Tail feather: how long

Many years of productive S.Dak. pheasant seasons and I bagged one that was 27". Was prob around 1985. Entered in a longest tail feather contest for some great prize( can't remember,it was 1985😉) I had the longest in my town but was a regional contest and a 36" won it.
You take a 25+ feather and mount it in a frame and they look loooong😉
 
In the last two years of hard hunting, I have several 24" feathers. Dad killed one last season that broke 25".

There was a local Country Store in N.E. NE that used to run a weekly tail feather contest in the late 80's-early 90's. I'm certain I won once with a 28" feather. I do remember the weekly prize was a box of Activ shells. Weekly winners went into a season end drawing for a shotgun. If I remember right, it usually took at least a 26" feather to win.
 
In NW Iowa 24 is a nice tailfeather, 25 is pretty unusual. Since I have been keeping them over the last 6 years or so, I have ONE at 25 or more. Just measured the ones in my 2022 jar and have one that made 24", this is from over 50 birds. One of the birds at the taxidermist (from 2 years ago) had long spurs and tail feathers, they are still in the bird so I will not know exactly their length, but I am really wanting to see them again, hopefully soon!

Anyone else save feathers from other areas that can give an idea of lengths in their area?
tail feathers.jpg
The ones in the can on the left are extras from this season's birds, and some that weren't shot by me, I am saving those for a neighbor's wife who is making some kind of wreath from them. The clear jar have this season's count feathers.
 
Here in NESD a 24" is pretty rare, 23" is a very nice tail feather. 20-22" is solid. My boss has a bird in his office that has a tail feather over 29" that Sage retrieved from the air many years ago. That was incredibly rare and I've not seen anything close to that before or after.

Over in UT/ID, some of their wild pheasants have crazy long tails, into the 30"+ range.
 
Golden Hour said:
Here in NESD a 24" is pretty rare, 23" is a very nice tail feather. 20-22" is solid. My boss has a bird in his office that has a tail feather over 29" that Sage retrieved from the air many years ago. That was incredibly rare and I've not seen anything close to that before or after.

Over in UT/ID, some of their wild pheasants have crazy long tails, into the 30"+ range.
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That’s about where we are at. 22 1/2 is usually my best feather in a year. Occasionally someone I’m with will shoot a 24 but usually not me. Used to be some longer ones taken in the areas with some sand hills. But I haven’t seen many of those lately.
 
Golden Hour said:
Over in UT/ID, some of their wild pheasants have crazy long tails, into the 30"+ range.
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Any one know what mineral, supplement or what it might be that influences feather growth? If so, share the knowledge and we can try to to introduce some of it to our local birds! We put calcium in the mineral licks for antler grow, among other things for deer. Sounds like hen pheasants can benefit from pulverized limestone (calcium) with their "grit" (shell production), so that might be good to add if you supply grit to the birds, which I am intending to do this coming spring....just to make it easier, there is a graveled road on one side of our CRP already

I just googled it , looks like zinc, manganese and selenium...sound like the multivitamin I take daily!

Any commercial pheasant ranchers here that feed anything specifically for feather growth???
 
I have one set of tail feathers (2 feathers) sitting in my office that came off of a wild pheasant from eastern Oregon that have 34 bars and the tail feather is 28.5 inches long (total length). I have shot some others from that area that are 25 inches or so.

I do have a question concerning those feathers. I am going to get a pheasant mounted, is it possible to exchange the tail feathers in that bird for the longer ones? Basically remove two feathers and add the two longer ones?
 
Not sure on that, need a taxidermist to chime in. I will guess it is possible, but not sure if they will do it. I think they skin the birds and have a front half and back half. I could maybe see them mixing and matching but not sure they will do this either. Maybe for enough money they will put antlers on them also. I think they wouldn't be too excited about replacing any tailfeathers that have been removed from the bird. I hope a taxidermist will clear this up. Honestly, I not sure why someone would want to try to create something that it wasn't.
 
Just so no one thinks that I'm pulling their leg. This is one of the feathers laid on two 11 inch pieces of paper.
 

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That's a beautiful tail feather. The short answer is "yes", but it's a lot more difficult on the taxidermist to get the tail feathers to look natural.

EDIT: This is according to a hobby taxidermist I know
 
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I'd still like to know when people quote a tail feather size are they including the quill or not. I'm guessing for these contests they would be? And I'm assuming the owner of the store or whoever runs the contest would want to see the bird first and then have the feather plucked in front of him? They don't have any tail feather contests in MN because nobody pheasant hunts and no hardware stores sell guns or ammo😁.
 
remy3424 said:
Honestly, I not sure why someone would want to try to create something that it wasn't.
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That was my thought too. Like catching a 50 inch muskie, but having a replica made that's 54 inches. Its not really what its supposed to represent.
 
Thought I would drag out a few tail feathers from the last few years that appeared longer than average. I get a number of requests for tail feathers from my wife’s friends for decorations. At least nine of the tails are >25”, the longest 27”. They came from ND, SD, MN, Iowa, WI or Kansas. All states have been very good most times. 18609FFE-32F9-4DD1-A382-C47B0C607EED.jpeg
 
Drew said:
I have one set of tail feathers (2 feathers) sitting in my office that came off of a wild pheasant from eastern Oregon that have 34 bars and the tail feather is 28.5 inches long (total length). I have shot some others from that area that are 25 inches or so.

I do have a question concerning those feathers. I am going to get a pheasant mounted, is it possible to exchange the tail feathers in that bird for the longer ones? Basically remove two feathers and add the two longer ones?
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awesome feathers Drew! & yes, a good taxidermist can do it. They had to pull the feathers from the bird I shot - for the Mitchell Cabelas tail feather contest some years ago - taxidermist did a bang up job.
 
Golden Hour said:
That's a beautiful tail feather. The short answer is "yes", but it's a lot more difficult on the taxidermist to get the tail feathers to look natural.

EDIT: This is according to a hobby taxidermist I know
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Good to know. I killed a pheasant this year that I am going to have added to the mount that I attached below. The pheasant has a pretty good tail feather length (24") but I thought it would be great to replace them with the 28.5" feathers. Just a thought but it doesn't sound like it would turn out well.
 

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