ALPS OutdoorZ Super Elite 4.0 turkey vest review: the storage argument, settled

All 22 pockets, accounted for

Twenty-two is the kind of number that sounds like marketing until you read the breakdown. ALPS names the ones that matter, and each solves a specific problem a first-season hunter hits in week one.

• Two large slate call pockets with padded dividers. Pot calls are the fragile item in a turkey vest: a playing surface rubbing on grit needs re-conditioning, and a pot knocking against shells is noise on the walk in. Padded dividers mean two pots travel without touching each other. If yours has gone slick, the routine is in how to condition a slate call.
• Three striker pockets. Three, not one. Strikers are the cheapest way to change your hen voice — a carbon striker and a hickory striker on the same pot are two different birds — and this is the only vest in our registry that publishes a dedicated slot per striker. The ranking is in best slate call strikers.
• A protective, silent box call pocket. ALPS uses the word silent, which is the claim that counts: a box call rattling in a general pocket is the classic way to empty a ridge before daylight. The NWTF's own call care advice suggests a koozie as a makeshift protector for exactly this reason; a purpose-built pocket does it without the workaround.
• Two mesh diaphragm pockets. Mesh matters here. Mouth calls want air after a hunt, and the NWTF's care guidance is to wash diaphragms and pat them dry rather than seal them damp in a pocket.
• A cell phone chest pocket, plus the remaining general pockets and a breathable game bag on the back for carrying gear in and a bird out.

Our rubric weights call and shell storage at 25%, and the Super Elite 4.0 is the only vest to max it at 10 of 10. For comparison, Avian-X names 7 pockets on the Ridge Runner and TIDEWE publishes 11 compartments. Those are fine numbers; they are not this.

One practical note: pockets only help if you use the same one every time. Pick a home for the box call, a home for the pot, a home for strikers, and never improvise in the dark. The vest makes that habit possible, it does not create it.

The seat: 2.5 inches and removable

ALPS publishes a removable 2.5 in thick fold-away seat cushion on quick-release buckles. Two details are worth pulling out of that sentence.

2.5 inches is a real published thickness, and most of this category will not give you one. It is the difference between insulating you from cold, wet spring ground and sitting on a token pad. If you have ever cut a morning short because your legs went numb on a root, this is the spec that fixes it.

Removable means you can leave it at home. On a hot May morning when you are moving every twenty minutes, unclipping the seat sheds weight and bulk; on a cold fly-down sit, it clips back on. Quick-release buckles are quieter than hook-and-loop, which is a small win when the bird is close.

Our rubric scores seat and back support at 25% and gives the Super Elite 4.0 6 of 10 there: full credit for a published, thick, removable cushion, nothing for the back it does not support. It still finishes first overall, which tells you how far ahead the storage puts it.

The quiet cotton liner

ALPS describes the vest as built with a “quiet cotton liner” and breathable mesh panels throughout, and that phrase is doing more work than it looks.

Fabric noise is the specification turkey vest makers are least willing to commit to. Avian-X publishes no fabric at all for the Ridge Runner; TIDEWE publishes none for its Ultra-Light; Huntworth, on the rain-gear side of the same problem, names a tricot shell and gets credit for it. A maker that writes the word quiet into its own copy has made a claim you can hold it to, and our quiet-materials metric gives the Super Elite 4.0 8 of 10 for it — the best score any vest here earns on that line.

The mesh panels are the other half of that trade. Spring turkey hunting is a walking sport in warming weather, and a solid-backed vest over a camo shirt is a sweat box by nine in the morning. Mesh is why this vest can carry 22 pockets worth of gear without cooking you. What to wear under it is in what to wear turkey hunting.

3 lb 1 oz, and what that buys

ALPS publishes 3 lb 1 oz for Medium/Large and 3 lb 5 oz for X-Large/XX-Large. That is mid-pack: lighter than a kickstand vest with its frame fitted, heavier than a stripped sling pack, and heavier than the 2.51 lb TIDEWE or the 1.5 lb Knight & Hale Run N' Gun 200.

