Daniel and Neill Haas
In the early days of Mossy Oak, all of our employees were just passionate turkey hunters making what they needed to help themselves and their friends get closer to nature, or as Dad said, “become invisible to wildlife.” Our first flagship product wasn’t a turkey vest, it was the Deluxe Coat, product #0001. But the evolution of the turkey vest begins with this coat. Loaded with pockets and a game bag, it was meant to hold the full arsenal of a spring turkey hunter and stay in rotation for the small game hunter. We immediately went to work on our first turkey vest.
Our first turkey vest, #0012 the Gobbler Elite Woods Vest, was born. It was essentially the Deluxe Coat with the sleeves cut off. Now it was a party. It had quilted shoulders with light padding, a seat cushion and plenty of pockets. (So many pockets that a later version would have the name “Twenty Pocket Super Elite Turkey Vest.”)
The Mossy Oak 1989 product catalog featured the first ever Mossy Oak vest, the Gobbler Elite Woods Vest.
The Gobbler Elite Woods Vest, Mossy Oak's first turkey vest, is pictured above.
Toxey, Bob Dixon, Bill Sugg and the rest of the crew kept tinkering, and the following spring, a classic was born. Our first strap vest. #0013, the Premium Lightweight Gobbler Vest - our first minimalist vest and the foundation of every strap turkey vest design over the next 40 years. This first vest didn’t have the classic solid color nylon webbing straps that are a signature of every upland game or turkey hunting strap vest. It had tough denim straps made from Bottomland and Greenleaf fabric, our “long wait” back pad and just enough pockets to keep it light with room for the essentials.
Pictured above is the Premium Lightweight Gobbler Vest, Product #0013.
One season later, we exchanged the Mossy Oak straps for classic, sturdy, solid color nylon webbing, and #0017, the Cutt-N-Run Turkey Vest, hit the woods.
The Mossy Oak 1990 product catalog features the Cutt-N-Run Vest.
The Cutt-N-Run Strap Vest pictured above was produced in every Mossy Oak pattern available at the time (except Hill Country.)
All the while, Toxey and Mossy Oak’s first employees, Bill Sugg, Bob Dixon, Carsie Young, Cindy Cliett and Ronnie “Cuz” Strickland were hitting the road, sharing turkey camps and introducing sporting goods stores around the south to Mossy Oak. Toxey made friends with our Mississippi neighbor Will Primos and the classic “Springtime’s Best Have Come Together” ad was born. Our crew and the Primos guys were thick as thieves. We set up camp over in west Alabama at Bent Creek, a group that would later be dubbed the “murderers row of turkey hunting,” and our circle of turkey hunting friends grew once again.
The infamous "Springtime's Best" ad with Toxey Haas and Will Primos.
"We set up Alabama camp at Bent Creek, our circle of turkey hunting friends grew once again, and the infamous “murderers row of turkey hunting” picture was captured."
The strap vest endured as our flagship turkey vest spring after spring. Bottomland, Greenleaf, Treestand, Full Foliage, Fall Foliage, Break-Up... With every new pattern, Mossy Oak grew to new heights. Each pattern got its own strap vest. (The Fall Foliage version is a squirrel hunting classic.) We made one with Browning’s new Hydro-Fleece fabric. We made Shadow Grass and Break-Up strap vests with McAlister for duck and goose hunters. In every new iteration, it was a workhorse out of the 80s and through the 90s.
Mossy Oak worked with the Perry brothers and McAlister on a waxed strap vest.
Bob Dixon’s pursuit of “ultralight” and minimalist for that time period kept him tinkering. From Deluxe Coat to full shouldered vest to strap vest, what’s lighter than that? He talked to Toxey, then he went to see Mrs. Evelyn. “I’ve got it. Can you make me a fanny pack? One big pouch, quiet chamois Bottomland fabric and a few shell holders.” Bob and his new “light as a feather” fanny pack setup were ready to run-n-gun through the spring woods.
Pictured above is one of the original fanny packs in Original Bottomland.
Fast forward to the end of the 90s and it was the end of an era. Country radio started down the path that would trade the steel guitar and fiddle for pop country chart chasers, and hunting “industry” became bigger business than just a few passionate hunters making the things they needed. The Mossy Oak strap vest faded into the golden age that birthed it.
It felt like the good old days would last forever, then Bob Dixon got a call from his doctor. The cancer had spread. Bob would never again hear an owl hoot and turkey gobble before flydown, and nothing would ever be the same. On Friday, April 11, 2003, surrounded by his family, friends and the spring woods, we buried our brother Bob near his former home in Greenville, Alabama… just a few miles down the road from where he learned to turkey hunt as a kid.
Fittingly, a few years later, our next strap vest in a new era was designed to pay tribute to Bob. 1,986 “Dixon Vests” would be made to commemorate the year this all got started. It was a little heavier than Bob and his fanny pack probably would’ve liked, but the pressure of making a vest of this magnitude deserved the weight and build of an heirloom. He would’ve loved the straps. The rubber gun straps of the Dixon Vest made it instantly recognizable. From then to now, if you are a hunter holding a turkey with only a little bit of the straps showing, you know the Dixon Vest when you see it. The vests were numbered 1-1,986, a few of Bob’s friends made memorial turkey calls for the first 100, and a few were auctioned for turkey conservation and cancer research. They were sold throughout spring at some of Bob’s favorite sporting goods stores he used to visit, closing day approached soon after and that was that.
