Folks over at www.kentuckyhunting.net were asking what was in your vest.

First off, I don’t carry a vest anymore. I carry one of these:

I ran into a couple selling these at the Outdoor Show in Cincinnati. I bought one and I have been using it now since 2003. I ordered two more this year for the kids. Go to http://www.wibags.com/ if you’re interested. They’re only $12.

It has three pockets.

In the largest, I carry my gloves and 1 or two box calls, and a push-pull.
In the middle, I carry a flashlight and ammo.
In the outer pocket, I carry a few mouth calls, and a slate.
There is a pen pocket on the side that takes the strikers for the slate.
There is a pocket for my cell phone.

There is a D-ring on the back that takes my butt pad, so that it trails behind me. When I’m in a hurry, I don’t have to detach it. In fact, if I’m in a real hurry, I don’t have to take the bag over my head to take it off. It has a buckle in the front. I just pop the buckle and let the strap slip.

Back when turkey vests were coming out, I bought one. In fact, I still have it. It was fantastic for phesant hunting– big bellows pockets for two boxes of shells, and a game bag to boot. I could carry everything but the kitchen sink when I hunted turkey. However, I found that as I grew older and tackled the more rugged hollers in Kentucky, I needed something lighter.

Back in 2001, I hunted with a guide in SE Ohio. Ernie put me to shame. He carried nothing but a mouth call and his shotgun. That got me thinking. Most of the really good turkey hunters I’d hunted with over the years had not much more than that– one or two calls and a gun. The next season I tried going light with just a small canvas shoulder bag with a just a few calls, and I was wildly successful.

When I hunt with decoys, I have a canvas musette bag that I throw over the other shoulder. With decoys and a small blind it doesn’t weigh much, and when its not in use, I can use it as a back pillow. I also put the stuff I don’t need right away in there: my poncho, my book, my lunch, my turkey tote. If I have to dig a little for those things, I’m not hurting.

Some other plusses I’ve found with this sling bag:

There is a flap that flops open, It provides me with a place to lay my calls that are not in use that keeps them out of the dirt. With a vest, I was forever rummaging in pockets.

If I have to move fast, I can drop the musette bag and carry at least a 2/3 less weight. If I have to re-position in a hurry, this helps. It’s also easier to get to the musette bag than having rear pockets on the vest. You have to take the vest off to get to some stuff. The musette bag flops across my back, but comes around front by pulling on the strap

The sling bag also keeps things from rattling. When I had a vest on, there were always too many pockets and too many rattles.

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