Hunting Chair

What a hunting chair is and who it's for

A hunting chair is the seat for hunters who stay on the ground. You carry it in, you sit on it, you carry it out. It isn't a tree stand seat (that's part of the stand) and it isn't a camp chair, which is built for leaning back by the fire.

That second difference matters more than it sounds. A camp chair tips you back into a lounge. Hunting happens sitting up. You want your back straight, your feet under you and your hands close to the bow or the call, so the move to a shot is small.

The table under this page lists every hunting chair, stool and turkey seat the site tracks. Values come from the maker's own description, or from the Amazon listing where the maker is silent (marked as listing values; weight stays the maker's): what kind of seat it is, how high it sits, how it's built and how much it carries and weighs. Where neither states a value, the cell stays empty.

Why the right deer hunting chair keeps you out longer

Mossy Oak's long-sit review starts with a confession most of us share: hunts cut short by back pain and by being too uncomfortable in little fold-up chairs. The same writer makes the point that matters. A seat you're comfortable in means fewer shifts and adjustments, and every shift is movement something can see.

Realtree's turkey writer puts it shorter: patience kills turkeys, and sitting comfortably helps. Swap "turkeys" for "deer" and it's still true.

Ask anybody at Hemlock Run what ends a ground sit early and you'll hear about backs and cold seats long before you hear about deer. A seat you can stand for four hours is a hunting tool, not a luxury.

Four kinds of hunting seat

The table sorts chairs into four types. Here's what each one is for.

Blind chairs for long sits inside a blind

Upright, usually with a backrest, built to sit at the height of a ground blind's windows. Think of a stripped-down office chair on legs. Bowhunters want them armless or with arms that move out of the string's way. The blind-specific details (window height, placement in the blind, clearance at full draw) are on the hunting blind chair page.

Swivel chairs when deer can come from more than one side

A blind chair whose seat turns. Per Petersen's Hunting, the payoff is one seat that can face any window in the blind. The catch is noise. Grand View Outdoors tells of a squeaky chair that sent a group of turkeys off before the shot. More on that on the swivel hunting chair page.

Tripod stools for walk-ins and short sits

Three legs, a small seat, sometimes a short back. Three feet sit steady on rough ground because all three always touch it. They're the hunting seat you'll actually carry a mile. Details are on the hunting stool page.

Low turkey seats for sitting against a tree

A seat a few inches off the ground, often with a back, made to sit at the base of a trunk. Realtree's writer says a seat with folding legs suits stationary hunts with fields to watch. These have their own turkey hunting chair page.

Any of these can come with a heating pad. Heated seats are on the heated hunting chair page.

How to choose a hunting chair

Here's the order I'd check things in. The first two questions settle most of it.

Start with how far you walk

Realtree's writer has the best rule for this: if it's lightweight, easily stowed and does the job, he might not forget it in the truck. A chair left at the truck has a comfort rating of zero.

So read the weight column first if you walk in. A short walk to a blind on the field edge can take almost any chair. A long walk uphill in the dark calls for a stool or a light folding chair. A chair that stays put in a blind from opener to close can weigh whatever it likes.

Then decide how long you sit

Short sits forgive a lot. Long sits don't. Realtree's writer wants something to lean back on if he's on the ground more than 10 or 15 minutes, and says that if his feet, legs or backside have fallen asleep, he's sat too long without moving.

Rule of thumb: the longer the sit, the more the backrest and the seat matter, and the less the carry weight does.

A portable hunting chair should fold small and carry easy

Every hunting chair folds, but not all fold the same way. Some fold flat, some collapse into a bundle, some have a carry strap. The Mossy Oak review describes one with backpack straps, which frees both hands for the bow and the flashlight on the walk in.

That's the idea behind a backpack hunting chair. Before you trust the straps, put the chair on over the coat and pack you'll actually wear. A strap that works over a T-shirt in the store can sit in the wrong place over a parka.

Seat height decides where you can use it

The table shows seat height as the maker or the listing states it, often as a range when it adjusts. Low seats suit tree trunks and turkey setups. Taller seats suit blinds with windows that need clearing. One chair rarely does both well.

