Some nice birds in ND

[bmp78]

I was at the in-laws for thanksgiving and went out to their farm for some pheasant hunting. To my surprise the population was good and the birds seem to be much bigger this year. Below are a couple pictures of the birds I was able to get. The two biggest both had a 22 3/4 inch tail feathers which I thought was pretty good. Hope to see some pictures of others hunts this year. Feel free to post some pictures here if you have them.

[lindy rig]

Nice job man..... looks fun!

[bmp78]

Nice job man..... looks fun!

Thanks lindy. Had a great time and was good to see a nice population of birds on their farm after the tough winter and spring they had.

One question for some of you. How long do some tail feathers get on pheasants and is 22 3/4 a pretty good length? I usually only get out hunting them when I am with my inlaws and was unsure on that.

[RumRiverRat]

Nice Roosters!

[lindy rig]

Ya, 23+ inches is pretty long. That about ties my longest tail feather in a couple years. The longest I have seen is just over 25 inches.

[CodyDawg]

Ahhh, I love this topic. I do a lot of pheasant hunting and have been a part of literally thousands of birds harvested over the last 20+ years (shot by me and plenty of others). My longest tail is 25" if I round it up to the nearest 1/4" , which is the longest I have ever been apart of. I have seen a 27" tail at the long tail contest at Cabelas in Mitchell SD. I measured that personally. You will undoubtedly hear about a 30" tail from people and I will not believe it until I see it on a ruler. No one has ever provided photo evidence of anything over the 27" I personally saw. Oh, these are wild birds I am talking about, game farms dont count.

In general, anything over that 22" or 23" mark is a long tail. If you touch 24" you have a rare bird.

For me this year, all my birds had really short tails until I shot a 23" this past Saturday in the middle of a willow swamp. I also shot a small rooster in there and I tell you what, both of those birds were pretty rewarding to me as it was tough hunting.

Now if anyone does have a long tail (24"+) and would care to take a pic of it on a ruler, I for one would love to see it.

[rmkod]

Where do you measure from?

[Back2Dakota]

I have been shooting roosters in SD for 22 years and never thought of measuring the tail. Guess I will have to start. Always look at the spur but do not give it much thought.

[bmp78]

Great feedback everyone. i measured the tail after it was plucked and took a measurement of the entire tail. the weird part is that five of our nine birds were over 22 inches on this hunt.none hit the 23 mark.

[rmkod]

I shot a nice one last year, here is a pic, I will have to measure it when I get home.

[scsavre]

rmkod, that tail is unreal. Measure that thing up, looks 25 to me. ,

[Augusta]

I shot a nice one last year, here is a pic, I will have to measure it when I get home.

Measure that thing! I gotta know how long that is.....

[rmkod]

I just measured it. It is just over 25in.

[coyote36]

i have pics of one from sd last year do not remember how to post pics it measures 25 1/2.

[R. Miller]

Wow all nice birds but the one just over 25 is awesome! Great pic.

[bmp78]

That bird with the 25 inch tail is amazing. Congratulations.

[Augusta]

Wow! I didn't know they got that big in SD. Awesome!!!

[scsavre]

that bird is amazing. the tail looks twice the size of the bird. Looks like he has a good amount of white on his head too.

[riverview]

to get the true long tails you have to hunt the end of december. I was out last week for 5 days in the nw part of n.d. we had to do alot of hunting but 2 guys limited out on pheasant and huns. I have saw a couple of 26 1/2 tails.