A Good Turkey Vest Carries More Than Calls and Shells

Make sure you stuff some toilet paper, a few candy bars, and plenty of memories in all of those pockets.

I first hit the turkey woods in the mid-1980s, trudging along in too-big boots and mismatched camo, trying to keep pace with my dad as he moved through the predawn fog of a soggy river bottom, hell-bent on getting to the spot where he knew a big gobbler had roosted the night before. I didn’t have a turkey vest back then because I wasn’t really a turkey hunter. I stuffed a hand-me-down face mask in my pants pocket while Daddy toted the dekes, his calls, and the ever-essential TP. 

Back then, I thought my father was a turkey-hunting god. 

I still do. 

Because he was.

That man could work a bird like nobody’s business — even back then, when turkey populations in the Southeast were beginning to swing in the right direction but were nowhere near the healthy numbers we appreciate today.  

My daddy could even sweet-talk those tough lockjaw longbeards on public land, the too-stressed, too-pressured birds that nobody could hunt. My dad could make music with a mouthcall that even the most stubborn gobblers couldn’t resist. 

I connected with my first bird at the tender age of 14. The No. 5 shot from my dad’s Remington 870 Wingmaster peppered him in the head and neck just above a 10-inch beard as he came racing hot off his overnight tree limb toward my father’s yelping calls.

My dad carried a photo of me and that bird in his wallet until the day he died. 

That he carried that picture — not high school graduation, college, or my wedding day — says everything that needs to be said.

One of the things I remember most about that day is the four snack-sized Snickers bars Daddy pulled from the pocket of his turkey vest. Smiling a mile-wide grin, he tossed two my way. We unwrapped them and pretended to clink them together like wine glasses, toasting our turkey-hunting success. 

More Than Gear

For passionate, hard-core turkey hunters, a good turkey vest is more than just a piece of gear. It holds far more than box calls, face masks, and Snickers bars. 

After my father passed, when my mother was sorting out his hunting gear, the first thing I asked for was his turkey vest.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t that OG vest. It wasn’t the one he wore that day when I was 14, pulling mouthcalls and chocolate bars from hidden pockets like the turkey-hunting magician he was. That vest had long since been worn threadbare, tragically retired to the garbage bin decades before.

But his most recent vest was just as special. Its well-worn, fading camo still held a few spent hulls, dry, crusty blood stains, and heavy nostalgia. 

Although his vest was far too large for my small-framed body, I wore it into the woods that first season without him, cinching up the adjustable straps in a vain attempt to make it fit. And while I haven’t quite grown into it, literally or figuratively, that vest was wrapped around my body when I called in my first gobbler all on my own.

 Why You Need a Turkey Vest

Turkey hunters have been successfully bagging birds for far longer than specialized turkey vests have been peddled to the masses. 

Do you absolutely need a turkey vest to fill a turkey tag? 

Need is a strong word. But, boy, can a good turkey vest make your season a whole helluva lot easier. 

Plus, your kids will probably want to wear it into the turkey woods that first spring hunt without you. 

Mossy Oak Scores Big With the Mr. Fox Turkey Vest

One great example of how turkey hunters value their turkey hunting vests is the story of Mossy Oak’s limited-run turkey vest. 

The Mossy Oak Mr. Fox Turkey Vest is named after Fox Haas, the father of Mossy Oak founder Toxey Haas. This special-edition, limited-run vest is chock-full of features any turkey hunter would appreciate — such as top-notch call pockets, quick-release buckles, old-school Mossy Oak camo, and a roomy foam seat cushion. 

However, the real value of this turkey hunting vest isn’t in the materials, construction, or features—it’s in what it represents. 

Mr. Fox, now 92, has killed at least one turkey for 75 years running. While the man certainly has some major hunting prowess, he also started pursuing these noble and humbling birds when wild turkey populations were struggling.

Sound management strategies helped turkeys make a major comeback, expanding beyond their historic range. However, over the past two decades, flocks have been gradually thinning, causing concern among conservationists and hunters nationwide. 

The wild turkey decline is inspiring many hunters to look back at the early days of successful management, borrowing old-school tactics from our dads and granddads. This vest is a hat tip to those seasoned hunters who helped bring the wild turkey back from the brink so we could feel the thrill of hearing those heart-stopping gobbles echo through the early spring fog. 

It’s also a nostalgic salute to a man who values family, has made hunting memories spanning decades, and inspired a brand that completely changed how Americans hunt. 

Although this turkey vest is super cool, Mossy Oak sold out of these special-edition vests before they even hit the general market, despite their $450 price tag. 

If you had your heart set on one for the 2023 season, your SOL. Only 1,944 numbered vests were made (1944 was the year Mr. Fox killed his first turkey). 

The number-five Mr. Fox vest auctioned at the National Wild Turkey Federation Convention held earlier this year in Nashville, Tennessee, sold for a whopping $31,000, a hefty chunk of cash for turkey conservation.

Mossy Oak plans to run an extended edition of unnumbered Mr. Fox vests, with preorders shipping before the 2024 opener. 

Finding the Perfect Turkey Vest

Modern turkey hunting is big business. While whitetail deer hunters are responsible for the biggest chunk of the hunting-dollar pie, turkey hunters more than pay their way, pushing an average of $76.9 million annually into the sport since 1985 in New York State alone.

Because turkey hunters have money to spend, manufacturers have flooded the market with turkey-specific gear. Walk down the aisles of a big-box sporting goods store (aka the promised land), and you’ll find about a bazillion different turkey calls, decoys, blinds, locator calls, choke, tubes, and dedicated shotguns, all optimized for your turkey-hunting needs.

If you’ve chased gobblers for more than a season or two, you know that no two birds are exactly alike. While one may come in all hot and bothered to a 10-note mouthcall cackle, another will hightail it for the next county at the first tone. 

Like the birds they pursue, no two turkey hunters are exactly alike, either. While some tote turkey vests so well-stocked they look like pack mules staggering through the woods, others prefer a more minimalist approach, choosing to stuff calls in pants pockets or opting for an ultra-low-profile chest rig or fanny pack.

With so many super-cool products on the market, it’s easy for turkey hunters to turn into gearheads. So, it's perfectly acceptable to invest in several turkey vests. Some are better suited for long sits, while others are tailor-made for running and gunning, so you probably need more than one anyway. 

But no matter what model you choose to wear (My current favorite is Sitka’s Equinox Turkey Vest), make sure you stuff a few candy bars in one of those extra pockets.