When it comes to turkey hunting, I am a hack at best. Don’t get me wrong, I love turkey hunting as much as I do any hunting, but it seems I just can’t put it all together. Once in a while, I get lucky and harvest a bird. But it has to be the dumbest turkey in the county.

I can’t blame my gear on my inability. I am custodian of some of the best gear available: calls in all forms, slate calls with more strikers than I can carry in both hands, box calls, owl hooters, mouth calls. But I am always looking for a better way to carry it all. The turkey vest I had been using had two pockets on it. It was old, so old in fact, the camo pattern on it had been retired for 15 years.

So, what is a turkey hunting hack to do? I reached out to a couple turkey hunting gurus to get their take on turkey hunting vests.

Turkey Vests: Key Gear for Turkey Hunters

Ray Eye of Dittmer, Mo., needs no introduction to the turkey hunting world. He’s won numerous national calling contests, is the recipient of the National Wild Turkey Federation’s Communicator of the Year and has given more than 2,000 seminars on wild turkey and whitetail deer.

Eye suggests, “Get a vest that is comfortable and has plenty of pockets, especially for a box call. Call pockets should have easy access without everything falling out.”  Though Eye is known for his calling with a mouth call, he uses his box call quite a bit. Having hunted with Eye on numerous occasions, I have never not seen him break out his trusty box call. Especially to get those tight-lipped gobblers going when conditions get tough. “A well-organized vest should have everything you need, including a small first aid kit and drinking water. Have your vest packed and ready for any situation,” concludes Eye.

Foster Bartholow of Rapid City, S.D., and co-host of Prestige Outdoors, chases turkey all over the Black Hills. “There are so many good turkey vests. It depends on the area you are hunting and your style of hunting. Our birds are very visual; they like to see decoys, and they respond well to calls too. You need to have the right calls in your vest. Birds here love box calls, so naturally your vest should have a pocket for your box call. If you are a runnin’ and gunnin’ type, having a more of a minimalistic pack rather than a vest that can carry a slate, maybe a box call and some mouth calls without all the fluff works for many hunters,” explains Bartholow.

Turkey Vests for Every Budget

RedHead Classic II Turkey Vest

Small in price, but not features, this vest offers two, large accessory pockets, slate and striker storage, a box-call pocket and a seating pad with easy on/off snaps. The blaze orange safety flaps keep you safe when packing out your bird. The vest comes in TrueTimber Strata.

ALPS Outdoorz Super Elite 4.0 Turkey Vest 

The Super Elite has 22 pockets with room enough for all your calls: friction, box and even special pockets for your mouth calls. The vest holds your strikers in three pockets and even has a cell phone pocket. It also features a 2.5-inch-thick, foldable, removable seat. It is available in Mossy Oak Obsession and Bottomlands.

Sitka Equinox Turkey Vest

The Equinox has 14 pockets and inside them are dividers for things like mouth calls and separate water-resistant pockets with magnetic closures for friction calls, strikers and your favorite box call. It is size adjustable from extra small to XX-large. The vest has a removable dual-density foam seat. The Equinox is more for a run and gun, minimalistic hunter rather than a turkey hunter who sits against a tree and waits for the bird to show. It comes in Earth, Optifade Cover and Optifade Subalpine camo patterns.

A Turkey Hunting Pack: Ol’ Tom Run-N-Gun Turkey Chest Pack

If a turkey vest doesn’t fit your style of hunting or you don’t want to be weighed down with a conventional-type vest, look no further than this chest pack. From its integrated detachable bino harness that will house 10×42 binos, removable box call pouch to the removable insect device pouch like a Thermacell. It still has room for a friction call and strikers. Inside there are elastic loops for locator calls or shells to keep them in place. This pack is available in Forest Night, Mossy Oak Bottomland and Mossy Oak Green Leaf.

If you are having trouble keeping track of your turkey hunting gear or losing calls in the woods, maybe it’s time for a new vest.