I dont hunt anymore but when I did, it was private property. Never once saw a warden,
while hunting. Back in delco, one wardens home backed up to the woods where we would hunt.
He was always after us.
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I have and use both the HPG Kit Bag (SAR version) and Kenai chest holster. Both have pros and cons.
The HPG kit bag is more comfortable for me when wearing a bigger pack since it has integrated load lifter straps that can be used to dock it to the main pack's shoulder harness. It also keeps the gun more protected and concealed (if that was important, though for your use case it probably isn't.) It's easy to use it to carry other random gear if necessary, like maps, snacks, or GPS. I find it's very important to prioritize though to avoid overloading it as that can get unwieldy quickly.
Sometimes it is nice to be able to ditch my main pack somewhere, but bring along a little more gear than what I'd want to put in my pockets (e.g. survival gear, land nav, knife, phone, camera gear, etc.) and the kit bag is a nice option for that as an auxiliary pack for these side excursions. I typically run mine pretty slick aside from the gun and rotate a few items in as I need them, rather than load it up with everything and leave it set.
If I don't have a heavy pack or I don't need a bunch of other stuff immediately at hand, I find myself preferring the Kenai for comfort. It feels more like using a regular holster and is faster and more intuitive to draw from. It keeps the weight down and mobility up. Mine is built for a Glock 20, but a 19, 17, or 19X fit securely and work well too.
If I had to pick just one, I'd probably pick the Kenai since it does the main job I wanted it to do very well. The HPG is more a dedicated backpacking rig for me, though some people might find it to be more generally useful depending on what other sorts of gear you might need immediately available while on the move and whether you need to conceal.
i carry a revolver when out hunting in rifle reason and most of the year. the temp determines how i carry it. if its not crazy cold i carry on my hip. if its to cold i use a chest rig.
One other thing: if you do decide to get a HPG Kit Bag, I recommend getting something like a Vanguard trigger guard cover and dummy cording that into the handgun pouch since there is no real "holster" or retention in that pocket. I have a knock off one from ebay that I think cost like $6.
You can set the tether cord up to pop the guard off as soon as you start your draw. It gives a little extra piece of mind so you don't have an errant finger creep in while you're reaching in the bag and establishing your grip on the gun before you start to draw.
Buckengr, thank you for the insights. The SAR bag is larger than I was thinking. I was looking at the medium footprint Recon. I wanted something that was less tempting to overload, but had options if I needed to carry a few more items.I have been looking at those kydex trigger guard covers, they make sense in this application.
I just got a great deal on one of those lumbar packs with a shoulder harness that looks to be able to dock the kit bag on. I'd be adding a blaze orange accessory pouch on the front of it as well to make up for the lost orange covered up by the bag.