Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Inflatable PFD

Bass Pro has an inflatable PFD on sale and I got to thinking about getting one. My thought process is along the lines of, I sometimes fish alone, the waters up here are often cold when the fishing is good, and should I fall out I'm fugged. I'm unlikely to get into the habit of wearing a bulky vest all the time, but I could probably get used to wearing one of these minimal bulk inflatables.Pretty simple deduction, I know. 🙂


Anyway, I know little about them. The one I'm considering are supposed to auto/manual inflation.

What says the brain trust here?

The auto will inflate when submerged . I would get the auto just in case you had an accident and were unconscious.

They strike an ideal balance between comfort and protection. If you buy one, familiarize yourself with it. Know the 3 ways it can inflate and maintain it meticulously. Be sure you can get back on your boat too. Your outboard or outdrive can serve as a ladder of sorts. FWIW, falls overboard are the leading cause of boating fatalities.

I have a set, and wear them when I am fishing alone and when I am on the Columbia river or saltwater. If I was smarter I would wear them 100% of the time.

I often forget I’m wearing it and don’t notice until put my seatbelt on inside my pickup at the end of the day.

Only a Type 1 PFD is designed to turn an unconscious person face up. Even then, they are not guaranteed to. There are no type 1 inflatables on the market. There are some inflatables that are very likely to turn an unconscious person face up.

I wore one while working. Tug captain that pushed our barges said "You'd trust your life to something that might not inflate when needed? And if you hit your head when you went over?"

He had a good point. I wore a Mustang brand one, but only during nicer (read HOT) weather. Mornings and cold (read spitting ice from the sky) days I wore the standard work vest.

One thing I will recommend. Maintenance before every season. Consider changing the CO2 cartridge and any seals yours might have. And inflate and deflate at least once a season to keep the bladder from sticking to itself.

And, when the weather warms, find a spot deep enough and test it with you in it.

And, on a final note, another thing said by those working on the water daily. Especially around COLD water.

"Remember, the PFD is really designed so they can find your body so the relatives have something to bury"

I have no idea who makes the BPS one, but you might look into it. If it's Chinese....................I'd shop elsewhere.

Good luck.

Now what does a bike rider and unlucky rifle buyer know about PFDs?

Chuckle Chuckle Chuckle.

I bought a couple for wife and I. I fish alone near always and promised her(and me) I’d always wear it. Couple of different type triggers on them. One is a pressure device that triggers when one goes into the water of about 20” submersion and the other has an eroding disc when sustained water contact is made. They’re to be inspected annually and disc replaced accordingly. I most often forget I’m wearing it.
Good luck.

Not just unlucky rifles, it's pistols too.

There is u tube .. a nice old black guy trys on each pfd t1 at a time and jumps off his boat...check it out b4y u buy !

Cold water to me means use the type 1. My inflatable gets used in the summer when its hot and the water is relatively warm.

How about power tools?

Paul lives down there amongst the 'Swamp People'..... they's knows bout water!

I had a friend who had an automatic inflatable jacket on once when it began raining. Once it rained enough and everything got wet enough the life jacket auto inflated while he was standing in the boat. I didn't see it but he said it happened. Go figure.

I've heard of that happening. I also read somewhere about making sure to store inflatables in a dry area so they don't go off when you wash your boat or if the boat gets rained on.

Thanks for the replies, guys. It's funny what having lots of candles on your cake will make you think about. 10 years ago I wouldn't have considered wearing a PFD on a regular basis, but only in rough conditions. Maybe, like I told my wife when I told her I wanted to buy one of these, it's life experiences speaking to me and telling me that I'm not immortal and need to use a little wisdom these days.

Alligator bait in the Louisiana bayou.

I have an inflatable PFD. I think it is a Mustang, I know it is red and was purchased with Cabelas points.

Last week I pulled it out of the storage compartment on the boat for the first time since I bought it a year ago. I found the CO2 cartridge was not installed. It was in a pocket.

I needed to jump out of the boat in the Snake River in very fast current about knee deep. And I wanted floatation in case I lost my footing in the slimy gravel bottom.

So, anyway, I needed to install the CO2 cartridge. Not something you want to do while already in cold water. To install the cartridge, I had to open the bladder compartment. The air bladders are folded into small pockets and contained by easy open zippers.

The zippers are designed to burst open when the bladder inflates. But they are not designed for easy closure. There is no closing apparatus on the zipper. I still have not gotten my PDF put back together.

Each time you replace the CO2 canister, or each time you get in the water and inflate the vest, or even when you test the vest by inflating it as directed in the instruction manual, you will need to reclose these zippers.

I about halfway regret even buying the thing.

I never wore my regular vest. It was always stowed or on the back of my seat. Not good when you're overboard, alone. So I got one of the Cabelas self-inflators. Should I go over, it's generally in cold water on the Great Lakes or duck hunting an inland waters during Oct-Nov-Dec. I promised my wife and kids I'd wear it. It's comfortable and doesn't interfere with my activities like the regular vest did.

That being said, I've never gone over the rail. If it happens, I'll have this vest on. And if it's a one and done, I don't care. If it did it's job, then I'm still alive to buy another.

Totally off point but we had a couple guys in a utv break threw the ice on the big lake. Drivers pfd inflated and trapped him inside the cab of the sxs. I did not realize they would auto inflate.

I am old, slow and mobility challenged. I just wear a regular one when in the boat