My "Go Bag"

[Semisane]

I posted this a couple of years ago, but thought some of the newer forum members might be interested in seeing it.



I have a "go bag" for each of my sidelocks. The bag itself is the 11" canvas tool bag from Harbor Freight which they put on sale for around $6 every few months. I call it a "go bag" because I can grab the bag and gun and hit the range with everything I need for a lengthy shooting session.



This is what the one for my .58 Green Mountain barreled TC Hawken caplock looks like.

And this is what's inside.

See the Tool Box at the 12 o'clock position in the picture. This is what's in it.

Of course, the bags for my flinters contain slightly different items tailored for each gun. The only real problem with my system is you need duplicate short starters, nipple wrenches, powder measures, etc. for each bag.

 

[RADeO]

That is a great idea!

Have you given any thought to keeping a secondary bag with your common-use items (short starters, powder measures, nipple wrenches, and so on) that you could grab and stuff into the specific bag for the rifle you are taking to the range? It would save some money. Or would that be defeating your purpose? Just a-wonderin'.

 

[rmatt]

I like that.I always forget something.
Bob

 

[BrownBear]

I'm with you. If it's possible to forget ANYTHING, I'll do it! :haha:

I'm more of a field shooter than range shooter, so I work around individual shooting bags and horns for each gun, and dang the expense of dupe accessories. Saving a little money is part of the impulse behind making my own bags and horns, but mostly I do it because I like making the stuff.

I have a range box with spares, but that's more of a portable gunsmithing kit than a shooting box. Even when I carry it along in the truck, I do all my shooting from a particular gun's shooting bag and use the spares to replenish.

Bottom line, fergettin can be bad, as well as embarrassing. I needed a followup shot on a deer last fall, and discovered I had no patches. Oops. Finished the deed with a bare ball in a rifle, but now that little hinged doohickies on the butts of my rifles hold a few spare patches and a spare flint. I wonder if anyone ever thought of calling it a "patch box?" :rotf:

 

[Greenjoytj]

Great Idea and ever a greater picture post method.
Pardon my post hijack but how do label the items in the photo.
I hope you wife doesn't kill you for putting marker on her hardwood floor.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Just like the Mountain Men carried. :wink:

 

[Tony Logan]

nice setup. I always worry about forgetting something.

 

[chance]

Looks great!!

 

[NJ Longbeard]

Nice!!!!

 

[MSW]

nice set- up.

thanks for the post!

another way to make good smoke.

 

[roundball]

Those are good little bags...carried one on the flight line every day when I was in the USAF back in the 60's...still keep one chuck full of hand tools that stays in my truck so tools are always with me at the range or hunting.

I use two range boxes that are similar in principle...one has everything for .40/.45/.50cals, the other has everything for .54/.58/.62cals

 

[ericb]

Love those Festive Flannel cleaning patches!

(Thats not leftover material from your Rifleman's Frock or Breech Clout is it??)

E

 

[Semisane]

Have you given any thought to keeping a secondary bag with your common-use items

That's what I used to do Acorn Mush. But I found I like the one gun/one bag method more.

 

[Semisane]

Pardon my post hijack but how do label the items in the photo.

I have my pictures in Windows Photo Gallery Greenjoytj, and put the labels on the picture with Paint. If you are running Windows, call up your picture then use the the "Open" tab on the top menu bar to open Paint. You may have to play around with Paint a while to get familiar with it, but once you do you can add lines, text, circles, squares, etc. It's best to make a copy of the picture you're working with before you start and work with the copy so you don't change or mess up your original. I'm sure there are other programs that can be used, but that's what I use.

 

[Semisane]

Love those Festive Flannel cleaning patches!

(Thats not leftover material from your Rifleman's Frock or Breech Clout is it??)

Ericb, that flannel is from my old worn out one-piece "footie" PJ's. I sure miss them at the hunting camp. :wink:

 

[Semisane]

Just like the Mountain Men carried.

Rifleman1776, I'm pretty sure I've seen a historical reference that Jeremiah Johnson shopped at Harbor Freight before heading West. :grin:

 

[ericb]

Did you save the Dr. Denton Trapdoor for Roundball Patches?? I've always heard that in it's day that was the preferred material...

E

 

[Semisane]

I have a range box with spares, but that's more of a portable gunsmithing kit than a shooting box.

:haha: I know all about that BrownBear. Mine weighs about 40 lbs. But the guys at the hunting camp have thanked me many times when we had to pull that box out of the truck to take care of some problem they were having.

 

[BrownBear]

But the guys at the hunting camp have thanked me many times when we had to pull that box out of the truck to take care of some problem they were having.

You too! :rotf:

Same goes for the "spare" rifle I carry on multi-day boat hunts and remote camps. I bring it for myself, but mostly it's my pards who end up needing it.

As long as I'm wandering away from your topic, I'll say a little more about that "spare" rifle. We've got a really mobile deer population, moving around to weather and all sorts of things. One day they're in the high rocky crests, the next in the open tundra, the next in the timber and the next in dense brush. My "spare" is actually part of a 2-gun strategy. When they're in the open, I use a long gun, and when they move into the really tight stuff I use a shortie. Many a hunt has been saved by that.

 

[Semisane]

We've got a really mobile deer population, moving around to weather and all sorts of things. One day they're in the high rocky crests, the next in the open tundra, the next in the timber and the next in dense brush.

It's not that way in my neck of the woods BrownBear. A few years ago an LSU grad student did a study with 48 wild captured deer (37 bucks & 11 does) that he fitted with radio collars and tracked three times a week until such time as the deer or the collar died. I think the study lasted over two years. His findings were the home range for bucks fell into 155-418 acres for bucks, with a "core area" (concentrated use area within the home range where 50% of the monitored locations fell) of only 34 acres. For does, the home range was 60-70 acres with a 12 acre core area. Our deer are homebodies.