Dad has some hazel nuts trees he planted as well. I'm not sure if they're hybrid or not, but they produce a fair amount of nuts. As mentioned, he's not too concerned about the squirrels and the walnuts but he does get worked up about the blue jays getting his hazel nuts.
He's got a Winchester model 37 16 ga he keeps in the corner of their kitchen, but he's gotten too slow to be much of a threat to the jays. When I'm visiting he's prodding me to be on the lookout for the jays.
My brother and I planted about 25 American chestnut trees, a couple of northern pecan trees and a couple hican trees. The chestnuts are supposed to grow well without the blight being in the west as it is in the east....we'll see! The northern pecan and hican trees we planted last year, so it's a bit of an experiment at this point.
