I received a turkey vest for Christmas and wanted to post a review of it since I've been very impressed so far. It the Cabela's Turkey Guide 15 Pocket Vest which sells for $59.95.
First, the vest holds an amazing amount of stuff and the thing about this vest is that it's extremely easy to keep it organized. My old 10x vest held a lot but everything was stuffed into a few large pockets. Not so with this vest.
Starting on the left side of the vest there are two separate glass/slate call pockets which is great for me since I carry one of each. No longer will they rattle around in a the bottom of a big pocket. In addition, I can hold 4 strikers above the slate/glass calls which are easy to access as the top of the strikers hang out (the 4th one is a little hard to see in the picture since it has camo tape on it). The bottom left pocket is good size and can hold 5 shells. It also fits my Primos gobble call very nicely.
On the right side there's designated box call pocket in the middle of the vest. To my surprise I was able to fit two full size box calls in the pocket. Above the the box call pocket is a smaller pocket that can hold a crow call and mouth calls. The bottom right pocket is similar to the bottom left pocket.
In addition, on both sides of the vest are two slanted pockets that have a lot of room. You can see the top of the slate call sticking out of the left hand side (notice that the slate call is still in the packaging). The right side is the same (I have another box call sticking out of it) and could be used for lots of different things.
Moving to the back of the vest, there's a thick seat that contains two pieces of foam. One is about 1/4" and looks like a closed cell foam and the other is about 2" thick and looks like open cell foam (the closed cell foam is closest to the ground when sitting). I was hoping for a vest with a thinner seat but after trying this one out I'm very happy with the thickness especially since I promised myself that I'll be more patient this year and sit longer.
In the game bag pocket in the back of the vest there's a pocket that I can only assume is for stakes for a decoy which makes a lot of sense. I could easily fit the stakes for 2 decoys in the pocket. The seat is easly attached using two clips on either side and is adjustable depending on how much stuff you have packed into the game bag.
The inside of the vest has a nice mixture of pockets including a large pocket good for maps and a pocket that looks like it was made to hold a gps.
Overall, I'd have to give the vest a 9 or 9.5 out of 10. I would have rated it a 10 if it had a little better back padding since the current piece of foam is only about 1/2x6x9. Also, the was a 2x2 piece of velcro on the back of the vest and on the seat that made a very loud noise when taking the seat down. Luckily it was only sewn on so I removed it easily.
One last thing... there are no metal snap buttons on this vest which I really like. The ones on my old 10x vest that held the seat on always seemed to rub on the metal part of my gun when I was carrying it on a sling. The Cabelas vest uses plastic buttons so I don't have to worry about scratching.
Hope this helps!!!
Thank's for the review, can't go wrong with Cabela's.
@ Rhino!