Advice on making game bags

[Empty Quiver]

I need some game bags, and can't hardly see paying for something that simple with the wifes $900 sewing machine sitting idle. What weight fabric? I've thought about using canvas drop cloths. What size finished? Guide suggests 6 of them for Elk hunt I'm headed out on. Will likely be boning out meat in field then using horses to get them to truck.

[charles p]

When you get to the state where you will be hunting, you can go to a sporting goods store and buy what you need.  Hardly think canvas is required.  Some people use a very thin fabric that breathes, is light to carry, and packs in a small space.

[dukkillr]

The type I use are made of a cheese cloth type material.  I wouldn't think canvas would breath at all.  I wish you luck, but for the cost I'm going to keep buying them myself.

[Blue Duck]

I usually use the cheap cheesecloth type.  But I do have some good ones.  I bought a big bunch of surplus single bed mattress covers.  They are plenty big for most anything and heavy duty too.  But like I said I usually stick with the cheap one.  After hunting season they go on sale for less then a buck a piece.  The don't take up much room so its easy to have them handy.   

[Thebear_78]

Most of the guys I know that don't buy them just use cotton sheets.    Make them nice and long so you can tie them off at the top.  THey are reusable too, but I would wash them at the laundry mat!

[Empty Quiver]

Well I finely cornered some here locally. Thanks for your input. I tend to over engineer things it would seem, nothing I found were anywhere as heavy as I expected. Decided that if the norm is light weight it must be for good reason.

[alsatian]

Make or buy something that is stout enough to hold a rear quarter.  So the test is, (a) load a rear elk quarter into the bag, (b) tie off the mouth of the bag with a piece of rope, (c) holding the bag around the gathered portion of cloth, lift up the rear elk quarter.  Does the cloth bag hold the rear elk quarter or does it rip out?  If you don't feel confident in the strength of your cloth in this test, you better use heavier cloth.  My rear quarters on my 4x3 elk weighed 53 LBS.  This was a small bull elk, maybe in the 450 LBS range.  I would guess this rear quarter could range up to 75 LBS pretty easily.  So your bag ought to hold 75 LBS of meat without ripping.  I'm willing to pay to buy the commercial game bags also.  Still, this seems like a nice do-it-yourself kind of project if you have a mind to do that.  Also, make the bag amply sized.