Hunt a tree base on Saturday and a blind on Sunday, and you'll want a seat that changes height. Write down the height that works in each spot. Memory is not a measuring tape.

A backrest is the line between a stool and a chair

The table marks which seats have a backrest. A back lets you rest your spine between moments that matter. A stool asks your back to do the work. For a two-hour sit, I'd take the back. For a 40-minute sit after a long climb, the stool wins on weight.

Legs and feet for the ground you actually sit on

The Mossy Oak review describes adjustable legs for leveling and a leg angle meant to keep a chair from sinking in mud, gravel and sand. Petersen's Hunting ties leveling to the shot itself: tilt and you slide, and sliding is movement. Four legs that adjust one at a time level best on a slope. A tripod sits steady on almost anything, because three feet always find the ground.

Frame material trades weight for toughness

The table lists the frame as the maker or the listing states it: steel, aluminum and a few others. Mossy Oak's blind advice favors a metal chair that's sturdy and quiet enough to leave in the blind. Steel is the heavier choice. Aluminum is the usual way makers cut weight. Buy once, cry once, but buy for the walk you have.

Weight capacity: read it chair by chair

The table shows weight capacity as the maker or the listing states it. Ratings differ from chair to chair, so read that column for each one rather than assuming.

Compare it with what you weigh dressed for the blind: the heavy coat, the boots and the pack. You weigh more in a November blind than on the bathroom scale in July, and the chair doesn't care which number you had in mind.

Quiet claims, swivels and extras

A few fields in the table are claims or extras. The maker's "silent" or "quiet" is marked only when the maker or the listing says it, and it's a claim, not a measurement. A swivel, heated pad or rest for your shooting arm shows up as yes or a dash. Check them against how you hunt, not against the feature list.

Where each hunting seat fits your hunt

Here's how I'd match a seat to a setup.

• Ground blind, long sits: blind chair or swivel chair with a backrest, armless or with arms that move.
• Ground blind with several windows: swivel chair.
• Walk-in, sit an hour, move: tripod stool.
• Spring turkey against a trunk: low turkey seat or a thick cushion.
• Field edge, no blind, no tree: a folding chair with a back, set low and brushed in.
• Cold mornings in one spot: a heated seat, if you'll carry the battery.

For pitching and brushing in the blind, see the ground blind page. If you're hunting from a tree, you need a stand or a saddle, not a chair. Start at the tree stand page.

Sit in it, then shoot from it

A chair you've never drawn a bow from is still a guess. Grand View Outdoors notes that hunters who sit in blinds hardly ever rehearse a shot from the seat. Three questions from that article: does your coat bunch up when you sit and draw, do you tire faster holding at full draw seated, and is the draw harder from the seat.

Bowhunter ties a quiet, comfortable seat to stillness and warns that armrests can foul the string at full draw. Mossy Oak skips the arms altogether. My one opinion on this page: if you hunt with a bow, a chair without arms beats a chair with them, because the armrest is the one feature that can end the shot. If you hunt with a bow, sit, draw and hold before the season. If something hits, it's a chair problem, and you have time to fix it.

Setup and care

• Brush it in. A chair on an open field edge is a silhouette. Sit with something behind you.
• Clear the ground. Realtree's tree-sit advice works for chairs too: get the rocks and roots out from under you.
• Work every leg lock. Extend it, load it, listen for it to hold.
• Dry it before storage. A wet seat folded up is a smell in spring.
• Shift your weight on it in the kitchen. Whatever creaks there will creak at first light, only louder.

All of it takes one afternoon before the season. That's cheaper than one missed morning.

Who should skip a hunting chair

• Tree stand and saddle hunters. Your seat is part of the stand or the saddle.
• Box blind hunters with built-in seating. Check what's up there first.
• Hunters who move every half hour. A cushion on a vest is lighter than any chair.
• Anyone hunting a property with a seat already in the blind. Ask the landowner before you haul one in.

For everyone else on the ground, pick the type by where you sit and how far you walk, then let the table sort the rest. And write the seat height that works next to the stand name in your logbook. Next November, you'll be glad you did.