Tail feather: how long

Cass said:
Wow, that is a great looking bird and a great mount.

Cass
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Thanks Cass. I placed a 21" tailfeather from a bird I'd shot that day next to the tailfeathers on my brother's bird for comparison.

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Well I went through about 200 or so feathers I have collected for years, and I thought I would have an advantage over you guy's because of how many I have and how long I have been saving them, HAA, WRONG. The longest one is 23 3/4" :confused::(. But if you measured all of them and did the adverage it would be a good idea of a common length. They were taken in IA, SD, ND, and MN. But sounds like a time drain, my guess is who ever said 18-20" is about right. I have heard an old timer brag about a 36 incher before but that sounds like a pile a you know what. Now You guy's got me thinking "Spot and stalk hunting on long tails" for that trophy chicken. :D
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I had read about pheasant hunters in the old forum that specifically planned their hunt around trying to get the biggest 3 roosters they could find. The most logical strategy I heard was one guy who looked specifically for public walk-ins with year round food plots. He figured that all the young and dumb birds near the opening and easy walking areas would get wiped out, leaving only older, smarter birds. The year round food would increase the percentage of two year old and maybe even a three year old bird in the area who survived better through the winters. He would walk the backsides and thickest cover late in the season where others had likely passed by and the reduced winter cover would give him the best chance at catching a wiley old bird.
 
Cass said:
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!
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Please don't lobby for a new category...

Every game animal is a trophy to me, and I can't stand the standard hunting magazines with their emphais on rack size of deer.

Just my opinion, YMMV.
 
25+" tailfeathers

Here is a picture of two 25 1/4" tailfeathers that came off one SD bird I bagged on Dec 18 last month. Longest tailfeathers I've encountered. And a picture I really like of my dog and 3 roosters from the day before. That was a good weather window, it was after some of the really cold weather and about 1 week before the nasty blizzard moved in.


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Big Cedar or pine groves like those just pictured is where I find the wily old birds with the big tail feathers. I shot a bird so old out of one of those that I will swear he smelled of aged bourbon and fine cigars. It was kinda like he had been sitting around for years just watching all of his dumber kin folk get shot while he was enjoying the finer things in life.

Im still not sure whether he died of old age on the way up or the lead he swallowed on the way down. I wish I had pictures but Im such a terrible shot I usually knock all the tail feathers out of them on the first shot and any that are left I take care of on the subsequent flush and when the dog finally gets to em he has to wrestle them dead...ooops no more tailfeathers.
 
No objections whatsoever to a well-earned & sought after "trophy" bird - but give me those young & tender good-eats all day long - just so the dog is having a good time sniffin out feathers & putting wings to flight! :)
 
Cass said:
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

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How in the world do you get the tailfeathers off like that?
 
Locals will Win for Sure

Uncle Buck said:
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?
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You called this one right.
 
Interesting. Not sure the system works for me and looks like a setup to cheat, but tail and spur combo is different.
Longest this year 23.5. He was at least a two season bird, but I have longer spurs from birds past. The bird was shot about 200 yards from my kennel and previously shown here. He harrassed my dogs all summer. That makes him special to me.
________
Weed
 
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still_steamn said:
Here is a picture of two 25 1/4" tailfeathers that came off one SD bird I bagged on Dec 18 last month. Longest tailfeathers I've encountered. And a picture I really like of my dog and 3 roosters from the day before. That was a good weather window, it was after some of the really cold weather and about 1 week before the nasty blizzard moved in.


DSCN2017.jpg


SDDec2009pheasant14.jpg
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Those are some nice tail feathers! Great picture of the dog and roosters too.

Cass
 
Dcup said:
How in the world do you get the tailfeathers off like that?
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I just use shears and cut the whole tail off flush with the body. If you put it in a dry location, the tail dries without any further treatment. It actually makes a pretty nice display.

Cass
 
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.
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This is a wild montana bird.28+
 
I always considered a 25" tail to be similar to shooting a big 10 point whitetail deer, rare but doable. Having said that, I have two 27" tails, both wild birds. Didn't mount either one because birds were giant and looked terrible
 
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