Best Turkey Hunting Chairs and Seats for Your First Season

How we picked

Every chair and cushion here is currently sold by its maker, and every figure comes from the maker's own product page, linked in the table and in the sources at the bottom. We haven't sat in, carried or hunted from any of them. Each one is scored on our published seat rubric: comfort features (30%), weight and carry (25%), seat height (20%), rated capacity (15%) and durability, warranty included (10%). The bands are on our methodology page, so you can check any score yourself. The rest of the gear you carry into the turkey woods lives in the vests and gear section.

A turkey seat has one job that a camp chair doesn't: it has to let you sit completely still, often for an hour or more, with your back against a tree and your gun up. A seat that pinches, tips or squeaks makes you shift, and shifting is how a bird that was coming in sees you and leaves. That is why comfort and seat height carry half the score.

The six seats, side by side

Seat height is the first row because it decides where a chair works: against a tree or inside a blind. A dash means the maker doesn't publish that figure.

Why the Vanish ranks first (and why two chairs outscore it)

Be clear on this before you look at the scores: two chairs on this list score higher than our #1. The ALPS Rhino MC scores 7.3 and the Barronett Aluminum XL 7.2, against 7.0 for the Vanish. Both have a padded seat and a padded back and a higher weight rating, and the rubric rewards all three. But both put your seat 18 in or more off the ground, and their makers set that height for shooting out of a ground blind. You don't need a blind your first season, and without one you'll sit against a tree. For that job the Vanish is the better chair. After the Vanish, the list runs in score order.

Why the Vanish scored 7.0: comfort 6 (a 21 in backrest and armrests; ALPS lists no seat or back padding), weight and carry 7 (7 lb, with a padded carry strap and a shoulder carry bag), seat height 8 (8 in at the front edge, 5 in at the back), capacity 7 (300 lb) and durability 8 (a powder-coated steel frame and ALPS's warranty against defects for the life of the product). The seat is 21 in wide and 15 in deep, and it folds into a 27 x 7 x 7.5 in bag.

The low, back-tilted seat is the point. With the front edge at 8 in and the back at 5 in, you sit with your back on the trunk and your knees up, which gives you a place to rest the gun while you wait. The weak spot is padding: ALPS doesn't list any, so if you run cold or sit for long stretches, a foam cushion on top is a simple fix. ALPS says its Terrain Seat 3" adds cushion to a chair, stool or stand.

Sitting against a tree or inside a blind: pick the height first

Most turkey setups start with a tree. The National Wild Turkey Federation's advice is that the tree you lean against “should be as wide as, or wider than your back and shoulders so that your body outline is concealed.” Maryland's Department of Natural Resources adds height: sit against something “wider than your shoulders and higher than your head.” A low chair keeps your back on that trunk. The four tree-height seats here are the Ground Gobbler at 6 in, the Vanish at 8 in (front), the Vanish MC at 10 in (front) and the Terrain Seat, a 3 in cushion.

The NWTF page also tells you to find a tree with a square base and to dig out built-up dirt “so that you can sit on a flat surface.” That matters more with a chair than with a cushion, because four legs rock on a slope. ALPS fitted the Vanish MC with four rotating feet that it says keep the chair “firm and solid, even on crooked terrain.”

Blind chairs are a different tool. Barronett says the Aluminum XL's 18 in seat height puts you in the “ideal position for clear sight lines within your hub blind,” and ALPS calls the 18.5 in Rhino MC “the perfect height for shooting out of your blinds.” The reason is the windows. On the Barronett Prowler 300 hub blind, the bottom of the windows sits 47 in off the floor at the center and 25 in at the corner, per Barronett, so a 6 in seat would leave you looking at the wall. If you're still deciding whether you need a blind at all, read do you need a blind for turkey hunting first, and if you do buy one, our ground blind picks list interior sizes and heights for each.

Turkey hunting chairs for big guys: read the rating, not the seat width

Every low turkey chair on this list is rated for 300 lb. That includes the Vanish MC, even though its seat is 2 in wider and 2 in deeper than the standard Vanish (23 x 17 in against 21 x 15 in). A bigger seat is more room, not more capacity. If you weigh close to 300 lb, the rating is the number to read.

