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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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!

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

i just shot one a week ago i measured 27" big ole bird! its crazy when they get up and them big tails are wavin in the air! oh i love it

Last Sunday I got a 23"er. Biggest so far this year. It came off some public land around Mankato.