It depends on where I am hunting...Here at home, I am either hunting farmland birds or public forests, but compared to public land out west our tracts of land are basically backyard gardens! A friend and I usually travel every year for turkeys and we really like to get off the trail and very very far from the truck in our quest for a bird, so we usually carry much more than most... Essentials for me on any turkey hunt regardless of region will be:
Vest - Alps Outdoorz
License & Tags (obviously)
3-4 pot calls
3-4 strikers for pot calls
4-6 diaphrams
1 - Good long range box call
crow call
owl hooter
gobbler shaker
sandpaper and chalk for calls
Knife
Folding saw & pruning shears
Pen/fine tip sharpie (for filling out tags)
Zip ties
2 bottles of water, 1L each
headlamp
rangefinder
binos
Thermacell
First aid/Field Trauma/basic survival kit, all packed in dry compression bag
1 hen decoy, sometimes a jake as well
If I am traveling and hunting larger tracts of public, backcountry, and/or hunting sunrise to sunset (we cant here at home) then I add:
Campchef stove w/fuel
Dehydrated meal(s) for use with stove
Hydration pack
Packed Lunch
High protein snacks
Compass
Lifestraw
(most of this stuff is more or less for emergency if God forbid we are miles from a road/truck and someone gets seriously hurt, injured or lost. I always try to plan for the worse and be prepared, and ive learned that lesson the hard way!)
Im sure Im forgetting something...But all of that fits in the vest comfortably if packed right, and the vest is still capable of carrying my bird on a long hike out.