Above that, the options on this list are the two blind chairs. The Barronett Aluminum XL is rated to 400 lb on an aluminum frame that weighs 4 lb, with a 22 x 20 in padded 600 denier seat and backrest. The ALPS Rhino MC is rated to 375 lb at 5 lb 6 oz, with a padded 20 x 18 in seat and a 12 in angled, padded back. Both sit 18 in or higher. We'd rather tell you that plainly than pretend there's a 400 lb low chair here: in the chairs we scored, a higher rating came with a taller seat.

If you need room through the waist more than a chair, a seat vest is the other route. ALPS sells its Grand Slam kickstand vest in an X-Large that fits waists from 48 to 58 in, though ALPS publishes no weight rating for the frame.

Cushion, chair or seat vest?

You don't need a chair to hunt turkeys. You need to be off the wet ground and comfortable enough not to move. There are three ways to get there, and the right one depends on how far you walk.

• A foam cushion is the budget-friendly way to sit, and the lightest. The ALPS Terrain Seat 3" is 12 x 15.5 in, 3 in thick and 1 lb 2 oz, with a buckled strap to lash it to a pack. The tree is your only back support, and ALPS publishes no weight rating.
• A low chair adds a backrest and, on the Vanish, arms, for 7 to 8.5 lb extra on your shoulder. Worth it if you sit long mornings close to the truck.
• A seat vest builds the seat into the thing you already carry. Some have a cushion, some a flip-down seat with a backrest, a few a kickstand frame. See our picks for turkey vests with seats.

The Barronett Ground Gobbler sits between a cushion and a chair: a 6 in seat, the lowest chair here, with an angled 21 x 17 in seat that Barronett says “naturally reclines to relieve pressure on your legs,” and padded armrests it says dampen noise when you shift. Barronett doesn't state a backrest height, so don't count on back support, and a seat that low is hard to get out of with stiff knees.

Buyer's guide: choosing a turkey hunting seat

What actually matters

• Seat height for where you sit. Against a tree, stay low: 10 in or less at the front edge. In a hub blind, 18 in or so, the height Barronett and ALPS set their blind chairs at.
• Carry weight and how it carries. The chairs here run from 4 lb to 8 lb 8 oz. A shoulder strap or a carry bag with a strap (the Vanish, Vanish MC and Rhino MC have one) keeps your hands free for your gun and a flashlight on the walk in.
• A back you can lean on. A backrest lets you sit still longer. Check the published backrest height: 22.5 in on the Vanish MC, 21 in on the Vanish, 12 in on the Rhino MC.
• The weight rating, with headroom. The low chairs here are rated 300 lb, the Rhino MC 375 lb and the Barronett Aluminum XL 400 lb.
• The warranty. ALPS warrants its products against defects for the life of the product, excluding normal wear and tear, accidental damage, alterations, misuse or neglect, and it asks for proof of purchase from an authorized dealer. Barronett lists a 1-Year Limited warranty on its chairs.

What doesn't matter much in year one

The camo pattern on the chair. Turkeys pick up movement, a bare face and bare hands long before they pick out a chair's print. The NWTF's beginner advice is to keep your hands, neck and face covered, and our guide to what to wear turkey hunting covers the rest.

The first-season mistake

Bringing a tall camp chair, or no seat at all. A tall chair pulls you up out of the low, knees-up position that keeps your back on the trunk and the gun on your knee. Sitting on cold, wet ground for an hour makes you fidget. Either way you move, and a turkey sees it. Our list of common turkey hunting mistakes has the rest of the ones that cost beginners a bird.

Setting up with a chair

1. Pick a tree wider than your shoulders and taller than your head, 10 to 15 yards inside the cover, as the NWTF suggests.
2. Clear the base and level the spot so all four legs sit flat.
3. Set the chair tight to the trunk so your back and head stay against it.
4. Face the direction you expect the bird, with open room to swing the gun. The NWTF suggests a five-foot radius of clear space in the directions you plan to shoot.
5. Sit down, get the gun up on your knee, and get comfortable before you make your first call.

The full walk-through, with decoy placement and where the sun should be, is in our turkey hunting setup guide.