Hunting Pouch by Harry Hawthorne with a Mike Small Powder Horn and a Kris Polizzi Woven Strap

Here are some photos of my latest hunting bag.  I have been wanting to make a fur bag for a while now and found a few nice rabbit pelts at a local Tandy store.  The leather parts of the bag are made of double milled, veg tan leather, 5-6 weight.  The double milling process gives the leather a nice texture.  The rabbit fur is glued to the leather on the front side of the bag.  Then the bag was sewn inside out with a welt and soaked to get it right side out.  I had to dye all of the leather ahead of time to keep the dye off of the fur after it was glued.  An interesting side note to the soaking process was that some of the dye leached off of the leather and gave the rabbit fur a nicer brown tone.  The bag measures about 10” square with 1” strap and a brass buckle.

I had an old skinner knife from the early ‘80s that was made out of a leaf spring by Tom Morgan. It’s a great knife with excellent steel, and I decided to put on the bag even though it knife isn’t really a colonial design. Since I plan to use this bag to hunt whitetail this fall it seemed practical.

I pondered about something to stitch on the flap for a week or so, initially thinking a rabbit silhouette or just  a decorative flourish, I finally decided to do my initials, however, I’m not totally satisfied that it was the right decision.

I finished off the bag with an antiqued brass button, a D-ring for powder measure and vent pick, and a good rubdown with waterproofing.

The horn is my favorite Mike Small design and I wanted to accent the rig with the perfect strap.  I sent pictures to Kris Polizzi and had her make a 7/8” strap to match the bag and horn.  I think she made a perfect match for the bag.  I then made a few soldered brass rings and sewed on the matching leather ends  to complete the strap.  A few pieces of buckskin lace finished off the rig.

I am working on a 70 grain antler measure now for the bag.  This was a very enjoyable bag to make and I hope to harvest a few whitetails for the freezer this year using this bag.

Copy and photos supplied by Harry Hawthorne.