The Bob Dixon Vest is coveted for its rarity, design and the man and meaning behind the vest.
Three chords and the truth left country music, three calls and the truth left turkey hunting, and we moved further away from the golden age. But slowly and surely, every spring, a legend started to grow. Bob’s memory lived on every time someone walked into the spring woods wearing his vest, and every spring, more people wanted to know about this mysterious vest. A few popped up for sale in thrift shops and online. “I’ll give you $400 for it.” $400 for a used turkey vest? Unheard of. “Sure.” Another spring in the books, a few more people wondered about this vest, a few more sold online. “I have to have this vest. I’ll give you $600 for it.” A few years later, $3,000 for a turkey vest? Crazy! But, alright. Something was happening. A community was building. It wasn’t just the vest, it was the man behind the vest, and the era of tradition in turkey hunting that it represented. Folks who were true turkey hunters, who cared about history and tradition and wanted to pass this way of life down to their kids and grandkids.
Another spring down. Our phone rings. A woman on the east coast’s husband had terminal cancer, the same kind Bob had. Bob’s story had inspired him. He loved Mossy Oak, he loved turkey hunting, and he wanted to be buried in a Dixon Vest. Sheldon Lovelace, former Mossy Oak employee who played an integral role in the making of the Dixon Vest, knew at the time how special this vest was. He’d saved a few for his kids and grandkids, or just the right special circumstance. This qualified. The man was laid to rest, wearing his Bob Dixon Turkey Vest.
Springs kept passing by. And every spring, a small part of the turkey hunting community, no matter what innovation or hot new trend emerged in the hunting world, dusted off their old Mossy Oak like pulling a Waylon Jennings record out of the closet and hit the turkey woods. The more commercial the hunting world became, the more defiant these old school turkey hunters became. And not just older folks clinging to a bygone past. You started to notice something. Young hunters who weren’t around in those early days longed for the same values that defined those days. No shortcuts. No gimmicks. No cheap tricks. The pursuit of old school woodsmanship. A group of buddies who cared about the same. Then a family raised right when that day came. Front porch rocking chairs, fried turkey nuggets, an acceptance that a man must have a code, and you didn’t have to hunt like these new hunting videos said you had to. Keep your box blind, robodecoy and kill-at-all-costs campaigns. Keep all your gimmicks. Give me a turkey vest, a shotgun, a few calls and some old Mossy Oak from the era of Toxey, Bob and when The Truth still mattered. Give me a respect for the sport our greatest generation helped save.
A few more years down the road, we were all talking with Bob’s son Will. About family, friends, turkeys. The stuff that matters. The things that last. How lucky we are that Mr. Fox has lived and hunted this long. We always thought we wouldn’t make another turkey vest in someone’s name until someone else from this era had passed. But there were only a handful of folks whose turkey hunting days began in the 1930s and 1940s who were still around. The generation of gamekeepers responsible for saving wild turkeys and this way of life from extinction. Mr. Fox was one of them, and one of the last living representatives for that generation. Why not make a vest in his name while he and Mrs. Evelyn are still here to be a part of it? It would be a celebration of this entire generation, a symbol of any small town turkey hunter like Mr. Fox who wanted to hunt, leave it better than he found it and raise a family to do the same. The Mr. Fox Turkey Vest was born. And like the Dixon, like the vests of the early days, it had to be a strap vest. Like Bob’s, it was recognizable at an instant, with leather and Bottomland straps.
The Mr. Fox Turkey Vest, released in Spring 2023, was unveiled to an unprecedented amount of enthusiasm among turkey hunters.
The reception blew us away. We never imagined the sidewalks full of turkey hunters sleeping on concrete (and lawn chairs) waiting all night to be sure they got a vest. We never imagined Papaw would be around to see it, that he and Gran would feel good enough to get in the car and ride by the Mossy Oak store in West Point and see over a thousand turkey hunters who drove to town for the launch. He’s never used the internet. He’s never grasped the folks outside his own circle who care about him and what his generation represents. But his generation never cared about that anyway. They did things because they needed to be done. They had faith that if they righted wrongs and saved turkey hunting, future generations would carry the torch.
In an overly commercial world flooded with fast fashion and promises of a new shortcut to whatever you’re looking for, hunters with an old school spirit need symbols they can hold onto. It’s easy to open up whatever social media app you like and see the suggested video of the day and get discouraged. Then there’s Tenth Legion. The Truth. Bob Dixon. Mr. Fox. Old school Mossy Oak. Whether it’s something that reminds you of your grandad, of a simpler way of life, or of the woodsmanship of a turkey hunter you know that you admire and want to learn from, symbols matter.
Now spring ’25 is upon us, and it’s high time we brought the original strap vest back for good. With that same old school spirit that defines Mossy Oak and our circle of turkey hunting friends, the Woodsman Strap Turkey Vest, simple and classic, built to last, a piece of the good ol’ days, here to stay.
See you in the woods this spring.
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