Took a Big Pheasant

[youngbowyer]

This afternoon I was sighting in my new Ruger air hawk Which I plan to use on small game and ironically i spot a pheasant behind me. I have only seen 1 pheasant before in my backyard but i didn't want to shoot him with the air rifle. I quickly ran inside and grabbed my recurve which was laying strung on the table and a handful of broadheads. I hurried my first 2 shots and missed both. The pheasant spooked and I was dissapointed but in 5 minutes he was back. I carefully aimed my arrow and i took him in the center of his chest, piercing all the vitals. From my angle I wasnt sure if I hit it. I looked at my arrow and it was covered in blood and feathers. Not 5 yards in the thick bursh lay the pheasant. It was stone dead. It's not a deer, but it's a start. Sorry I don't have a picture with the bird, my mom was a little freaked out.

[sweeney3]

Nice!  That's alright about not being able to get a picture with it.  Be sure and cook it up.  Pheasant is tasty bird.  That's quite the first meat.  Not too many guys get a pheasant with a bow ever, much less as their first kill.  Good for you taking it with the bow rather than the firearm, too.

[lowell]

Good job...congrats!!!!!!

[youngbowyer]

Thanks. Does anyone know what kind of pheasant this is. I think its a cock pheasant, not sure though.

[JW_Halverson]

Phasianus colchicus  A.k.a. Chinese ring-necked pheasant.  First introduced successfully into Oregon in 1881.  South Dakota's state bird, makes it the only State Bird in the nation that the state population annually tries to wipe out!

Can you get me a close-up of the spurs?  I think it's a two year old bird, but can't tell for sure. 

You can save the spurs by sawing off the leg bones, skin and all, above and below the spur.  Use a small stick or pipecleaner to clean the marrow out the center of the bone.  Then cover in borax for a couple of weeks to help dry them out.  Rinse with water, and let dry.  You can string them like beads on a thong as decorations. 

My favorite feathers are the spruce green feathers on the back just above the tail. 

As for eating, pheasant is not too gamey.

[JW_Halverson]

To tell cocks from hens, always check the legs for those spurs.  If it has spurs it's a cock.  Or, if you are lazy, look for all the gaudy colors, hens are brown. 

[gstoneberg]

Looks like a 1-year old to me.  That is a tremendous achievement Tom.  I've only had shots at pheasants with the bow twice.  Missed close but not good enough.  Also tried to shoot them in the air a couple times...that was a fail of epic proportions as well.  I suspect both John and I have favorite pheasant recipes we can get to you.  In most states you can only shoot the roosters/cocks which fortunately is what you shot.  I got my first pheasant when I was 12 years old shooting a single shot .410. Wonderful gamebird.

George

[youngbowyer]

I completely forgot about the regulation that you can only shoot roosters Luckily this was a rooster. I kept the wing and tail feathers and might try to do some kind of mount with that. This is only the third pheasant i have ever seen in my backyard. He might have been a little lost, but i took care of that

[gstoneberg]

He was just coming by for dinner.

[youngbowyer]

  Got any tasty recipes for me George?

[gstoneberg]

My favorite is my Mom's roast pheasant.  Before I start, the drumsticks are almost inedible on a pheasant because of the tendons.  I stopped keeping them, but the thighs are my favorite part.  Clean the pheasant and cut it up into pieces.  Doesn't matter whether you've skinned or plucked it.  I'm doing the rest of this from memory, hopefully I won't forget something.  Roll pheasant pieces in seasoned flour and brown in a fry pan.  Don't need to cook them through, just brown them.  Cut 2 onions in thick slices  and place on the bottom of the roaster or crock pot.  Add pheasant pieces on top of the onions and cook them  covered 1 hour at 350.  While that's cooking, in the fry pan you browned the pheasant in, add 1/2 cup cooking sherry and deglaze the pan.  Add  1 can cream of mushroom soup and 1 soup can of milk.  Then turn off the frypan or remove it from the heat.  After the hour is up, add the mixture from the fry pan to the roaster or crock pot along with 1- can mushrooms, a second can of mushroom soup and a second can of milk.  Cook covered in the oven at 350 for 1 more hour, until the meat falls off the bones.  Serve with mashed potatoes, the gravy that's produced in the roaster is divine, similar to smothered gravy that's put over meatloaf down here in the south.  If you don't like mushrooms you can leave them out and substitute cream of chicken soup for the cram of mushroom...but it isn't as good.  Enjoy.  (This works great with rabbit, squirrel and even chicken.)

George

[youngbowyer]

Sounds delicious. Will have to try that. Can I substitute red wine for sherry?

[gstoneberg]

Have no idea Tom.  We've made it before without the sherry and it's still excellent.  The recipe says you can substitute vinegar for the sherry?  It also says the quantity should be a quarter cup.  We long ago went with the pour it in measuring method.  The pages of that old cookbook are yellow.

George

[JW_Halverson]

Red wine works great with feznuts. 

I generally leave my pheasants whole (guts and all) and put them on the bottom shelf of the fridge for 3 days before picking them.  Once they have aged a bit they pick so much easier, just don't get too ambitious and grab too many feathers or you will tear the skin.  Once plucked, light a propane torch, turn it low and singe off the last of the pin feathers and downy stuff.  Gut it, take the legs off below the drumsticks, take the wings off at the elbow joint, and remove the neck and head.  Wash the body cavity well, soak in icewater for 2 hours.  If you add a cup of salt and a cup of sugar to the gallon or so of icewater go ahead and let'er soak three or four hours.  Stuff and roast with some bacon strips across the breast.  Check the meat temp with an instant read thermometer and pull from the oven when he reaches 160 degrees.  Allow 15 minutes to rest before you start ripping it apart and stuffing it in your mouth in huge bites!  Growling and snarling optional. 

This applies best to birds with short spurs.  Longspurs require a wetter cooking regimen like Georgie's. 

George is right about the drumsticks, their tendons calcify into tiny little bones with a lot of flex.  If you save up the legs from a half dozen birds you can crock pot them on low in chicken broth overnite, allow to cool, then pick off all the meat carefully stripping out those tendons.  Mix up your favorite taco/burrito seasonings stir into the meat along with enough of the reserved broth to make it all sloppy.  Wrap this meat up in flour tortillas along with caso fresco, smother in green chili sauce and some more cheese on top and bake until heated thru.  "Aprobación los Santos"  (cipriano?  did I get that right?)

Similarly spiced leg meat made into tamales would probably raise the dead, you may want to be careful with this. 

[JW_Halverson]

Oh, before it is too late, peel the skin back on that tail as far as you can and using a sharp knife, scrape all the fat and meat out that you can!!!  Ask you mother if she has any 20 Mule Team borax in the laundry.  If she does, sprinkle enough in there as it will hold and put in some cool dry place to dry out.  If you lay the tail down on a sheet of cardboard you can spread out the tail and use stick pins to hold it spread out to dry. 

If she doesn't have any borax, just use plain old salt.  It's better than nothing.

For the wings, you can split the skin on the underside and cut loose all the muscle tissue, scrape out all the fat and tissue that you can and again fill with borax (or salt0, and pin them down to cardboard in the spread out position.