game bags?

[EricEwing]

Hello,

A friend has asked me to make a game bag. I've been looking at some original and contemporary examples on the blog and around the internet when I can and have been interested in making one for a while, but was a bit intimidated.  I have a few ideas...but I have more questions than ideas.  I did a search here on the forum but didn't see a whole lot on this topic.  Hoping some experts here can tell me a little about them.

Where and when do they originate? in Madison Grants book on pouches he has only one picture of a game bag and it seems to be associated with the percussion shotgun era.

Is the pouch itself designed to hold game as well as the knotted fronts, or just supplies?

What is their typical size?

Is some sort of simple linen bag ever substituted for the knotted fronts?

thanks

[Kermit]

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=3958.0

[EricEwing]

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=3958.0

Thanks I did read that thread via the search engine. Even perused the links in it on making the fronts. Still hoping for some discussion on the topic though.

[Kermit]

I'm an admirer, but have zip experience with these bags. SOMEONE here must have some hands-on experience. That's about all the help I can be. Not much out there in cyberland.

[Ron Scott]

Information on these bags is very scarce. I have asked friends in Eroupe about reference sources to no avail. Dating them is a problem. Steve Radosavich made me photo copies of some bags he veiled and noted that some had cartidge loops. I have a game bag that came from Provance France. It is very large, over fourteen inches.  All of the game bags I have seen are fairly sophisticated in design and workmanship.

I have an extra knotted front if you are looking for one to make up a bag.

Ron

[James Rogers]

I think clarification needs to be made as game bags date way back prior to medieval times and some of those styles continued thru to the present. I think you are referring to the netted fronts that actually attach to a large satchel of leather like Ron is talking about. If so, I think they can be traced to Germanic origin at least to the mid 18th century. In Dutch regions that adopted German design , one can sometimes find this same type of set-up with the them. Most all old examples I have seen in person are most probably 19th or 20th century. From what I have seen so far, English and French use of this style seems post 18th century.

[EricEwing]

Thank you for your replies.

Ron, your European style bags are amazing. I think I may have looked at every one of them I could find pictures of online.

James, thanks for the clarification. Although that is another topic, the earlier versions of bags meant to hold game with origins in medieval times are just as interesting to me. But yes I am referring to the Germanic looking bags with the netted fronts. So the netted fronts themselves are simply the "game bag", and the pouch they are attached to is merely a large satchel of more or less any type?

I am curious why the satchels are so much larger than the typical shot pouches I'm used to seeing.  Were they intended to hold game as well?

thanks again for responding and for the information about their origins

[PPatch]

Your average country boy kept it simple - I remember an uncle who toted a homemade game bag sometimes when out hunting small game. It had a leather back and a flour sack front stitched together by his wife, the strap was made from the sacking material. When I was a boy I had one that was totally made from a flour sack turned inside out and its strap made from the same sacking material and sewn by me mom. Tow sacks (burlap) were also used. I guess I owned a po-boy game bag. Thing was you could put it in a creek for a while to cool the meat and evaporation would kept it coolish while you journeyed home, with a wet hip. I used that sack when frog gigging too. While I realize Eric is contemplating creating an upscale gamebag I thought I'd throw that out there. Game Bags seem very subjective.

dp

[James Rogers]

Your average country boy kept it simple - I remember an uncle who toted a homemade game bag sometimes when out hunting small game. It had a leather back and a flour sack front stitched together by his wife, the strap was made from the sacking material. When I was a boy I had one that was totally made from a flour sack turned inside out and its strap made from the same sacking material and sewn by me mom. Tow sacks (burlap) were also used. I guess I owned a po-boy game bag. Thing was you could put it in a creek for a while to cool the meat and evaporation would kept it coolish while you journeyed home, with a wet hip. I used that sack when frog gigging too. While I realize Eric is contemplating creating an upscale gamebag I thought I'd throw that out there. Game Bags seem very subjective.

dp

I agree, obviously for another thread but the "guana" sack game bag was a standard 20th century item for us southron boys. Flour sacks apparently were re-purposed for other items in my neck of the woods.
I think the point you are trying to make is that the poorer classes of hunters and poachers in much earlier times would have also used just about anything to suit the purpose and I agree.

[EricEwing]

regular old game sacks are cool too. I like the one Cory Joe just made. And James of course I like the game bag you made that I sent you the link of. I even saved some linen, hemp and burlap that I might try to use if acquiring or making a netted front proves too difficult or expensive at the moment. I'll keep in mind trying not to blur the line between poor boy and upscale though.

[G. Elsenbeck]

Eric, I managed to find a couple in my library and these visuals might be of some use. 

The first two are vintage bags while the last two are contemporary.

Gary

[EricEwing]

thanks Gary!

[PPatch]

All of those are very nice. Thank you for the pictures.

[JoeG]

Here is another style that can be worn on your belt

 

I can't remember who made

[T.C.Albert]

Ron...
email sent...
tc

[T*O*F]

Another alternative is the twined bag which I made decades ago and started the trend you see some guys doing today.  I call it "trickle down reenacting."

[EricEwing]

here's something I thought was interesting....apparently its Hemingway's game bag.


http://putthison.com/post/59593137296/ernest-hemingways-game-bag-every-once-in-a

http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/field-notes/2012/09/ny-bookstore-auction-ernest-hemingways-fishing-bag