A similar discussion got brought up at one of the Maine meets after I caught a snowshoe hare by hand and tossed it out as a baggie for a cast of harris hawks that were not chasing and the harris's owner counted it as a kill. The fact is that I see a slingshot as almost a mandatory part of a hawking kit here and it is probably due my age. "If you go out all season fly your butt for 5 months and catch only 5 of them you had fun your bird is very fit and flown hard and you did exactly what you supposed to be doing to practice this sport at a dedicated level." Even the slightest chance of injury is not worth the risk. Keep doing what your doing with your marksmanship with slingshot an unfortunate incident is more unlikely, but to me if I were under those conditions I would still not use one. They show great improvement till about 4 then it tappers off somewhat. Their is a dramatic learning curve that I have seen demonstrated many times in passage RTs. She will take advantage of every opportunity in a way a bird with a more abundant population will not. It will improve given enough slips even in the most sparsely populated areas. It can be very frustrating I do know that. Its about flying your bird, and keeping it healthy. Counting heads is not a bench mark of what quality of falconer you are or the quality of your dedication. If you go out all season fly your butt for 5 months and catch only 5 of them you had fun your bird is very fit and flown hard and you did exactly what you supposed to be doing to practice this sport at a dedicated level. ONE place had squirrels every squirrel hawker present would line up to get in there. I do understand it can be very difficult to find squirrels. I bet in SC you will find they do some things differntly then in TX. Falconry is practiced differntly everywhere depending on game populations and hawking locations. Yarak if you think this is not the sport for me then BITE MY YANKEE ASS and all the other falconers that use slingshots. If you can hit a coke can at 40ft every time the chances of you missing a squirrel nest are slim. I can hit a running squirrel with a slingshot and have killed a few with it. Practice with it before season is a must. I do not see a slingshot as a substancial enough risk as not to use it. But with a first year passage bird a slingshot or a willingness to climb trees is nessicary if you want to take game in any reasonable numbers in my area. With my last bird I did not need a slingshot in my second of third year with it as it learned to just jump on nest. It takes some time for the birds to learn to crash nest. It is not uncommon for me to go out for three or four hours and get one or two flights. Even hawking with my sponsor who has over 35 years of dirt hawking experince it took awhile and a few drives to other spots to get a squirrel at one of the meets. This year it could take up to two hours to get a singe squirrel moving. Up here in MA a great season is 30 squirrel. Just wondering what are you guys squirrel couts for the season? Tiercel78 you had a score in the 90s didn't you? And Yarak you have a bird that is in its 10th or 11th season? Faliure to that is irresponsible and reflects poorly on us all. It is incumbent on each and every one of us to do all we can to minimize that risk. No matter what you fly or what you fly on. If you REALLY think its worth it, maybe this sport is not for you. How would you feel, just on the outside chance you injured your bird with a projectile. A good hunter understands that many more will get away than will ever be caught. Stop and wait for the bird to move on or to decide that its gone. If you have one squirrel in most cases you have many. It takes repetition, and a good number of slips. Now did she start out this way.of course not. Countless times they have ran to nest only to be given a brief respite while the hawk finds the best point of attack. Nests are destroyed if the hawk even suspects the presence of a squirrel. Holes and cavities are the only really safe place. I dislike the idea of any projectile flying in the direction of my hawk. Who needs anything to shoot at all? Given enough slips and patience the hawk will figure out what to do.
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