Stuffing game in back of hunting jacket?

Speedo66 said:

Nowadays, depending on where you hunt, I'd be more concerned with ticks and Lyme Disease.

When I lived in Westchester Co. NY. we were loaded with Lyme. I had the bullseyes three times. Took courses of antibiotics, and hope I won't have problems down the road.

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I quit worrying about ticks and chiggers after I found permethrin spray, I like the Sawyers brand. Spray your cloth with it and let it dry in and it does not repel ticks it kills them. I have seen more than one tick crawl up my pant leg only to die before it got to my knee, falling on the ground with its legs all curled up.

mcb said:

I quit worrying about ticks and chiggers after I found permethrin spray, I like the Sawyers brand. Spray your cloth with it and let it dry in and it does not repel ticks it kills them. I have seen more than one tick crawl up my pant leg only to die before it got to my knee, falling on the ground with its legs all curled up.

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It probably works on both, but if you saw a tick climb up your pants leg, that was probably a dog tick. Deer ticks, the ones that carry Lyme, are almost too small to see.

After my experiences, I doubt I'll ever stop worrying about them.

Speedo66 said:

It probably works on both, but if you saw a tick climb up your pants leg, that was probably a dog tick. Deer ticks, the ones that carry Lyme, are almost too small to see.

After my experiences, I doubt I'll ever stop worrying about them.

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I have watch it kill deer ticks too but those do seem a bit more resistant to the permethrin. Since moving to North Alabama and hunting in middle TN I have been using the Permethrin spring, summer and fall on my gear I wear working or hunting on the property and doing yard work and in 6+ years I have had very few ticks actually get a hold of me and frequently they are dead by the time I get undressed and find them. Nothing is full-proof but I have a lot of confidence is the protection provided by properly treating my clothing with permethrin.

Funny thing is, they have a Lyme vaccine for dogs, mine took it when we lived in NY. Why not for people?

Being practically in the Lyme epicenter, saw the sad results of it, many times in kids. Facial paralysis, central nervous system disorders, joint problems, etc.

Truly nasty disease.

Speedo66 said:

Nowadays, depending on where you hunt, I'd be more concerned with ticks and Lyme Disease.

When I lived in Westchester Co. NY. we were loaded with Lyme. I had the bullseyes three times. Took courses of antibiotics and hope I won't have problems down the road.

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Ya lyme is still bad up here, I think the farms that had Ginnie foul were keeping them at bay but not many farms now. My dad got lyme 4 years ago, and went through the normal bs. Early last year he was all messed up, after a bunch of tests at the va the found out he has some super rare tick Disease that there's only about 20 cases in the US.

mcb said:

It's all good till you throw that one squirrel in the game vest in a rush without gutting it first, only to find it was just stunned and not dead. It's amazing how much harder it is to pull that vest zipper down when that squirrel starting to try to find a way back out of there. My dad loves telling that story.

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That'd be exciting, but it could be worse. I have a friend who went deer hunting with a friend of his back in the late '70s. One of them shot a nice buck, and they put it in the back of my friend's Pinto station wagon with the rear seat folded down, and quickly headed back to the other friend's nearby house to gut it and clean it. Part way home, my friend noticed something move in the rear view mirror. He looked, and the deer was up on his knees, wild-eyed and ready to freak out. About 2 seconds later he did freak out, kicking and flailing with hooves and antlers, ripping out the headliner, ripping and slashing the upholstery and trim, gouging the front seat-backs with his antlers, and tearing the interior of that Pinto to shreds. Fearing that the deer would make his way over into the front seats, at least with his antlers, my friend's friend turned around in his seat and cut the deer's throat. They soon had a dead deer, a floorboard and cargo area full of blood, and the interior trim of the Pinto completely trashed.

A family friend told me a story about a city hunter one time, they were part of one of the deer camps in Greene county ny. The hunter shot his first deer, a nice buck and him and buddy's posed for pictures. Normal game picture but in stead of laying the rifle on the deer they put the rifle on the antlers. Happened to be a brand new wetherby mkv and a new swarovski scope.

The deer woke up and took off with the gun never to be found.

If you eat deer heart and liver a game pouch is a must have on your hunting coat.

They usually have that rubber lining on the inside. Unless its my dove vest that I have had for several decades, stored in a shed. Most of the rubber stuff is long gone, so yes, a little blood comes through. Doesn't matter, because all of the clothes I wear hunting I plan to get some blood on, along with mud, briars, holes, etc. All of my hunting boots look like evidence of some horrific crime.

Speedo66 said:

Funny thing is, they have a Lyme vaccine for dogs, mine took it when we lived in NY. Why not for people?

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In the eye of many experts, the vaccine for dogs, many times does more harm than good. It's not very effective and it's not very safe. Proper tick control is more effective. Many years back, when Lyme was first discovered and the vaccine was being touted, I volunteered for a trial of the Lyme vaccine. Then I got Lyme and was not able to do it. Since then you have heard little if anything about the possibility of it ever coming about. I have had a couple of bird dogs with Lyme. Treatment is generally easy and effective once the disease is detected. My current GWP has been diagnosed with having the antibodies, but has yet to show symptoms. Most vets now do not recommend treating Lyme until symptoms develop.


BTW....I have always used a game vest for carrying birds in the field. Just the easiest way. FWIW, even carrying them by hand will get you blood on your pants. Putting them in a plastic bag will make them not cool down and spoil quickly. My grandpa taught me how to use a gut hook half a century ago to keep the guts from heating the dead bird up. Still use the technique today.

mcb said:

It's all good till you throw that one squirrel in the game vest in a rush without gutting it first, only to find it was just stunned and not dead. It's amazing how much harder it is to pull that vest zipper down when that squirrel starting to try to find a way back out of there. My dad loves telling that story.

