good or bad idea......

[GlenCool]

just browsing on e-bay, came across this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Falconry-One-pair-of-squirrel-chaps_W0QQitemZ330003018369QQihZ014QQcategoryZ9087 1QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

any one seen these sort of thing before......

[Talon]

there pritty usefull if flying at squirrels saves the birds feet from bites the americans use them alot for there reds when oiut squirrel hawking.
not a bad prices at tenner.as seen them for a lot more on northwoods falconry site.

http://www.northwoodsfalconry.com/index.cgi?cat=%2FSquirrel%20Chaps&rm=listitems

[FredrickFogg]

I am here in the U.S. and from my experience, it only hampers the hawks ability to foot. It will save your bird from a few bites, but I have to ask myself, how many squirrels were able to bite my hawk because he wasn't able to foot as well because of the chaps slowing his footing down. I put longer than usual anklets on my red-tails, as that will protect the leg from bites and doesn't hamper their footing. But all of my red-tails learned pretty quickly that the head is what they get control of first after they were bitten a few times. As one falconer once said to me, "Would you fly your hawk with leg weights on it to try and make it stronger, I think not!" One thing I have noticed is if you put something shiney on the anklet, the squirrel will see that first and bite there. My hawks anklets have bite marks all over them by the end of the season and she ended up with only a few bites on her toes.

Happy Hawking,
Fred

[GlenCool]

I am here in the U.S. and from my experience, it only hampers the hawks ability to foot. It will save your bird from a few bites, but I have to ask myself, how many squirrels were able to bite my hawk because he wasn't able to foot as well because of the chaps slowing his footing down. I put longer than usual anklets on my red-tails, as that will protect the leg from bites and doesn't hamper their footing. But all of my red-tails learned pretty quickly that the head is what they get control of first after they were bitten a few times. As one falconer once said to me, "Would you fly your hawk with leg weights on it to try and make it stronger, I think not!" One thing I have noticed is if you put something shiney on the anklet, the squirrel will see that first and bite there. My hawks anklets have bite marks all over them by the end of the season and she ended up with only a few bites on her toes.

Happy Hawking,
Fred

like your opinion matey....

[DeathFromAbove]

just browsing on e-bay, came across this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Falconry-One-pair-of-squirrel-chaps_W0QQitemZ330003018369QQihZ014QQcategoryZ9087 1QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

any one seen these sort of thing before......

yup - squirrel chaps, depends if you plan on flying alot of tree rats. any precaution against bites is a good start when it comes to squirrels, like little pitbulls and can bite clean thru a hawks toe.

can see where f-frog is coming from with hampering the birds feet, sorta six of one half a dozen of the other really, the chaps may provide more protection but may compromise the footing ability, whereas bare feet will have little protection but better footing. There are people that swear by them though..... 's jus something you'll have to try and see if it works for your bird and circumstances I'm afraid mate. :D

[Jimmy]

I have to agree with Fred. Chaps hinder more than they help. I hawk squirrels exclusively with my redtails. The more stuff and the more weight you put on their legs, the worse it can be. If you hawk squirrels for long enough, your bird WILL get bit. That's part of the game. Getting bit can actually be helpfull when the bird is first learning to take squirrels. They have to get bit to figure out how to grab them. My birds have taken some pretty serious bites at times. But, they were always bitten from underneath the foot. In these cases, chaps would have made NO difference. The extra weight of the chaps also hinders the bird's footing ability. If you think I'm wrong, try strapping 5 pound weights on your hands and go boxing. It's about the same.
One of the most important things you need to do when hawking squirels is not fly your bird too sharp. If your bird is at the lower side of it's flying weight, it's more likely to not let go of the squirrel when it gets bit. Flying at the highest weight possible will make a huge difference in the amount of bites it recieves, and the severity of them. A fatter bird will let go of the squirrel, rather than letting it chew on them. They will also make "smarter" moves, rather than being so wreckless.
Redtails are made for squirrel hawking. They are the number 1 natural predator of grey squirrels in the wild.

[buzzbee]

One of the Harrises at the centre used them before he went down for moult. Handy for squirrels. Aint they called bullet jess or something like that?

[ACCIPITER-GENTILIS]

Aint they called bullet jess or something like that?

nope:twisted:

[FlameHairedFalconer]

One of the Harrises at the centre used them before he went down for moult. Handy for squirrels. Aint they called bullet jess or something like that?

No - they are called squirrel chaps.

Gary Brewer of Buteo and Bushytails fame advocates their use if hawking squirrel. Very good section in his video on how to make them. Jimmy's comments are very interesting as a contrast to this though.

No squirrels near me so not likely to be something I ever try out!

FHF

[buzzbee]

Sorry didnt read last posts properly.:roll:

[Josh]

I have to agree with Fred and Jimmy. I just use a tall anklet made out of thick leather.

[Jimmy]

Gary Brewer of Buteo and Bushytails fame advocates their use if hawking squirrel. Very good section in his video on how to make them.


FHF


Let me tell you a little story....... A friend of mine, and fellow falconer, Roy Dewitt, went to Texas a few years ago to film Gary and another falconer, and their redtails, hawking squirrels. They had a pretty good time the first day, and got some good footage. The 2nd day Roy and the other falconer were waiting for Gary to come out so they could go at it again. When Gary came out, he didn't have his bird. Roy asked him "where's your bird?". Gary replied that his bird wouldn't be hunting that day. When asked why, he replied that his bird had gotten bit up too bad the day before.

