For whatever it's worth, I've always hung my shooting bags and always left them full of gear, and I used my original bag for about 40 years until one day I slung it over my shoulder and the strap broke right where it was sewn to the bag. So, I removed the broken stub from the bag, trimmed the strap end and reattached it, extending the overlap to compensate for that missing piece, and once again hung it over my shoulder. It broke again. Puzzled, I tested the strap itself by pulling on it (Should have done that right off .... ) and found it was weak and needed to be replaced altogether. Dug out a partial hide and was marking off a new strap when I thought "Wait a minute ... I wonder if the bag is sound?" Checked it and it was ready to come apart too. Huh !! So I made a whole new bag with a whole new strap. I expect the new one will last at least as long as the original, and probably much longer than I'm going to need it. It's my rifle bag, which has always carried a ball bag, patching, lube, a small brass oil bottle, a double-ended turnscrew, a small metal file, a small tin box with jags and patch worms and ball pullers, a flint wallet, knapping tools, a forged pair of pliers, a mainspring vise, and a flint `n steel set plus tinder, a small sharpening stone, and another little tin box with needles, a hank of linen thread, and some sinew. There's a roll of bandage and a pair of tweezers for removing splinters and cactus spines. There's a tin cup hanging on the strap and a patch knife in it's own sheath, and an awl in another sheath. My powder horn holds a full pound of powder and I keep a second ball bag with spare round ball on extended trips. There's a small priming horn in the bag, and If I'm using a percussion, then it also has tins of caps, a nipple wrench, and a capper. Others have sometimes tweaked me about carrying so much in my hunting bag. Some of them have also come by looking to borrow a tool when they hit an unexpected problem. Me, I hate losing a day's hunting or a rifle match at rendezvous because I don't have something I need to keep my medicine iron working. I'm getting too long in the tooth now to spend long spells living off the land, but when I did I tried to avoid any situation where I had to watch supper disappearing over the next rise because my gun didn't fire. There are edible plants to gather, but none of them taste like broiled meat. Which reminds me .... other things I pack along in my hunting bag are a small horn flask of salt and some tea.
My "other" bag is one I made for my Trade Gun and it's newer than that old rifle bag, has it's own powder horn, bullet bag, shot bag, and tools to fit that gun.
