I was wondering if you guys could give me some ideas for possibles bags

iM assuming your talking about a good vendor? I got mine from the leatherman. I really like it.you can google leatherman and check them out on the website

You can also try October Country, Track of the Wolf or several others.

Now as far as what is best, then more information from you will be needed.

Do you want a bag for a day hunt, a session of target shooting or a week long hunt? Do you want to carry a lot of gear on only what is needed for the task at hand?

Do you want more traditional styling or modern style?

For the most part smaller is better.

I ment what is the best type to make and I would like to make one that is good for target mainly

Colin, Whether it is for target shooting or for hunting, the shooting bag should be just for that, shooting. What I mean is, most folks tend to begin by making or getting a bag that is much larger than necessary. Get a bag that will hold your patches and balls plus a few tools needed for shooting. If you want to see some patterns, get a copy of TC's book "Recreating the 18th Century Hunting Pouch." He shows several styles and how to make then, from the stitching on to ageing the pouches. I like to make pouches that are what I'll call "my version" of the traders' pouches made by the saddlemaker appretices. These are very simple, like what the saddlemaker apprentices would make to practice their stitching. My version differs from the old ones because I favor a wider strap and my pouches have outside placement for the short starter on the back of the pouch. They also have a ball pocket on the inside. Making a pouch is not real hard and you can get good guidance right here. Or, if you want to buy a pouch, maybe you can talk TC into making one for you. Shoot sharp's the word, Mike

who is TC

TC Albert wrote the book called "Recreating the 18th Century Hunting Pouch." He's a member of this forum and contributes frequently. He also writes "How To" articles for Muzzleloader magazine. He has a web site at

http://www.thehuntingpouch.com/

He might give you a good deal on a pouch...kinda the opposite of a 'senior citizen discount.'

Sparks

Hey Collin, I should have you read the old muzzleloader magazine from 2002. Mike Nesbitt wrote about making a pouch out of a wool blanket. That is where I got the idea to make the new one you saw on Saturday. I can show you how to do that if you want. A possibles bag would be a bit larger than the shooting pouch, but it could work well. I like the wool, it is lighter and has a bit of color, and is different than most...

I would like that sawbones maybe that is somthing we could work on Thursday nights until we start the workshops.

I would second what Mike said, I have a bag for just shooting my rifle while hunting. All of the contents support that. My compass, fire kit, tobacco & pipe, sewing kit, and eating stuff go into a haversack, which I suppose would be a quasi possibles bag. Kettle, extra clothes & mocs, rations, and some additional tools go into my tumpline or pack, depending on what I need to tote.

A big weight on one side of your body will not be good when shooting targets, or trekking, so distribute the weight. I think the single, huge, over the shoulder, it has everything including a blanket, is mostly Hollywood..., and the idea was even suggested in the AWI as The New Invented Haversack..., but ya know what I've never found historic records where these things were issued and used.

LD

When my son was starting out Black Powder shooting, I got him a bag from Dixie Gun Works, I think it's called the Long Hunter Bag. It is made of cotton and has a very wide strap with a blanket strip in Green or Blue or Red on the strap for color. I think it was 12 dollars. It would make a good starter bag.

P

IMHO, the best hunting pouch is one that fits your needs. Some folks don't want extra small pouches for individual items. Some do.

Different people like different locations for those small pouches and for those small items, so it all depends.

Someone suggested making your first hunting pouch from canvas or blanket wool. I agree. IMHO, make the first hunting pouch, or two, of material that is easily modified, 'cause the more you use it, the more you will want to change it to meet your personal idiosyncrasies.

Here is a page of leather working sites that might be of help in sewing that bag. IMHO, leather working needles and stitching is the same for heavy canvas and light lather, so practice on the less expensive canvas, then graduate to good leather, once you figure out how you like your bag laid out.

fficial&client=firefox-a" target="_blank">http://www.google.com/search?q...ial&client=firefox-a

There are a lot of nice bags on the contemporary blog site, and the CLA site to use as guides in making your bag.

http://contemporarymakers.blogspot.com/

http://www.longrifle.ws/

God bless

Often times, including this thread, I see the terms possibles bag and shooting/hunting bag used synonymously. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong (it has happened before), but are these not two different kinds of bags? It is my understanding that a shooting bag is relatively small - just big enough to hold the items you need to shoot, and a possibles bag is larger, about the size of a small haversack, to carry other miscellaneous items needed for a trek (could also double as a game bag). Or is this a modern distinction that has no basis in primary documentation?

I always thought that technically a possibles bag held "anything possible" and was a mountain man term from the old days...kind of a poke sack, though often maybe a fancy Indian done version...

Today, the term is often used interchangably with shooting bag by some...
TCA

The Mountain Man's possible sack was his "suitcase" for carrying clothing, extra gear, etc. The term has been since at least the 1970's mistakenly applied to the hunters: shot bag, shot pouch, or ball bag - two of the terms that were commonly used in the past for what we now term a shooting pouch. Period accounts for items carried in one's shot bag included not only items for shooting, but often an extra knife (folding or fixed blade) and fire starting equipment.

Below are two of the earliest documented uses of the term possibles bag - a term apparently not used until the RMFT era..
from George Frederick Ruxton's 1846 book "Life in the Far West", "...whars the dollars as ought to be in my possibles?". Ruxton also references a "possibles sack" describing it as a "wallet of dressed buffalo skin" for carrying "extra ammunition, a few pounds of tobacco, dressed deerskins for moccasins, etc."


In William Drummond Stewart's fictional 1840's book "Edward Warren", although based on his mountain experiences, " my gaudy cottons having confronted the glorious sun until sunk from the contest, were ready to be re-consigned to the possible sack."

Hey Tim - Check out this quote re knife suspended on the shot pouch strap - some documentation to at least 1800, older than many folks like to admit:
"My powder horn and ball pouch always contained more or less ammunition; but on examination, I found them empty. My knife also, which I commonly carried appended to the strap of my shot pouch, was gone."
~ John Tanner, Great Lakes Country, c.1800 (Tanner, 112)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: GreyWolf,

Shooting bags and possible bags are quickly being accepted as two seperate items as information spreads more quickly via the net many years ago many folks at "Vous called their small leather bag a possibles bag it is harder and harder to find the term used as such anymore. typicaly a smallish bag is used by most but what you wish to carry will determine what size you need, and as time goes on you will carry less and less.

Thanks for the patch/utility knife attached to the strap reference Chuck...thats a pretty good book...I got a paper back copy as a kid and still have it spmeplace...I think its called "in the country of the walking dead"
excerpts from the John Tanner biography...but I could have that title totally messed up (Farley Mowat has a book with a similar title I may be jumbling it up with??)

Either way, thanks again for the documentation and the reminder of what a great book it is...
Tim