Quote Originally Posted by davidfrank View Post


http://www.westernsporting.com/FE202...Two-Sizes.html

Western Sporting has recently added a new Clip and Swivel tethering system (FE2028A), which is based on the tethering system that has been used successfully by the Coulson's and other falconers for many years. This new Clip and Swivel tethering system uses a similar clip/swivel arrangement, but is a little different in that it is put together using a tough, custom braided loop leash and extension of the same material and quality of our other braided equipment.

Here at Western Sporting we are more accustomed to using a traditional tethering arrangement with our falcons which has an extension, swivel and leash looped through the jesses. We put a lot of thought into the design of these clip and swivel tethering systems, but we are still interested in everyone's views on using these types of systems with their hawks and experiences they've had with them.

We'd like to start a discussion on the pros and cons of this sort of tethering arrangement.
I have been using these systems for about 20 years. Like all things, there is a +/- trade off.

On the + side, they are a much quicker way to secure a hawk/falcon than any other setup. Tie up time is a few seconds as opposed to a minute or so with other systems. Also, once you get the leash tied to the length you want, it just stays with the perch and every time you clip them up the leash is correct. One other + is that there are more swivels, overall, in the system which reduces the likelihood that the leash will foul.

On the - side, these clips are not secure. They should only be used in contained environments (indoors, in a fully enclosed weathering yard, in the mew, etc.) where it will not be extremely dangerous to the hawk or other hawks if it gets loose. For example, don't tie off two hawks with this kind of a setup in the same weathering yard unless you are confident that if one of the hawks gets loose and they make contact with each other that both will be OK. Failure comes when the jesses move just right against the clip and slip off. It took me some time to realize how this was happening. I can now demonstrate it, but it is very complex to describe verbally. This can come on the first bate, or not ever happen in 4,000 bates, but it can happen. Failure also happens when the spring in the clip fatigues and fails. This usually happens after lots of use, but again can occur at any time including the first time the spring is compressed.

These systems also work very well for glove leashes as a backup restraint for when the jesses slip through the fingers during an unexpected bate.