Cruising around on that auction site, I stumbled across a couple of leather army surplus pouches which I then proceeded to purchase for my bushbelt.
The items in question are a Yugoslav surplus M48 single rifle ammunition pouch (left) and a former West German P5 pistol magazine pouch.
Yugo pouch.
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It's a pretty stock standard European leather ammo pouch. It is one large pocket with a brass stud closure.
The lid is a simple flap with sides and a formed hinge. It keeps its shape well. The labelling on the tin is because I have a strike-a-light set up in an identical tin.
Along with a water bottle pouch, the leather Yugo pouch forms half of my PSK/possibles kit. Here you can see the contents: PSK tin - pretty stock standard Lofty Wiseman-style survival tin, 6 x beef stock cubes, a vial of salt tablets, a vial of potassium permanganate and a clear plastic water transpiration bag.
The pouch is very well made, if a little rough around the edges. It has a single belt loopon the rear which is big enough to fit a modern military webbing belt, so it accepts my little 2-inch leather bush belt with ease. At a guess I'd say the pouch dates from the 1940s/50s before Yugoslavia introduced their version of the SKS rifle. The leather was very dry and a little dirty so I fed it some leather conditioner followed by boot dubbin. It was pretty cheap and a deeply bushcrafty bit of kit worthy of a place on any outdoorsman's belt.
West German Pouch
I picked this up on the off chance it might fit an oddly-shaped pocket knife I have.
And it does - perfectly. Being a P5 magazine pouch it was easy to track down the measurements of a P5 mag and compare them to the length, width and depth of the folded pocket knife before pulling the trigger on the pouch.
The pouch was originally black. Not dyed black, but painted with some sort of plasticky black coating. I actually had at it with a paint stripper wheel in a drill and the black stuff came off quickly and easily, leaving a pristine raw undyed leather finish. In hindsight I wouldn't use the stripping wheel near the threads again since I had to re-sew a couple of inches. The pouch was leather conditioned and then dubbin'd, leaving a heavy-duty and not unattractive piece of leather equipment. The pouch has an NSN number which indicates it was probably German military police issue kit. If you can't find them on the auction site, I can post the username of the bloke I bought mine off (no affiliation). If you have an odd-shaped folding knife these are a great solution.
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Originally Posted by Sapper
