NO GLOVE ASSOCIATION!!!

[Sparrow Hawker]

Be interesting to hear what other people think of this.

Michael McDermott advises not to feed an imprint from the glove but to pick the bird up from the ground as often as possible or use the lure as the sole retrieval device.

He says it helps to eliminate the bird becoming sticky footed and has the benefit of eliminating a lot of slip refusals to.

Has anyone who has flown imprints in the past tried this method before with there imprints, Your thoughts please!

HH

[Jay]

My sponsor uses this meathod with all his Gos Hawks. They are never called to the fist, they are always called to the lure than transfered. He even mentoned to me that he does this with passage Gos Hawks as well, "because they are shortwings" was his answer, I need to ask him why next time Im with him. I have never seen his Gos refuse a slip and rides the fist great. She transfers great, he always remarks how dumb she is that she will trade a quail on the lure for a small tidbit on the glove. Note this bird is a 6th season imprint Gos.

Just wondering what you ment by picking up the bird off the ground? Does this mean throwing a tidbit them picking up the bird? This my sponsor does not do, he will pick them up from a kill or lure but never throw a tidbit. He feels its an insult to the bird to have it scrounging around on the ground as the faloner tries to pick it up.

[OutFlying]

Be interesting to hear what other people think of this.

Michael McDermott advises not to feed an imprint from the glove but to pick the bird up from the ground as often as possible or use the lure as the sole retrieval device.

He says it helps to eliminate the bird becoming sticky footed and has the benefit of eliminating a lot of slip refusals to.

Has anyone who has flown imprints in the past tried this method before with there imprints, Your thoughts please!

HH

I tried that last year and its a pain in the backside, when the cover is still high the gos can't see the lure on the ground, if the ground is wet so is the gos. It's a pain to get the lure off the gos, at this stage it will be mantling like mad and tail damage can occur. If you swing the lure up into the glove its just the same as feeding off the glove.

I flew only to the lure from early July till late September then flew to either fist or lure with no problems of aggression or sticky footiness. Next time I imprint I will recall to the lure but step off to a small tit bit on the glove.

One thing I will say the gos was incredible to recall to the lure and would leave a kill to the tiniest amount of food on the lure, making switching very easy.

[Ben C]

He feels its an insult to the bird to have it scrounging around on the ground as the faloner tries to pick it up.

I like that a lot :) :)

[GoneHawking]

I flew my imprint solely to the lure for the first year and then after his first moult I started to get him to hop up from the lure to the fist for a small reward, at first he was a bit confused, but he soon got the hang of it, There was no aggression on the glove at all, one good thing was that when he nobbled little owls I could call him straight off the owl and onto the lure, with no damage to the owl(which was then released), you had to be careful when transfering from game birds though as sometimes he would let them go to come for the lure. (so make sure the quarry is dead first), Obvious really but in the heat of the excitement of a flight, it can happen.
As outflying said mine to was very responsive from any distance to the lure, others on field meets with P/R birds had to go and get there birds after a slip, where as my Gos nearly always came back looking for me and the dog, or if not I could lure him back from a far.

[OutFlying]

Agree, the gos would leave any prey just for a small reward on the lure - but make sure you have hold of the quarry first :shock:

[Ben C]

Are you saying that PR birds had a different action in the field than imprints Gonehawking? This is not really about this thread so please could you PM me with your observations so I don't take it off topic.

Cheers Ben

This looks like an interesting thread, hopefully I will learn something on here. Forgive my daft questions in advance folks. :) :) :)

[GoneHawking]

It happened just the once (first hen pheasant) then I soon realised the quarry would have to be dispatched first or we were going to lose alot of quarry, bloody pheasant looked dead but as soon as his grip lessened she was off :o well you would wouldn't ya if one minuite your gos meat the next it lets go :oops:

[North East Harris Hawker]

i ahve a friend who flies an imprint gos, he only flies the bird to the lure, he says he would rather the bird take its agression out there than on him :shock:

[OutFlying]

something not right there

[GoneHawking]

Like I said my bird was not agressive whilst being fed on the fist, also other peoples gosses were fed up at the end of a field meet and all fed on the fist with no agression, tuckers, french's etc etc, bl$$dy good gosses to.

[Hawkmaster]

but make sure you have hold of the quarry first
Yep been there, they look so dead and then ****** off, at the total disgust of the Gos.

I first tried this method with a spar and it worked great, I was not worried about aggression on the fist but did not want to have the hawk screaming. Always flew her like that until I gave her away.

Done it with a loan Gos too but she wass not impressed as she was not taught that way.

My current Gos, you all know her the mentally unstable one! I do like that too but also find it a major pain and inconvient, so last season tried to recall her to the glove, guess what she would not come. Flies like mad to the lure though but the best is an old rabbit or pheasant, dead of course!

[North East Harris Hawker]

do you find that lure flying makes the glove less interesting to the bird though HM?

[OutFlying]

NEHH, If you fly solely from the fist and have plenty of success most hawks will return to fist readily whether food in place or not.

[Hawkmaster]

NO see just was not ready for it yet. Out of say a tree see though it odd to come to the fist. But if she was on the floor after a missed strike say, I could stand above her and offer the fist and she would jump up for no reward.

[Coedhirion]

A friend tried training a FHH to lure and never fed on the fist, she turned out to be a realy smashing bird, very easy to pick up off quarry & came back instantly if she missed a slip. On one occassion the bird was so quick, we got 2 kills with her from flushing one rabbit hole. She followed on excellently & was a real pleasure to hunt and handle.

[Sparrow Hawker]

Great feedback,

Cheers,

HH

[IAmTheWeasel]

A good majority of falconers in the US train accipiters with the "recipe" stated in Mc Dermott's book. It does not work for every bird from what I hear, but when it does work, it is hard to beat. I plan on using a similar method when I get my first eyass Coops or Sharpy
Weasel

[Tim Laycock]

Michael McDermott advises not to feed an imprint from the glove but to pick the bird up from the ground as often as possible or use the lure as the sole retrieval device.

He says it helps to eliminate the bird becoming sticky footed and has the benefit of eliminating a lot of slip refusals to.

Has anyone who has flown imprints in the past tried this method before with there imprints, Your thoughts please!
For what its worth, I think not calling imprints to the fist is a big bag of ********!