Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders possibles bag ?

show pictures of possibles bags and how you fill them - what you use.

I actually don't have an authentic one. I use a camo fanny pack. I carry 5 pre measured powder charges. I've got them in rifle casings that I plug the ends off. I pre-lube about a dozen patches, and take about a dozen round balls in a little pouch. I carry a powder flask, powder measure, a couple pipe cleaners, a small bottle of patch lube, a starter rod, and a nipple wrench and a pick. It all fits easily in a small fanny pack, with room for a small snack and a sandwich. I could could get a bottle of water in there too, but I keep that in my back pack with my drag rope, gloves and other odds and ends.

If you’re refering to hunting pouches, here are three of my favorites. I try to assemble a pouch, horn, accoutrement, combo for each long gun I have. Several longguns of the same bore I can share pouches.

Kaywoodie: That's over the top. Great looking gear.

I just carry a small pouch that holds 5 reloads in plastic vials/tubes, primers, palm loader, and a nipple pic. I'm good for 5 shots.

Thanks gungeezer. The bags Ive picked up along the way. I did make the one flat horn with the boar on it. And I made all the accoutrements. I need to start on another bag from scratch. Just waiting on some inspiration! 😉. Got the horn done today. It needed a spout plug! Have all the accoutrements done. Just need the bag!

When I hear the term possibles bag, this is what I think of. A haversack type arrangement. 😁

No pictures of the contents, but here are a couple I have made...

Dang prime work there redneck! Great work!!!!

Thank you sir!
If I ever manage to catch up with myself, I have three more I need to make. Two for me and one that I promised for a friend...

The rocky mountain trappers had horses. Their "possibles bag" rode on the horse. Their bullet bags or shooting bags were worn over the left shoulder and under their right arm. They never carried "haversacks" those were military equipment.
Basically, the bag worn by those trappers only contained items necessary to operate the gun. Descriptions from the time say they attached gun worms and stiching awls to the strap behind the back.

These days there is much confusion about possible bags. I've tried to sort it out but there isn't a lot of information to be found and the names of those bags, what folks call them, can be confusing. leather bags wore out long before the guns and the few remaining examples are from much latter time periods. These leather bags and powder horns were produced commercially and trappers did not go into the mountains to make equipment. They were there to trap furs. So they started out with bags made by harness makers. They would only make their own if one was lost.

The problem with "possibles bags" I see at rendezvous are two fold. The first is a result of the "mountain man run" competitions and those guys who compete in timed events have more stuff attached to the outside of the bag and hanging from straps than anything that would be practical in the real world.

The second problem stems from the notion that a "possibles bag" would contain every item that a mountain man might need to survive. That sure slows down the loading process when a pilgrim has to dig through all that "stuff" to find what he needs to load his rifle during a shooting match or a hunt.

I don't believe we will ever find enough information to say definitely what was or was not carried in the bag that accompanied the gun. But it seems evident to me that the most practical method is to include only the items necessary to operate and maintain that gun. Long ago I gave up the idea of having only one bag. It just isn't practical to change out the entire contents of the bag when changing guns. Now I have a bag for each gun and I design that bag to best organize those items required for that gun. My 40 caliber Lancaster is served well with a small belt bag and my 62 caliber smoothbore needs a large bag to hold all the items needed to load round ball or shot.

This may not be the most historically correct method, I doubt we will ever know what that was. However it is the most practical method for hunting or shooting a rendezvous event that I have seen.

We are all geegaw and plunder mullets, truth be known! 🤣🤣🤣

ok so now what do you treat the bags with? oil-wax-whatever.

I generally don’t treat my pouches. Although I did rub the bag in the middle pic down the other day with a beeswax/olive oil concoction of my own making, the other day because it just looked like it needed something. But seems that just carrying them and using them keeps em in pretty good shape. I have rubbed other leather items down with bear oil before. Like mocassins. Used commercial mink oil on mocs too. Mocs don’t generally last long before they wear out. Polite way of going barefoot.

I wipe them sparingly with mink oil but any good leather treatment is fine.

Beautifully done, Kaywoodie.

Thanks, rifleman!

great stuff longhunter I enjoy your post & pics

That is not bad for an old goat!!

Why thank you Denny!

^^^^^ yep me too

Longhunter has been at it quite anwhile! 😉👍

pdoghunter, thank you for that. Well spoken.

thank you all for the responses. nice work on the self done bags. this will get me started for sure.