Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting Avoid the vest?

I use a vest because mine has dedicated compartments I'm used to. And it's old enough to have quite a few holes worn so I'm really used to it. But if I'm not packing fold up decoys in the back and it's a warm day I may drop back to a 3 pouch shooter's bag. Box call, mouth call, half a dozen extra turkey bullets, hat, gloves, face net and a cushion hanging off the back. Fits in the 3 bags just fine.

I use a chest rig made for turkey calls. It rides low enough that I can wear a bino harness above it if I want.

Don't know about blinds. I trained myself to sit motionless until I could do it for an hour and a half.

I like the traditional Filson upland vest. If I need to carry more then a back pack. I also like the canvas surveyors vest from Forestry supplies, this is good in thorn brush. The other styles are too tactical looking for me and fewer pockets means less fumbling around and also reduces the tendency to carry too much stuff.

I would hate for a turkey to think you were too tactical.

It makes no difference at all; a vest is an accessory to carry your hunting stuff. I've hunted with a vest to carry my stuff and without a vest, just using bellow pockets in my pants. Killed birds either way - as long as you have a shotgun and some shells you can kill a bird, everything else is an added tool to assist in the main effort.

Thanks for all the input T-hunters.

I'm looking at vests on clearance now and just cant do it. I'm going to find a sling type back pack that can be put in front and still allow you to shoot.

My reasoning... it seems like most vests have marginal pads so I would be making one anyways.

The other reason for a chest pack... all that same stuff goes with me all the time and then have separate packs for rainy day blinds or clear day blinds.

MN turkey season is only one week (really 3 days for me) so I go no mater what the weather is. just be prepared for anything. The temp swings are huge because I walked in on frost this year and carried my tom out at 65 F. Always wind up packing a layer or two extra.

Trumpet call around my neck and I owl hoot with my mouth. Don’t use decoys. Usually a diaphragm in my wallet as a second call but this year it was all trumpet and we did very well on the turkeys.

It’s amazing what guys carry to call in a turkey.

Side question...

The guys that carry hardly anything...

1. how long is your season?
2, Can you hunt the full day?
3. Do you only hunt part of the day?
4. Are you close to your hunting ground?

1. A month
2. For half of it
3. Just depends on my schedule
4. Close to some. 3 hours from some.

You get a whole month to hunt?
How many birds can you take?

Our season is total length of 6 weeks with 6 seasons in it. One bird, one week.

Our season in Wisconsin is the same as Minnesota except we can buy tags for multiple seasons as long as the area and time period you want has leftover tags. And some never run out.

We can hunt all day but I only will hunt if I’m on a gobbling bird. I don’t blind call and wait. It’s not what turkey hunting is to me. Which later in the spring that can mean if I don’t get on a bird early I’m fishing or something else until later in the afternoon.

I used to carry a ton of 💩 but as I have simplified my success has gone up.

I started turkey hunting with my WI father in law in WI while I was dating my bride. They stuck us MN hunters in the last season because we were out of towners.

He lost interest in turkey hunting and I lost my area where I turkey hunted. A group Aaron Rogers is part of bought the paper land and made it in to a golf course!


I should check if they offer surplus tags are available to out of staters.

I used to have a vest and had it packed full. But I really don't like them. Now I carry binos, a few diaphragm calls, a few slate calls that are in a case that hangs from my belt, and sometimes a cushion to sit on. Much light and more mobile if I need to be.

I’ve read this thread and thought to myself that some guys sure carry a bunch of stuff around to kill a turkey. In my ignorance I never dreamed that there were places with 1 week seasons or half day hunting.
Our season is 1 month each spring and fall, 3 birds in the spring and 1 in fall, shotgun in the spring and rifle in the fall. Fall archery season parallels deer archery and you can kill a couple more I think and hens are legal, October 1- December 31.

I carry a shotgun and 1 diaphragm call and a face mask in the spring with my binocular and in the fall usually just a rifle and bino. I may cover 4 miles a morning in the spring so I don’t carry any extra stuff since I’ll hopefully be toting a 20 pound bird on the way out.

LOL....depends on what land/type I’m hunting and the birds. I own vests and sometimes use them for certain things, but it’s typically a small messenger or sling pack with some essentials and room for some binos or other optic. Often I have a pack for carrying decoys and/or packing out birds, or just a slip sling tote. I use a lounger chair, with the pack attached a lot these days, instead of an inner tube, just because of an arthritic tail bone and a spine fusion. Having a good lounger has probably helped me kill more birds than my favorite scratch box, mouth calls, or decoys.....to just keep me from fidgeting or deciding to reposition too soon. We have 6 weeks and a 5-bird limit. I’ll shoot coyotes, too....so sometimes there’s a suppressed pistol along.