So on numerous occasions I have read where someone had their rifle, a bullet bag and powder horn. Nothing about a pouch, shooting bag, haversack, or even the ubiquitous possibles bag. And really, if you have a patch box on the rifle you don't need anything else. With patches, a cleaning jag and/or worm, a spare flint and maybe a ball puller in the patch box, a bag of round balls on your belt or in your sash, and priming from the horn and you have everything to shoot and clean the rifle. For a long sojourn in the wilderness a possibles bag would be handy, especially to carry your tinder box w/ striker and flint and whatever else you need to be comfortable, but probably not a necessity.
Even in the late 1800s Nesmuck trecked across several hundred miles of Michigan wilderness with his Billinghurst rifle, (IIRC) 6 cartridges which I assume would be paper holding powder and ball, and a small ruck sack for his hatchet, cooking gear etc. I believe that's all he had; I'll have to reread my copy of Woodcraft to be sure. Anyway, no pouch dedicated to servicing the rifle.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that the pouch isn't necessary, and might even be a hindrance on a woods walk or even just a tramp in the woods looking for squirrels. I know that I didn't have a shooting bag for years, just had a rag stuffed in my pants pocket for patching with a small bag of balls, and percussion caps in the cap box on the rifle. It wasn't until I started shooting with the Forest Hills Black Powder Brigade that I bought the Tandy purse kit (which is still my shooting bag) since everyone else had one (shooting bag, not purse).
~WH~
