Too many pheasants!

Oh Lordy, takes me back 20 years! I used to be quite grateful when the dogs snaffled them from the outhouse rafters, I hated plucking and drawing them. Even worse if they'd been hung....

Ah, those were the days! Fortunately this no longer happens in our house. I never plucked them, preferring instead just to skin them, feathers and all. Some froze whole and some jointed. I got DH to do the drawing. Yuck.

And crunching on buckshot.....thank goodness not anymore
Highly overrated game in my opinion!

I also skin them rather than plucking. I don't draw them, just cut off legs and breasts and chuck the rest away. I casserole them with red wine, onions and mushrooms. Delicious and free if you know shooting people.

I used to have a brace or two gifted to me from time to time, and I skinned rather than plucked them. I'm not a huge fan of pheasant, but I would give my eye teeth for a fully feathered skin now; they are invaluable to a fly tyer, especially the tail feathers! Just after we got our present car, when it was all new and shiny, we were going to meet friends for a dressy lunch in a nice restaurant when we passed a freshly run over pheasant on the road. I yelled to DH to stop. "What on earth for?" he said. "So that I can go back and pick up the pheasant!" said I. "Not bloody likely!" he said. "I know I tend to indulge you, but I draw the line at roadkill in my boot!" I sulked.

If only I'd known that rubysong, it would have saved hours of grimly plucking and gutting outside because I couldn't stand the smell!

Greyduster if I come across any tail feathers, attached to a pheasant or not, I'll let you know I assume your nom de plume alludes to a fly? My dear dad used to fly fish and make his own flies....

It does indeed, loopy! Caught me many a lovely brown (all returned to fight another day!).

That really brings back memories of sitting on bank of the stream, not daring to move or speak and watching my father cast into the rings from a rising trout. And listening to barely suppressed curses when the line ended up in a bush!
That was 50+ years ago.....

Ohhh! What bliss! The river season is over now until April and already I have cabin fever!!! Just as well, as I'm less inclined to want to stand up to my twiddly bits in cold water with every passing year!

Brings back memories of the days when DH used to host regular shoots when he was a farm manager. We always had pheasants and hares in the freezer. Hares are a rarity around here now because of the lack of stubble due to intensive veg farming. DH is hoping they'll return because the acres of solar panels in this area could provide shelter. It would be nice to think solar panels are doing some good because I hate the bloody things.

Hares are wonderful! When we used to visit my son in North Yorkshire it was a joy to see them in the fields around his home. We used to walk in the remoter parts of Peak District and were lucky enough to see mountain hares on a couple of occasions - they're very elusive.

The last one we had was a road kill DH brought home. I left it in the bathroom to keep it away from the cats, but forgot to tell DD who had just got back from university. She DID scream when she found it