Chicken fried turkey is goddamn good... especially if you use bisquick as the battering flour.
As for pheasant, yeah, if you get a yearling pheasant they aren't too bad toughness wise, but let them get a couple years of aging before you shoot them and they are about as tough as shoe leather. Even stewing the older birds will often not do anything for the toughness. I've resorted several times to soaking in a brine of vinegar, and flavored salts to try and tenderize & flavor the bird, then cooking with potatoes to draw off the vinegary/salty flavor...
I've got several in the freezer awaiting cooking that were in my estimation 4-5 years old. Usually I'll debone these birds, then grind them into a bird burger, fry and add to soup.