Why Should an Upland Vest Have Grommets?

Grommets are a small detail. A few metal-rimmed holes in the bottom of a game bag, easy to overlook when you're comparing upland vests on specs like capacity and shell pockets. But if you've ever finished a wet day of bird hunting and found a cold puddle sloshing in the bottom of your bag, or even worse a bird-infused puddle, you already understand the problem.

Final Rise vests include grommets in the game bag for one reason: nothing should collect in the bottom of your bag and stay there.

Water Finds Its Way In

Upland hunting is not a dry sport. You push through cattails after a rain, cross a creek, hunt through snow that melts on contact with a warm bag, or walk a CRP field soaked with morning dew. Water gets in from the top, off your shoulders, and out of the cover itself.

In a sealed bag, all of it pools. Not only could water add weight, it also soaks everything else in your game bag. A spare glove you tossed in, a jacket that you didn't stop to secure to your Jacket Straps, or worse yet, that beautiful rooster that you planned on mounting. Grommets let it drain out continuously as you walk, so the bag never becomes a bucket.

Birds Bring Their Own Fluid

Even on a bluebird October day, a game bag gets wet from the inside. Shot birds carry blood, and any bird that's been hit hard will release fluid on the walk out. That liquid has to go somewhere.

Without drainage, it collects in the bottom seam and your birds sit in it. Meat sitting in warm, standing fluid is exactly the condition you want to avoid if you care how those birds eat later, so if you're planning to age a rooster before cleaning it, it starts that bird off badly. Drainage keeps the bag from turning into a shallow pan.

Cleanup and Longevity

The practical payoff shows up at the truck. A grommeted bag can be hosed out and hung to dry, with the water running straight through instead of collecting in the corners. If you're like us and put your bag through the ringer every season, you don't want to do anything that could diminish its' quality over time. Trapped moisture and blood residue are what produce odor, staining, and eventually mildew in gear that would otherwise still be in good shape.

Rinse it, hang it, hunt it again next weekend.

The Small Stuff Is the Difference

Grommets don't make a vest on their own. Nobody's comparing drainage hole counts. But they're the kind of detail that separates gear designed by people who live, eat, and breath upland hunting. For us, it's one of those details that you only notice when they're not there.