Looking for best saddle bags to carry hog hunting necessities

[dixiehoghunter]

I've got some insulated ones for drinks I can put on another horse but want a durable big saddle bag. Preferably with a bag on the back as well as the two regular ones. Material is not an issue.

I am also looking for a new saddle scabbard for Marlin carbine .35 Remington with a 1.5-4 scope. I have a Wick scabbard but have lost most of the rigging for it but can fix it up. Is there one out there that resembles a Wick scabbard or anybody got one they want to part with?

Also a friend of mine is in the hunting show industry and we filmed a deer dog archery hunt this past January. I can probably link it here once it's done editing. Their show just picked up a new sponsor Plano Synergy and one of their brands is Tenzing. I'm here to tell you the Tenzing chaps are amazing and being a cotton farmer they're made with cotton. You will love them. Try a pair.

[Goose]

Dixie hog hunter where are you from!

[Cowboyvon]

Look up the mountain ridge gear Tell them a guy from Southern NM sent you... I have tried all kinds of saddle bags over the years but these have to be the toughest .. I really like them I also use the pommel bags

[Mike Leonard]

When you are hunting off a saddle animal, I mean really hunting and not just following some outfitter around on a plug going to a base camp, you are going to put your equip. thru some torture, therefore you buy the best you can afford and take good care of it.

Brett I haven't tried the Mountain Ridge bags but they look like the real deal. Bobbie and I have tried a lot of them and we have a large building just full of stuff we have bought or had built over the years and by really using it over time you can sift thru the stuff that really works pretty quick.

As for saddle scabbards, I have all kinds of them from simple models that come from Guide Gear sale catalog to fancy engraved customs made by El Paso saddlery for particular guns I carry.

Carrying scoped rifles has always been a little more of a concern than just slapping an iron sighted carbine in a saddle boot and riding off. Today's scopes are incredibly well built and properly mounted can take a lot of abuse and still maintain their zero, but you don't want to take an extra chances.

We take a lot of hunters on horseback and there is nothing more frustrating than pounding over rocks and thru timber for miles to finally close on a big trophy bull and then get your hunter in position and when he fires the bullets misses widely even though he had a solid rest. Later you find that the scope mounted have come slightly loose and shifted and the trophy is gone. Blue Loc-tite, don't forget it! But a good quality saddle scabbard that properly mounted and hung is of upmost concern. I see some of the ungodly fashions some folks use to tie a gun to a saddle and wonder just how they keep from losing their gun or crippling themselves. You are not doing quick draw out there so have a fully enclosed padded case for that scoped rifle. If you want to play cowboy pack a model 94, 336 or Savage 99 with iron sights and still use a leather thong to tie it in.

https://www.murraycustomleather.com/press2.htm

Check out this fine scabbard, it will last for years.

Funny story: A friend and I were cold trailing a lion on horseback. The hounds were working the track steady but slow thru some open grass parks then on thru some tangles of spruce and pine as it ascended a rather rocky slope. As usual at that time I am riding slowly along my eyes glued to the ground my little red horse following the dogs as if he was one of them. My buddy who was following all of a sudden said ,look at this! I stopped and turned to see him reaching out to touch a rifle that was hanging from a limb by the rifle sling. Holy Smokes! We got down and looked at it and it was a Weatherby Mark5 300 Magnum with a Leupold scope and heavy leather sling on it. It was rusted up and appeared like it had been hanging there quite awhile. We took it with us and when we got back to town we stopped by our local gun dealer and told him the story. He agreed to keep it and see if he could track down the owner. Later he did thru several other people. The man lived in Texas and had come on an elk hunt and apparently lost his rifle early in the day when a limb snagged it and jerked it out of the scabbard by the leather sling. It went unnoticed until late that evening . I guess it had been foul weather and they searched and searched for it and never could find it. It would have been very hard to see in the shadows if my buddy hadn't about run right into it. This had happened the fall before during October so it had hung there over a year. I guess the barrel was ruined by rust but the scope although a little discolored was just fine.

[dixiehoghunter]

Only use a rifle if dogs get a hog in the water and can't send bulldog for risk of drowning.

[Mike Leonard]

That's smart, and the Marlin in good old 35 Rem. is a super stopper up close. Too bad these guns are so hard to find these days.

Famous Big Game hound hunter Dale Lee of Arizona favored this combination above all others for work on big nasty black bears. The Lee's recount many tales of using the 35 Remington in Mexico and South America on Jaguar.

[dixiehoghunter]

[dixiehoghunter]

[dixiehoghunter]