The honest way to read that number is as the price of the pockets. Every one of those 22 pockets is fabric, stitching and a zipper, and 22 of them weigh something. If your hunting is one call, one gun and six moves before lunch, you are carrying weight you do not use — and the run-and-gun options are ranked in best turkey vests for run-and-gun.

If your hunting is a dark walk to a roosted bird, a long sit, a midday move and an evening sit, 3 lb of organized storage is the better trade. Our rubric gives the weight metric 20% and scores this vest 7 of 10: a published figure, in the middle of the field.

Two sizes, 38 to 52 inches

ALPS publishes chest ranges, which is more than most: Medium/Large covers 38 to 44 in, X-Large/XX-Large covers 44 to 52 in. Published ranges beat vague sizing, because a turkey vest goes over a camo shirt, a mid-layer and sometimes a rain shell, and you need to know whether the straps will still close in April.

Two caveats. There is no 3XL and nothing beyond a 52 in chest, so hunters above that range should read best turkey vests for big guys instead, where the Avian-X Ridge Runner's X-Large-to-3XL band is the relevant option. And there is no Small: a smaller-framed adult or a youth hunter is better served by the vests in best youth turkey vests.

Our sizes metric gives it 8 of 10 — two bands with published chest measurements, covering most adults but not the extremes.

What ALPS does not publish

One real gap, and it is a fabric question rather than a feature question: ALPS names no shell fabric. We know the liner is cotton and that there are mesh panels, because ALPS says so. We do not know what the outer shell is, what it weighs, or whether it has any water-resistant treatment, because ALPS does not say.

That matters on two mornings a season. The first is rain: nothing published here suggests the vest shrugs off water, so plan on a shell over the top, and the ranked options are in best turkey hunting rain gear. The second is briars, where an unnamed shell fabric gives you nothing to compare against a vest whose maker publishes a denier.

On the other side of the ledger, the warranty is the strongest in the category: ALPS covers its products against defects in materials or workmanship for the life of the product, at its discretion. Several rivals publish no warranty terms at all.

The Super Elite against three rivals

Three vests worth weighing it against: the ALPS kickstand vest, the recliner, and the lighter ALPS with a backrest. Every figure below is the maker's own published specification, linked to the page it came from.

Against the Grand Slam (7.1): this is the real decision for most buyers, and it comes down to terrain. The Grand Slam carries a kickstand frame that holds your back up anywhere, at a weight penalty you feel all morning. If you hunt timber with good trees, the Super Elite is the better vest; if you hunt open ground, the Grand Slam is.

Against the Tenzing TR18 (7.0): the recliner is the most comfortable sit in the registry and the most committed purchase. It is a frame vest, so it is heavier and less willing to be unclipped and left behind.

Against the Impact Pro (6.3): the Impact family trades storage for a flip-down seat with a backrest. If you want some back support without a full frame, that is the compromise — and the closest read of the cheaper family member is our ALPS Impact review.

Who should buy it, and who should not

Buy the Super Elite 4.0 if: you own or expect to own more than two calls; you hunt timber where there is usually a tree worth sitting against; you want a thick, removable seat so you can shed it on hot days; you want a lifetime defects warranty; and your chest measures 38 to 52 in.

Buy something else if: you need a backrest or kickstand because your ground has no good trees; you are a run-and-gun hunter who carries one call and moves constantly, where three pounds of pockets is dead weight; you need a 3XL or a Small; or you want a published shell fabric.

A closing note on what this review is. We do not test vests. Every figure above was read on ALPS's own published specification for this vest and links back to it, and scored against the same rubric as every other vest on this site — the rubric and the bands are on our methodology page. That makes the comparison fair and reproducible; it cannot tell you how the straps feel in hour four. Buy where you can return it, load it with the calls you actually own, and sit on the ground in the yard for an hour before the season opens.

If you are still deciding between vest types rather than between models, start at how to choose a turkey vest, and the full ranking this score comes from is best turkey vests.