Shooting Pouch and Contents

I am planning to shoot in another woods walk tomorrow at Boyertown and in preparation went through my shooting pouch, so I thought it was a good opportunity to do a post on the contents. I will be shooting my .50 caliber George Dech flintlock longrifle, so the bag is setup to support it.

The bag itself was made by The Leatherman. I bought it many years ago at Dixon's. Although it was made to be worn on the right hip I wear it hanging on my left. If I can get motivated I may reverse the strap but that will require a lot of restitching.

I've previously posted about the horn, which came from October Country and then refinished by me.

The contents of the pouch are limited to support shooting and maintaining the rifle for a day or two of shooting. I could carry a few more things but then it would require fishing around in the bag too much.

First, note that I have a vent pick and pan brush hanging from the shoulder strap of the bag. I use the vent pick before priming the pan for each shot. This ensures that the vent is clear and allows me to confirm that I didn't dry ball.

On the top left is an Altoids tin containing cotton cleaning patches, some tow, a .50 caliber cleaning jag, and a US M1817-style worm to use with the tow. I also carry a small bottle of 70% rubbing alcohol in my jacket for use as a cleaning solvent. Running a damp patch down the bore between shots keeps loading easy and makes it so that my final cleaning isn't as difficult.

To the right of that is a tin with 30 0.018" shooting patches lubed with pure neatsfoot oil, and to the right of that is my powder measure, attached to the bag with a leather thong.

In the middle row is a leather bag containing 30 .490" round balls and next to that is my priming flask full of 3Fg powder. That will be carried in a jacket pocket during the shoot.

Below that is a flint/tool wallet and its contents: two lens wipes for my eyeglasses or the frizzen if it gets really dirty, ball pulling screw, patch pulling worm, three flints, and a piece of leather for holding the flint in the hammer.

This pic shows the back of the bag as well as the inside of the flint/tool wallet. It also shows the flint knapping hammer I carry in the bottom of the bag but forgot to take out for the first picture. I can use it to refresh the edge of a worn flint without removing it from the hammer.

I've previously used a small set of hand forged pliers for flint knapping, but Boyertown's rules require using a brass, non-sparking implement if knapping the flint when a charge is down the bore. I can't argue with that so I picked up the hammer shown since their last shoot.