Hey, I have a quick question. Where I am we have no pheasants , but the local wildlife federation has been reintroducing them. I seen one on the highway hit by a car, and was wondering what the guage is for a 'good' pheasant. For some reason I'm thinking it has something to do with the lines on its tail. This one had 29 lines. Is the 'line counting' the guage for a good pheasant, if so how many lines are average, good, amazing ect.

JPF

Another way to guage how old or "good" a pheasant is the spurs. A 9 monthold bird will have 1/2 inch spurs. Tail length is another indicator. I don't know if the stripes accross the tail feather are another indicator or not. I have thought about putting one on the wall, but they are all too beat up from carrying them in my jacket.

A really young bird will barely have the classical white ring and head feathers will not be as vibrant. Like jay said, age of a pheasant is usually determined by the length of the spurs for us layman.

Unless your planning to send it to a taxidermist, any pheasant you shoot is a good one. I once shot a pheasant with spurs almost an inch long. I had it mounted only to have our goldie tore it up.

The size of spurs and the red waddles on it's face say alot for a pheasants age as they would have to be at least a year old for the waddles. For as far as the lines on the tail I have never heard tell of it. The tails can very in size due to predators and other pheasants fighting with them. So my guess is that the lines on the tails have little to do with it. Here is an adult pheasant showing off to a hen in my pheasant pen. I raise them here for dog training and release to try and bring some around here. This one is a breeder.

Older pheasants will have longer tail feathers and longer spurs. Also, a when you hold the rooster by the beak this years birds will bend, while a mature birds won't.
Pheasants are one of the most fun upland games I've hunted. I love to see the dogs get excited and start quartering back and forth when they pick up the scent. Then the rooster "explodes" out of the cover and is outa there in a hurry, if you're not on the ball. Wew! Exciting.