New hunting ball bag

Trying to down size my gear again this year. I had some butter soft 2oz lamb skin, so I sewed up a little pouch ( actually it holds 18 .490 round balls) and then dyed it. I now have 9 spare balls loaded for the hunt.

Most of these however will come out as I have my 3 extra patched balls loaded into a loading block for quicker reloading in the field.

Hey buddy
 One question. Were snaps part of the 16th. century??? Just curious. Other than that NICE job, very professional.
Still alive:
Stoney

I normally carry less than a dozen balls and as little as possible for supplies, I'd rather carry a few apples for moisture and a candy bar than being over loaded.

Same here. I will carry 4 loads on my hunt.

Unless it's for small game I carry 5 balls and a 6th loaded in the gun.  Usually come back home with most of them, too.

@Buck Conner wrote:

@FrontierGander wrote:

Hey buddy
 One question. Were snaps part of the 16th. century??? Just curious. Other than that NICE job, very professional.
Still alive:
Stoney

Some of the oldest snap fasteners and snap-together connectors were made of metal and developed for the Chinese Terracotta Army dating back to 210 BC. The horse halters, comprised a gold and silver tube were linked with metal snap fasteners and made using advanced fastener-making technologies during the Qin dynasty. Inside the halters laid a pin that was able to be pulled out allowing the snap to unfasten so the halters were able to be removed.


Saw this on the History Channel a few years ago.

Thanks Buck
 I guess I can start using snaps on my things? I thought I was being period correct with the tie thongs on my flint wallets and journals... guess NOT? Live n learn!
Stoney

Remember usually the snaps are seen on European leather goods - military or those of wealth. Not real common in North American until the War of 1812 and later.

@Buck Conner wrote:

Remember usually the snaps are seen on European leather goods - military or those of wealth. Not real common in North American until the War of 1812 and later.

Buck
 I try to keep my things in the 1750 fur trapper/trade era.
Stoney

Here's a brief history of the fur trade in North America.

The commercial fur trade in North America grew out of the early contact between Indians and European fisherman who were netting cod on the Grand Banks off Newfoundland and on the Bay of Gaspé near Quebec.
 
Indians would trade the pelts of small animals, such as mink, for knives and other iron-based products, or for textiles. Exchange at first was haphazard and it was only in the late sixteenth century, when the wearing of beaver hats became fashionable, that firms were established who dealt exclusively in furs. High quality pelts are available only where winters are severe, so the trade took place predominantly in the regions we now know as Canada, although some activity took place further south along the Mississippi River and in the Rocky Mountains. There was also a market in deer skins that predominated in the Appalachians.
The first firms to participate in the fur trade were French, and under French rule - trade spread along the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers, and down the Mississippi. 

In the seventeenth century, following the Dutch, the English developed a trade through Albany. Then in 1670, a charter was granted by the British crown to the Hudson’s Bay Company, which began operating from posts along the coast of Hudson Bay. For roughly the next hundred years, this northern region saw competition of varying intensity between the French and the English. With the conquest of New France in 1763, the French trade shifted to Scottish merchants operating out of Montreal. After the negotiation of Jay’s Treaty (1794), the northern border was defined and trade along the Mississippi passed to the American Fur Company under John Jacob Astor. In 1821, the northern participants merged under the name of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and for many decades this merged company continued to trade in furs.
 
In the 1990's, under pressure from animal rights groups, the Hudson’s Bay Company, which in the twentieth century had become a large Canadian retailer, ended the fur component of its operation.

@Buck Conner wrote:

Here's a brief history of the fur trade in North America.

The commercial fur trade in North America grew out of the early contact between Indians and European fisherman who were netting cod on the Grand Banks off Newfoundland and on the Bay of Gaspé near Quebec.
 
Indians would trade the pelts of small animals, such as mink, for knives and other iron-based products, or for textiles. Exchange at first was haphazard and it was only in the late sixteenth century, when the wearing of beaver hats became fashionable, that firms were established who dealt exclusively in furs. High quality pelts are available only where winters are severe, so the trade took place predominantly in the regions we now know as Canada, although some activity took place further south along the Mississippi River and in the Rocky Mountains. There was also a market in deer skins that predominated in the Appalachians.
The first firms to participate in the fur trade were French, and under French rule - trade spread along the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers, and down the Mississippi. 

In the seventeenth century, following the Dutch, the English developed a trade through Albany. Then in 1670, a charter was granted by the British crown to the Hudson’s Bay Company, which began operating from posts along the coast of Hudson Bay. For roughly the next hundred years, this northern region saw competition of varying intensity between the French and the English. With the conquest of New France in 1763, the French trade shifted to Scottish merchants operating out of Montreal. After the negotiation of Jay’s Treaty (1794), the northern border was defined and trade along the Mississippi passed to the American Fur Company under John Jacob Astor. In 1821, the northern participants merged under the name of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and for many decades this merged company continued to trade in furs.
 
In the 1990's, under pressure from animal rights groups, the Hudson’s Bay Company, which in the twentieth century had become a large Canadian retailer, ended the fur component of its operation.

Thanks for the history lesson Buck. Are you telling me that my stuff isn't period correct? Provided that assumption is correct, then I guess I'm done here? Thank you again.
Stoney

@stoney1 wrote:

Thanks for the history lesson Buck. Are you telling me that my stuff isn't period correct? Provided that assumption is correct, then I guess I'm done here? Thank you again.
Stoney

I gave you a little history on the fur trade, said nothing about your wares. In fact opened up your range from 1790 to a larger field of times such items as yours were in use.

Jonathan here's an old sketch of a ball pouch that we have used for years (even before Stoney  ). Many traders have them on traders row anymore, cost around $20 bucks.

thanks! I will print that out and make a cardboard cut out of it.

I have several sizes, one for the small caliber, midsize and large balls.  Easy to make, no tie strings, balls stay in place and fits in the bottom of your shooting bag.  

I saw several of these in different sizes on display in the Musée de l'Armée (Army Museum) National Military Museum in France located near Paris. We had a layover back in the late '60s so it was a natural place for us to go to see arms.