Spring Turkey Gear Guide: What to Buy, in the Order That Matters

Buy calls in three families, because each one does something the others cannot, and none of them is expensive relative to what it accomplishes.

Diaphragm (mouth) callsare the highest-value purchase in turkey hunting. They are hands-free — which is the entire point, because a bird at 40 yards means you cannot move your hands — and a three-pack costs about $19. Zink’s Triple Pak is a sensible starter set with different cuts so you can find which one your mouth actually works with.

Honest cons: there is a real learning curve, and the first week sounds bad. Start in the truck in February, not on opening morning. Latex ages, so replace them each season and keep them refrigerated in the off-season.

A pot (slate) callis the one that will call in a bird when the mouth call will not, because it produces a different tone and volume family. Woodhaven’s Cherry Classic slate at around $90 (verify current pricing) is a genuinely good custom-shop call rather than a mass-market one, and the difference in tone control is audible.

Honest cons: it requires both hands, which means using it only when the bird cannot see you. Slate surfaces need conditioning with a scuff pad, and moisture kills them — keep it dry or it simply will not sound.

A box call is the loudest tool you own and the one for locating birds at distance and cutting through wind. The Primos Hook-Up magnetic box call at around $106 (verify current pricing) uses a magnet to hold the paddle in position, which addresses the box call’s classic problem: it goes off in your vest when you do not want it to.

Honest cons: it is the most expensive call here, it is bulky, and it needs chalk and dry weather. A $40 box call kills turkeys too — you are paying for the magnet and the tone.

This is the second-highest-value purchase and the one most hunters never make. A turkey’s vital target is a head and neck the size of a fist. A factory modified choke throws a pattern that is adequate at 25 yards and marginal at 40; a dedicated turkey choke tightens that dramatically.

The H.S. Strut Undertaker Pro at around $30(verify current pricing) is the long-standing value answer — it has been in turkey vests for decades because it works and costs less than a box of premium shells.

But the choke is only half of it. You have to pattern the gun. Shoot your actual choke-and-shell combination at a turkey head target at 20, 30 and 40 yards, count the hits in the kill zone, and find out where your gun actually shoots. Two things come out of that:

• Your real maximum range, which is often shorter than you assumed and occasionally longer.
• Whether your gun shoots where you aim, which with a bead sight and a cheek-weld you only use once a year is a genuine question. Many turkey hunters discover a six-inch offset at 30 yards this way.

Honest cons on the choke: shell and choke combinations are idiosyncratic, and the expensive tungsten-alloy loads that pattern spectacularly cost several dollars per shot. Pattern before you commit to a case of anything.

Decoys are the most situational item in turkey hunting. In open country — fields, pastures, food plots — a decoy spread gives a gobbler something to commit to and can pull a hung-up bird the last 80 yards. In thick timber where he cannot see it until he is already in range, it does very little.

Primos Photoform Jake (around $46, verify current pricing) is the aggression play. A jake decoy provokes a territorial response from a dominant gobbler, and it is often the piece that converts a bird that answers but will not commit.

Avian-X LCD Breeder Hen (around $53, verify current pricing) is the realism play. Avian-X built its reputation on posture and paint quality, and the breeding-hen posture is the one that pairs with a jake for the classic two-decoy setup.

Honest cons, and they are real:

• On pressured public land, decoys can hurt you. Birds that have been shot at over a spread get educated fast, and a decoy in the wrong place makes a gobbler hang up out of range rather than come in.
• Safety.Carrying a decoy that looks like a turkey through the woods, in the dark, during turkey season is a genuine hazard. Cover it going in and out — never carry an uncovered decoy.
• Decoys are bulky, they take time to set, and a hunter who arrives late because he was staking decoys has already lost the morning.

The turkey vest is the piece that converts a pile of gear into a system: calls where your hand can find them without looking, shells within reach, and — the part that actually matters — a padded seat.

Turkey hunting is frequently won by the hunter willing to sit an extra 45 minutes on a bird that went quiet. Whether you can do that is a function of what you are sitting on. A vest with a real padded seat, or a kickstand frame that supports your back, is worth more birds than any call in this guide.

We cover the options at every price in our best turkey vests guide. The features that matter: a genuine seat, silent closures rather than noisy zippers, and pockets sized for the calls you actually run.

Turkeys have full color vision, visual acuity commonly described as roughly three times sharper than human 20/20, and near-360-degree awareness. That makes them a harder visual problem than deer in every respect except one — their sense of smell is poor, so you can ignore the entire scent-control industry for spring.

The rules, in short:

• Cover everything. Face mask and gloves are requirements, not accessories. Your face and hands are the palest, most mobile things about you.
• Never wear red, white or blue.Those are the colors of a gobbler’s head, and this is a safety rule before it is a concealment one — turkey hunting is the one discipline where hunters deliberately call other hunters toward them.
• Be consistent head to toe. Turkeys read pattern disruption, so one tone family across the whole outfit beats a premium jacket over mismatched pants.
• Set up against a tree wider than your shoulders. Concealment and a backstop in one decision.

Full details and specific picks are in best camo for turkey hunting, and the vision science behind it is in hunting camo patterns explained.

A ground blind is optional for a gun hunter and close to mandatory for two groups: bowhunters, who need to draw undetected in front of the sharpest eyes in the woods, and anyone hunting with a child, who cannot sit motionless for two hours and should not have to.

The Ameristep Care Taker at around $83-115(verify current pricing) is the value entry — light enough to carry and cheap enough to own two. If you hunt turkeys seriously, the see-through-wall blinds are close to a cheat code for this species specifically: you watch a gobbler work the entire way in instead of guessing from calls. Our ground blind guide covers both.

One caution: a blind dropped the morning of a hunt is a new object in a turkey’s world. Brush it in and back it against cover, or set it up days in advance.

1. Diaphragm calls in a chest pocket, plus a pot call and a striker.
2. Shells you have actually patterned, and the choke you patterned them with.
3. Head-to-toe camo, mask and gloves on before you set up.
4. Blaze orange to wear when moving between setups and carrying a bird out.
5. Decoys covered on the walk in and out. Never carry one exposed.
6. A vest with a real seat.
7. Water and something to eat. Mid-morning birds are real, and hungry hunters leave early.
8. A phone with the regulations and a map, and someone who knows where you are.
9. Your tag.

Then the part no gear list covers: get there before the birds wake up, sit still, and call less than you want to.

Check the Zink Triple Pak diaphragm call price on Amazon.