Henry Rifle Forums

I can swim but not well enough to get very far from where I'd enter the water .... as such, I believe in wearing life vest .... that said, in the high heat and humidity common to summers in central / eastern wearing a regular life vest while fishing can get uncomfortable in a hurry .... back in the 80's I bought the inflatable suspenders style vest shown below and have used it every since .... the pictures below show the vest, its CO2 charging cylinder, its manual tube and a bit of its label .... on the label is a note that the it should be tested yearly and I simply haven't .... today I decided to take it out and do so .... when I pulled the red handle shown in picture 3 she inflated instantly and I'm happy to report that it shows no sign of leaking ..... a new cylinder has been installed and the activation system has been brought back to where it is ready to activate ..... while I don't believe my suspender vest is still on the market, it appears Stearns has bought the company and, thankfully, still offers a recharge kit ====> https://www.amazon.com/Sospenders-Stear ... 7733&psc=1

I am currently shopping for something like this for my kayak use. In a boat, a regular life vest would be acceptable. I have a seen an inflatable belly pack. It is a belt worn around the waist. That seemed to be a very practical kayak use. I will see what I come up with soon.

We have both the suspender style and the belt style and both can be switched from manual to auto inflate. In manual you pull the T handle to inflate, in auto, the vest inflates if the sensor is submerged. Splashes or hard rain won't do it in. BTDT.

Either style works on the kayak, but here in VA, while the regular pfd counts if you just have it on the kayak, (since it still provides floatation off the body,) the inflatable only counts as your personal flotation when "properly" worn. I do like the suspender flotation in high temp/high humidity days of summer.

I like the suspender kit. I recently lost my faithful fishing pfd. I saw the belt style and passed. I like the suspender style. We have two at camp and use them for kayaking.

I bought the closest thing to my old fishing pfd as I could find.

just got back to the camper after trolling for walleye in 90+ degree temps on really choppy water .... I wore the life vest shown in post 1 for the entire time .... it was hot and very humid which equals being very uncomfortable .... the fellows wearing traditional life vest had a much tougher time