Vests, seats and the gear you actually carry

What to buy first

Three things, in this order: something to sit on, something to hide your face and hands, and boots that keep your feet dry. Turkey hunting is mostly sitting still against a tree while you call, and every item in this section either helps you sit still longer or hides the movement you can't avoid.

For most first-season hunters, a turkey vest covers the first item and organizes everything else. A good one is a seat, a call organizer and a small pack at once: a cushion you can't forget in the truck, a pocket for each call so you can reach it without looking down, and a game bag on the back for decoys going in and a bird coming out. Our best turkey vests roundup ranks the field on a published rubric. The highest-scoring vest we've rated, the ALPS OutdoorZ Super Elite 4.0, lists 22 pockets and a fold-away seat at 3 lb 1 oz (Medium/Large), per ALPS.

Second, cover your face and hands. The National Wild Turkey Federation's beginner guide notes that wild turkeys “have incredible eyesight” and tells new hunters to “keep your hands covered, as well as your neck and face.” Covering your skin comes before choosing a camo pattern; our face mask and glove picks start there. Third, boots, covered in our best turkey hunting boots.

How the category divides

Vests split by the seat. A cushion-seat vest keeps you off wet ground and lets the tree be your backrest; the lightest we score, the Knight & Hale Run N' Gun 200, is listed at 1.5 lb. A flip-down seat with a backrest, like the ALPS Impact, gives some back support where the trees are thin. A kickstand or frame vest holds you upright on legs like a chair, and weighs the most: 5 lb 4 oz for the Tenzing TZ TR18 per a dealer spec table, and 7 lb 2 oz for the ALPS Grand Slam with its frame. See the best turkey vests with seats, and if you're torn, how to choose a turkey vest walks through it step by step. Two head-to-heads settle the common model questions: ALPS Impact vs Traditions and Tenzing TR18 vs ALPS Grand Slam. Three more pages rank the same vests for one job each: run-and-gun vests by published weight, vests for big guys by published sizing to 3XL, and youth vests by fit and weight.

Seats are the alternative to a seat vest. Low turkey chairs sit 6 to 10 in off the ground at the front, low enough to keep your back on a trunk; blind chairs sit 18 in or more so you can see out of a ground blind's windows; a foam cushion is the lightest option of all. Our turkey hunting chair picks include a big-guy chair rated to 400 lb.

Clothing means camo, a face mask and gloves. Spring camo is about breaking up your outline in green woods, and the colors you leave at home matter as much as the pattern you buy. See what to wear turkey hunting for the full outfit and our best turkey hunting camo for the pieces.

Boots come in three broad kinds: tall snake boots for places and seasons where snakes are a concern, lighter lace-up hunting boots for long walks, and rubber boots for wet bottoms. Binoculars are for scouting and for confirming what you're looking at; the NWTF suggests taking them along while scouting “to make positive identifications.” See our turkey hunting binocular picks. And where mosquitoes are bad, a repeller is a comfort item worth reading up on in our Thermacell turkey hunting guide.

What decides price and quality

In vests, the big step is the frame. Aluminum legs and a frame turn a vest into a chair, and they add pounds you carry every step. Below that, quality shows up in what a maker is willing to publish: a real weight, a size range you can measure against, a dedicated pocket for each kind of call, a named quiet fabric, and a warranty in writing. Those vary more than you'd expect. ALPS warrants its vests and chairs against defects for the life of the product, while Knight & Hale and Primos list one-year terms on their vests.

For chairs, read the rating before the seat width: every low turkey chair we score is rated to 300 lb, and the only higher ratings come on taller blind chairs. For boots, look for a named waterproof membrane and, on snake boots, an explicit snake-protection claim from the maker. We only score what's published, and the bands for every category are on our methodology page. A missing number scores low; it doesn't get guessed.

The mistake beginners make

Buying the heaviest, most-featured kit before the first hunt. A 7 lb frame vest is a fine tool for long sits at a field edge and a burden on a morning of walking and calling. A new camo jacket does little if your hands and face are bare, because bare skin and movement are what a turkey picks out. Start light, cover your skin, and add the specialist gear once you know how you like to hunt.

The other mistake is a safety one. Maryland's Department of Natural Resources tells hunters to never wear red, white, blue or black, “because these are the colors of a wild turkey gobbler,” and to check socks, T-shirts, hats and bandannas too. The same page says to carry a decoy inside your vest with its head not sticking out. Hunter-orange rules vary by state, so check your state wildlife agency before the season.

How this fits your first season

Gear is the last step of the path, not the first. Start with the first-season guide: find birds, pick one call and learn it, then learn to set up. Once you know whether you'll sit against trees, hunt from a blind or walk and call, the vest and seat choices in this section make themselves. If a blind is in your plans, the blinds and the chairs that fit them are in decoys and blinds. Until then, a light vest with a cushion, a mask and gloves, and dry boots will carry you through a first spring.