend shooting an old rooster in Kansas back in the late 60's that was huge. We never measured the tail though.

Cass
 
You can fan the tails out and let them dry if they have not already. I do bunches of them. Borax is a good preservative for the fleshy & fatty parts of skins or tails.
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