Top 5 Snacks to Carry in Your Turkey Hunting Vest

If you want to turkey hunt long and hard, you need a snack or two to do it.

A long sit on the edge of a pasture, or in a blind, will end sooner than later if you don't pack food.

A top five list of snacks to carry in your turkey vest follow.

1. Jerky

Jerky. You can't beat it when you're on the move and need a good source of protein.

Our man Michael Pendley will show you how to make basic venison jerky here on Realtree's Timber 2 Table.

2. Candy/Energy Bars

In cool weather, a chocolate bar is a quick fix when you need it. Hunt the late-season heat, and you've got a problem on your hands. Or rather, in your turkey vest.

Energy bars are obviously perfect for a turkey vest pocket. Some are jawbreakers. Some are so sticky and difficult to handle it feels like you've raided your kid's Halloween stash.

3. Nuts

Some of my turkey hunting buds say I eat like a squirrel, and it's true.

Cashews. Peanuts. Walnuts. Pecans. Mixed nuts. I love 'em all, and carry them in the woods while turkey hunting.

4. Weird Stuff

At 3 o'clock in the morning, trying to make it to a turkey roost before the morning fly-down, I might grab just about anything on the counter, refrigerator or freezer, stick it in my turkey vest and go out the door.

A frozen doughnut, which will thaw by noon when I need it.

A hardboiled egg, which likely won't make it to my vest if a salt shaker is on the kitchen counter.

Any foil-wrapped leftover from last night's take-out Mexican, Thai, Chinese or . . . might make it in there.

The challenge is to eat it, and not forget about it until the end of the season. It's bad news then.

5. Water

After hunting since fly-down time, water pretty much seems like a snack by noon.

I'm a fall turkey hunter and flock dogger too. That time of the year, my turkey vest is twice as heavy as it is in spring. Dog gear, and extra water for my canine hunting bud, rides in the vest too.

Once, on the move in the woods, I accidently grabbed my dog's water bottle, recently replenished with the remaining spit-suds water it hadn't lapped up from the soft dog dish, and I drank it.

And survived. Maybe what they say about a dog's mouth being cleaner than a human's is a little bit true.

Careful out there.

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