Longest tail feather this year

[mascad]

Mine is 14" so far.

[CrappiesNCats]

22" so far. its early, but thats a dang good start. spurs were an inch long

[swany25]

22.5"

[icefishing21#2]

21.5'' finally broke the 20 in mark.. just curious if any one would have an idea on how old my bird is. it had close to 1 in spurs

[outdoorav]

I just mounted a bird for a guy with 30 rings on the tail feather, very nice bird

[DUCKJ]

Longest this weekend was 21 out of 51 birds.

3.5 days in S.D. Tons and tons of birds.

Duck

[John Swanson]

22.5 so far lots of corn still up by my place should inprove over time!!

[CrappiesNCats]

I just mounted a bird for a guy with 30 rings on the tail feather, very nice bird

thanks for posting this, i've always wondered how nice of a bird to mount. i.e. the pheasant i listed in this thread had 34 rings and my biggest from last year had 35.

now all i have to do is convince my wife that its ok

[uplander]

It will pobably never be O.K. but a $400 Coach purse is a must have accessory..

[CrappiesNCats]

It will pobably never be O.K. but a $400 Coach purse is a must have accessory..

hah! whatever it takes i guess

[jigging-matt]

I hear ya, am trying to convice the wife that there will be a pheasant mount done someday. After I had the Perch mount done and she heard the bill she is not to sure about any more taxidermy.

[landscaper]

how do you know when to mount a pheasant (what size)

[jigging-matt]

I know for me it is going to be a combination of a nice size bird with a long tail feather and something great the dog did to get the bird.

[2thepointsetters]

Got a 25.5 inch on Saturday that would have been a great one for the wall. It was a very nice looking bird and not shot up. I have a 27 inch with huge spurs (North Dakota bird) at the taxidermist, otherwise I would have mounted the bird from the weekend. I brought the 27 incher to the taxidermist two years ago. The taxidermist said it should be done by December.

[zdmiller]

Was in with another guy on a bird with 29" tail, don't remeber what the spurs looked like but I got the two long feathers on the dash of the bronco (why would you put em on the wall when you can eat em?) Opener in SD was just as good as last year.

[SORNO]

Saturday morning I got a 24.5" Best one of the season yet. There are a lot of young birds around my area.

[landscaper]

where do all you guys go in SD when you go out hunting?

also what size has everyone mounted their bird....??

Also have/did you mounted it on the wall flying or walking?

thanks

[matthothand]

My longest this year so far is 22" but last year a buddy shot one with 41 rings. I know he has the video of it but if I can get a pic I'll toss it up. I don't know what it measured but it's the biggest tailfeather I've heard of. Same guy boated a 56" ski on ML this summer too. He doesn't mess around.

[zdmiller]

We have relatives around Redfield, land in Hand and Spink Co. In my opinion they taste too good to mount, we've never mounted one.

[art321]

I don't believe the number of rings on a tail feather are indicative of a longer tail feather. I've shot birds with many rings and others with fewer rings and it didn't seem to reflect on the feather length at all. It's just genetic variance is all. The ones with the tight rings are really cool. But then so are the ones with feweer than normal. My longest was a 27" many, many, many years ago.

I agree that they are too good to eat vs. a mount. That is why I have duck mounts on my walls.

[ac777]

24 1/4 I shot on Saturday, it was weird it looked like a fairly old bird with long tail but virtually no spurs.

[jaymack10]

I shot one yesterday that was 24.5 inches long. I shot him close to a fence line and the dog had to go through the fence and in a slough to retrieve it. It was a really god retrieve. i have it in the freezer trying to talk the wife into let me mount it. Lets just say we are continueing to negotiate the deal. At least i didnt get a No right away.

[tybo]

I haven't measure it yet but I would say it's around 21 or 22 inches.

[ole matty]

My pb 24" 2 days ago.. It was good shot.. As I was going to pick it up my dog was already there lay down n just stare at ground. As I think to myself where did bird go till I saw the tail stick out of my dog's belly so I figured she didn't know what to do with pheasant still flappin around so she decide to lay down on it n hold on it and she did it again *younger roster* today! Sure was a funny sight to see!

[Blaze]

My pup's first rooster a couple weeks ago measured 21". Nice mature bird!