Huge cock pheasant shot in Ballingarry, Roscrea, Co Tipperary
You could call it a very rare bird indeed. One of the longest cock pheasants seen in Tippe- rary in years, if not all of Ireland, was shot last weekend. The pheasant measures almost four
feet (a whopping 47.5 inches) from the top of its beak to the tip of its tail. When this newspaper enquired of lo-
cal shooters about the size of the bird one thought that surely this must be “a tall tale”. But no, the
giant bird was prop- erly measured and will go down in his- tory as probably the longest cock pheas- ant ever officially recorded, certainly in Lower Ormond.
The cock was
shot by Michael Rafferty Jr, on the lands of Noel Carroll of Knockshegowna on Tuesday of last week. “This is a one in a million chance… I will probably never see a pheasant like that again. These birds do not exist; it’s absolutely a one-off,” said Michael, who now intends to get his quarry stuffed for display purposes.
Michael, from Ballymona, Ballingarry, added: “My father who was out with me at
the time has been shooting all his life but never saw anything like the size of this pheasant. The spurs on the cock were about an inch long.” “I would say the pheasant is about six
to seven years old, which is exceptionally old.”
Contacted by this newspaper one local pheasant hunter who has been shoot- ing for over two dec- ades said the longest cock pheasant he had ever heard of was 43 inches. “If I got that bird it would definitely be going on my man- telpiece,” he said.
A spokesman Picture by to Bridget Delaney
for the National As- sociation for Re- gional Game Coun- cils said: “There is no association really monitoring this type of thing but a cock pheasant of this size would be at the up- per limits. It is huge and definitely a once
in a life time experience. It must have been a very old bird.”
Needless to say, the giant pheasant
won the perpetual trophy in the annual competition sponsored by The Glue Pot Pub in Ballingarry.
I Shoot and Fish E-Zine December 2011
47
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76