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My dad had about a 1" scar on his right hand from making that mistake...when he got back to the IH Scout he reach back to pull the squirrel out and it latched on..

Funny story about that pocket. A friend of mine and I went dove hunting one year with the Father of a girl I was dating at the time. It was her maternal Grandfather’s farm land and her furniture salesman “city” dad had thanked us for hunting with him as it had been years since he had done it.

Putting on our gear he fumbled around with his vest and pulled out a petrified dove and said “Hm, I guess that was the smell, in the closet, Martha was talking about a few years ago...”

I instantly knew why my mom had me keep my gear in the garage in the 5 gallon bucket/seat I used, vs in the house.

buck460XVR said:

In the eye of many experts, the vaccine for dogs, many times does more harm than good. It's not very effective and it's not very safe. Proper tick control is more effective. Many years back, when Lyme was first discovered and the vaccine was being touted, I volunteered for a trial of the Lyme vaccine. Then I got Lyme and was not able to do it. Since then you have heard little if anything about the possibility of it ever coming about. I have had a couple of bird dogs with Lyme. Treatment is generally easy and effective once the disease is detected. My current GWP has been diagnosed with having the antibodies, but has yet to show symptoms. Most vets now do not recommend treating Lyme until symptoms develop.


BTW....I have always used a game vest for carrying birds in the field. Just the easiest way. FWIW, even carrying them by hand will get you blood on your pants. Putting them in a plastic bag will make them not cool down and spoil quickly. My grandpa taught me how to use a gut hook half a century ago to keep the guts from heating the dead bird up. Still use the technique today.

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I have a remington folding knife with gut hook and choke tube wrench on it that I keep in a shell holder inside the pocket of my vest.

On my Alice pack I used the flex seal spray stuff on the map pocket, they always loose the rubber and leak two coats made it like new. I wonder if the same thing could be done with the old game pouches.

9x56MS said:

I have a remington folding knife with gut hook and choke tube wrench on it that I keep in a shell holder inside the pocket of my vest.

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I have a Buck folding bird knife with gut hook; great knife - too bad it was discontinued a few decades ago. Use it exactly as @buck460XVR grandfather did.

George P said:

I have a Buck folding bird knife with gut hook; great knife - too bad it was discontinued a few decades ago.

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I had one of those....and yes, it was one heck of a bird knife. Also worked very well for gutting deer(the Muskrat blade, not the hook). Worked especially well for removing the rectal orifice without piercing it. After loosing it I tried my dangest to find another and found out too late they were no longer made.

buck460XVR said:

I had one of those....and yes, it was one heck of a bird knife. Also worked very well for gutting deer(the Muskrat blade, not the hook). Worked especially well for removing the rectal orifice without piercing it. After loosing it I tried my dangest to find another and found out too late they were no longer made.

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That's what I have.......or maybe I better check to make sure YOU didn't take it!

Seriously, this is one of the greatest hunting knives to have been discontinued; it would be like Buck stop making the 110...............

There is one on Ernst now ,asking price $129.00 Ouch!

That's what those pockets are made for. I would wager that most are designed for bird hunting. I have both coats and vests setup this way. Birds or squirrels, I always wear one.

AK Hunter said:

An old gray Walmart bag looped over my belt works just as good.

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Till you have to go thru a patch of briars or multifora roses

That's when I break out my Filson rabbit hunting coat with game pouch in Tin cloth and briar chaps. All brown so not safe for big game hunting. They will even turn multiflora rose thorns!

Speedo66 said:

Funny thing is, they have a Lyme vaccine for dogs, mine took it when we lived in NY. Why not for people?

Being practically in the Lyme epicenter, saw the sad results of it, many times in kids. Facial paralysis, central nervous system disorders, joint problems, etc.

Truly nasty disease.

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I was talking to a friend at work yesterday and this exact topic came up as he had had a run in with some ticks the previous weekend. He said that apparently their was a human vaccine and it work but if you took the vaccine while having Lyme disease is has some undesired autoimmune-system side effects and after a few cases of this happening it was pulled from the market. A quick search of the CDC shows that there was one and they state that it was withdrawn due to low demand. https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/prev/vaccine.html Probably a bit of truth in both.

Armored farmer said:

The "good" coats had some sort if fasteners that allowed youto drop the game pouch and sweep out the feathers.

My buddy always 'squeezed the guts out' of a rabbit before he put it in his vest. I never learned this technique, but i saw him do it several times. It was brutal, lol

My dog got the heads of quail. I never had one suffer in my game bag, and yes...my dog expected it.

Some at not believe, others may disapprove, but i was hunting quail with my grandad in 1973 when I was 9 yrs old and carrying a dandy little LC Smith 20ga sxs.... he passed unexpectedly in 1974. I couldn't bear to throw out his hunting coat when we tore down the old farmhouse.
Here it is....you can see the rubberized game pouch. View attachment 996394 View attachment 996392I still have some of my .410 quail loads in the ammo loops from recent years.

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That is VERY similar to the LL Bean coat I mentioned earlier; hooks to hold the game bag in place that could easily be lowered for a seat or to clean it out

glockgod said:

Been there! Done that! Got the tee shirt! What's fun is pulling out the squirrels one at a time till you find the live one! Have had this happen more than once!!

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We would just grab the tails and whack their heads against a tree. I never had a problem with them once they were in the game pocket in the back. But one time I picked one up from the ground by the tail and the squirrel turned around and bit my thick leather glove. He got whacked against a tree a few times.

Armored farmer said:

Upland hunting coats had rubberized "bloodproof" game pouches back in the day. I had several coats and vests over the years.

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I had a few of those coats, never used the pockets for game, but a couple well placed have warmers kept me warm in sub zero hunting.