New gear receives solid reviews
Shotguns, high-performance shells, camo and callers are a turkey hunter’s glamorous items, but the most important piece of gear I own is my chair.
The one I have used for about 10 years is a Browning folding chair with an aluminum frame. It sits low, allowing me to array all my callers within easy reach on the ground. Most important, it is really comfortable. It enables me to sit in one spot for hours, all day if necessary. I would not have killed many of the gobblers I have killed without it.
While that chair is fairly light, it is also bulky. I fashioned a shoulder strap for it, but it’s not practical for shoulder carry when I also wear a turkey hunting vest and a backpack containing decoys and other gear. It clatters and rattles if attached to a pack, so I always end up carrying it in a hand.
This season I wanted something more compact and more portable. A web search for “Turkey Chair” led me to the exact item I wanted from Cabelas. It cost $30. The magic of the internet also revealed an identical item with a different brand from Academy Sports and Outdoors. It usually costs $30, but Academy slashed the price to $14.99. I put two of them in my cart and picked them up a couple of hours later.
My brother Brad and I used them for the first time on April 28 during a turkey hunt in Prairie County. The chairs folded into a tidy little cylinder that nestled into my backpack alongside my decoys. Deploying the chairs took mere seconds. It sits the same distance off the ground as my Browning chair, so there is no practical difference. There was a huge difference for Brad, who had been using a conventional camp chair. Veteran turkey hunters might scoff at that, but it is not a liability for a camo-concealed hunter to sit so high. It might even be advantageous because you can see over ground clutter better than you can closer to the ground.
There is some difference in comfort. The Browning chair is more rigid, allowing me to maintain a more rigid posture. The Game Winner chair’s seat fabric sags. You gradually sink forward, so you have to reposition frequently. Anything that necessitates movement is undesirable for a turkey hunter, but the new chair’s attributes outweigh its detriments. This new chair is a welcome addition to my kit.
DECOYS
I have used a lot of decoys, from early, hard-plastic molded models to hideous foam models that somehow attract turkeys. Every time I hear a hunter wax emphatic about how smart a wild turkey is, their willingness to come to those foam decoys makes me doubt.
That said, my self-esteem requires gear that looks good. As Billy Crystal famously channeled the late Fernando Lamas, “It is better to look good than to feel good!”
Avian-X are the best looking decoys I have found. They are painted realistically, and they are molded to correct scale.
They rest on a slender stake that extends deep into the decoy’s body. Even in a fast wind, they revolve ever so slowly and bob ever so slightly, giving the realistic appearance of a turkey hen feeding. In contrast, the foam decoys in a hard wind spin like helicopter blades.
Avian-X decoys are inflatable, so you can deflate them for easy carry in a backpack or turkey vest pouch. Inflating one takes about a minute.
A mistake that many Avian-X owners make is using the decoy to push the stake into the ground. This will tear the recess and cause leaks. You can seal a leak by pouring a small amount of marine epoxy into the recess and covering stake contact area.
I have a love-hate relationship with decoys. Sometimes they have been the crucial element that sealed the deal on a gobbler, but they have deterred gobblers just as often. Because they are so realistic, Avian-X gives me the confidence to use them when maybe I shouldn’t.
BOOTS
We cover a lot of hunting footwear in this space, and we have reviewed a great many hunting boots. One we review with great pleasure is the Garmont Nemesis 6 G-Dry.
Garmont pitched it to us as a hunting and hiking boot, but the company promotes it online as a law enforcement/ military boot. It certainly has tactical genetics. One boot weighs 1 pound, 2 ounces. That is very light, with a lithe, diminutive profile, but it is surprisingly tough and durable. Its synthetic mesh upper resists abrasions, and a rubber cap protects the toe. A Vibram extended outsole wraps farther around the upper than many hunting/hiking boots. G-Dry waterproofing protects the foot from moisture.
The boots are supple and soft out of the box, and they have really good arch supports. The footbed is generous, as is the toe box. Mine required no break-in period. Out of the box, they felt like they had already been through a season.
The Nemesis 6 provides secure ankle support with a drop heel that relieves fatigue. While it is ideal for speed walking through the woods, it does not offer any protection from snakebite. That is an important consideration for a turkey hunting boot, but as an all-around outdoors boot, the Garmont Nemesis 6 G-Dry works well for me. Have a look at www. garmonttactical.com.