Hi I’m Jim Coughlin, Design Engineer/Master falconer (That's my wee grandson Aidan, holding "Bullet" my Tiercel Gyr/Prairie falcon). As Falconers we all know what it’s like taking your bird hunting to the field. First, you have to remove the leash then the swivel then the jesses. What a hassle! You hunt your bird, then pick it up and have to go through the same process all over again only in reverse.

What if all you had to do was disconnect the jesses at the anklet?  That’s right! Nothing more to do after that!

Approximately 14 years ago when I first got this idea on eliminating most of these tedious steps, I began to design a totally new jess on my Cad machine, which I called the “Bullet Jess." I had absolutely no idea what it would lead to. The name “Bullet Jesses" came from the look of the jess toggle. The original ones were made of nickel alloy with copper rivets they really did resemble a bullet. Not only that, because they were so fast to use. . . I figured the speed of a bullet was appropriate when naming these new jesses.

Initially my "Bullet Jesses" were used, only in the field whilst hunting. It became obvious that using them in the mews would work also. The result of that was an amazing discovery. Bullet Jesses do not allow your bird to get caught up. By using both the Bullet Jesses and Bullet leash together, your bird doesn’t get caught up. The reason is, because the vinyl has memory (unlike leather) it returns to it’s original shape immediately. Also the line at the bullet end of the jesses is a lot smaller then the inside of the grommet so it always rotates freely.

It wasn’t till several years later when I met Hal Webster for the first time I then realized what a great idea Bullet Jesses really was. . .

Hal was the first falconer to buy a pair of Bullet Jesses. He came up to me at the California meet in Bakersfield back in the early 90’s and could not believe his eyes. He asked me why no one had thought of this idea before? I told him jokingly that “It could only take a Scotsman to do so first”.  He laughed and told me that he wanted to publish this new idea in his book “North American Falconry and Hunting Hawks”. I told him I would write a small piece for it, but I never did.