[GlenCool]

Let me tell you a little story....... A friend of mine, and fellow falconer, Roy Dewitt, went to Texas a few years ago to film Gary and another falconer, and their redtails, hawking squirrels. They had a pretty good time the first day, and got some good footage. The 2nd day Roy and the other falconer were waiting for Gary to come out so they could go at it again. When Gary came out, he didn't have his bird. Roy asked him "where's your bird?". Gary replied that his bird wouldn't be hunting that day. When asked why, he replied that his bird had gotten bit up too bad the day before.

how ironic look at your signature.. lol nar man, have you ever used them jimmy......

[Jimmy]

No, I haven't used them, and don't plan to. I do have friends that have used them though, and they didn't make a difference with their birds. Their birds still got bit. I have a set of Brewer's chaps. There's no way that I'd strap that much extra weight onto my birds feet, when it isn't necessary and doesn't help.

[FredrickFogg]

I used the Gary Brewer style chaps for the first part of one year, but I changed them out to just plain anklets and my bird started catching more. I can't really say if it was because of the chaps or just because she was finally figuring out how to catch those tree rats as she was a passage bird and probably had never hunted squirrels. She didn't have any bites on her feet when I trapped her. As a matter of fact, she probably would have died hadn't I trapped her because she was surviving on grasshoppers. She turned out to be a killing machine on squirrels though.

Fred

[MattSpar]

I have used chaps in the past, but found they are uncomfortable for the bird to wear, cumbersome, hamper footing, don't provide protection where it counts (the toes) and are generally a complete waste of time. Most squirrel bites occur on the toes, rather than the leg in my experience, and I fly squirrels quite a lot.
As I've said elsewhere, I rate squirrels highly as quarry and find those who demean them with the epithet "tree rats" generally have no idea just how sporting they are.

[Coronatus]

Have to say im with the majority on this one. Tried chaps for a season and found the only benefit to be small shiney studs on the anklet seemed to draw the squirrels bites up onto the anklet and away from the toes. The chaps that had toe coverings did hamper the birds footing, so the following season i did as many others have said and made tall thick anklets but attached small reflective stickers to the anklets and had very few probs with bites after that, also the hawks footing ability was back on top form! I think that no matter what you put on your bird equipment wise nothing works better than ensuring your bird fully realises the importance of a good head hold before flying them 'ole bushytails'!

[MattSpar]

Have to say im with the majority on this one. Tried chaps for a season and found the only benefit to be small shiney studs on the anklet seemed to draw the squirrels bites up onto the anklet and away from the toes. The chaps that had toe coverings did hamper the birds footing, so the following season i did as many others have said and made tall thick anklets but attached small reflective stickers to the anklets and had very few probs with bites after that, also the hawks footing ability was back on top form! I think that no matter what you put on your bird equipment wise nothing works better than ensuring your bird fully realises the importance of a good head hold before flying them 'ole bushytails'!

How do reflective stickers help? A squirrel in the grip of a redtail or a harris' is going to bite at the nearest convenient thing given the chance isn't it?
I admit I never used anything like that during my experimenting with chaps.

[DeathFromAbove]

I have used chaps in the past, but found they are uncomfortable for the bird to wear, cumbersome, hamper footing, don't provide protection where it counts (the toes) and are generally a complete waste of time. Most squirrel bites occur on the toes, rather than the leg in my experience, and I fly squirrels quite a lot.
As I've said elsewhere, I rate squirrels highly as quarry and find those who demean them with the epithet "tree rats" generally have no idea just how sporting they are.

I agree mate, don't get me wrong, I like squirrels when I out for a walk etc... but when hunting call them tree rats as they've ******ed up plenty a good slip at better quarry for me. They are a sporting quarry and some fantastic flights can be had with them being so agile in the trees. My FHH has to date caught about 4 of em (all unintentional on my part I must add) and suffered no bad bites yet....altho It's a quarry that I don't deliberately go out to hunt, in fact I generally avoid them at all costs if I can as I would prefer to avoid any damage to my bird from them. Also the 3rd one she caught she nailed right at the top of a tree... I stood there powerless to help watching as the thing was trying to bite her. Luckily she yanked it out of the tree and went to ground still holding it so I could make in and help.

[FredrickFogg]

Mattspar,

I call them tree rats, because basiclly, that is what they are. They are a rodent like a rat and they live in trees. Don't get me wrong, I respect them as quarry like nothing else. They amaze me everytime I am out hunting them. They are my main quarry with my red-tail here in the U.S. because rabbits in my state are hard to find. Some of the athletic things the squirrels do are amazing. I often wish I had a video camera to film some of their escapes.

As far as the shiney things on the chaps, you say they just bite the first thing than can, well, I believe when there is a shiney thing on the chap, that is generally the first thing that catches their attention and they bite there. As it has been said before, most of the bites are on the bottom of the toes because the squirrel is held in a position where it can't see the shiney thing on the chap and so it does bite where it can.

Happy Hawking,
Fred

[MattSpar]

I call them tree rats, because basiclly, that is what they are. They are a rodent like a rat and they live in trees. Don't get me wrong, I respect them as quarry like nothing else.

I wasn't citing you in particular Fred. It's something I've noticed over here in the UK. I believe I'm right in thinking you regard squirrels as game over there? I'm one of the few who regards them as highly here.

[Jimmy]

I believe I'm right in thinking you regard squirrels as game over there? I'm one of the few who regards them as highly here.

They're game!! There is nothing more exciting to watch than a good redtail and a hawk savvy squirrel. They are a perfect match. Much more exciting to watch than slamming a bunny.