Tripod question

yobuck said:

For a shooting tripod setup, its important that the shooter not
lose the target due to the recoil of the gun, even with the heavy recoil types.
And thats especially true in wooded terrain, and when hunting alone with no one spotting shots for you.
Allowing the gun to slide rearward during recoil is necessary in order to eliminate excessive muzzel movement during recoil.

A ball head can be a drawback at times due to the possibility of the gun tilting to the side when loosening the tension on the ball.
Up/down and traverse are the only movements of the muzzel required when shooting and followingan animal.
Leveling can be accomplished with the tripod legs.
Pinning of the ball eliminates the flopping to the side, but many of the pot metal ball heads wont permit that.

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You are not wrong but generally this is an issue for people who are new or don't actually practice. I've run a ball head arca for a pile of years and once a the learning curve is attained, having the ball head is valuable

My kids and i hunt almost exclusively with RRS and arca mounts. We have the clamps for guns without arca but I much rather the arca.

After starting with the hog saddle and trying a rifle with a integral arca I sold my Hog Saddle and converting everything to arca.

It's much better and easier swapping from binos, to spotter, to rifle.

Skip the PIG/HOG saddle. It's legacy tech that is slower, less stable, heavier, and bulkier.

I'd much rather shoot from a bag thrown on top of a head or tripod apex then go back to a saddle.

TC338 said:

Is it worth stepping up to an ARCA style tripod and mount over something like a hog saddle? I've got the clamp style tripod for my son, but I'm wondering if I would be better served in my own long range shooting with the other style. What experience can you guys share?

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Bog Death Grip with a Vortex Carbon Radian with a rifle, but also like the ARCA with our optics. All depends on what you are using for. The ARCA can be used with both firearm & Optic.
We have a Vortex Carbon Radian NIB for sale.

The ARCA setup with a leveling head or a ball head will be miles ahead of a HOG saddle in terms of stability, provided the tripod is quality. I still use a HOG saddle and a PIG saddle because that's what I'm used to, but they leave a bit to be desired. The rubber inserts in them actually allow the rifle to move up and down quite a bit. You really need a bag under your elbow to be rock stable with them. The sides of PIG saddle deflect quite a bit when clamped down and won't hold on to a rifle by very much. The HOG saddle is very versatile for different firing positions if not using a ball head, but with a ball head or leveling head the HOG is a step backwards.

OP, there's a big big difference in stability using a HOG saddle over a Arca mount. Get a good Arca and make sure it's placed well to provide the upmost stability on your rifle. There's no comparison using a solid tripod and Arca might. Use a Pig or Hog with a aluminum tripod and have fun stabilizing that

If you want a complete setup, I have The Kit from Two Vets that is brand new and not used. Bought on a whim and do not need.

Look at the fatboy and two vets it is what we use.

I've currently got a Leupold tripod with an arca ball head on top and if I were to use that to shoot from I have a bog clamp that mounts with an arca plate to my tripod that I would carry in my pack. but recently here I've been thinking of ditching the clamp and just mounting an arca rail on the bottom of my gun, just to make it a simple connection and also that way I could leave the clamp at camp and have one less thing to carry in my pack for weight. Biggest thing would be to first make sure you have a decent tripod, cause a decent tripod with a crappy head is still better than a crappy tripod with a good head.

I think the Arca is worth it. One of the spin off styles with locking mechanisms such as RRS Lock are even better. I am sure the Area419 stuff works for their fans but I don't care enough to waste money finding out. They are more solid and less bulky than a typical clamp so they are easier to carry and I find they tend to keep the rifle more secure. As mentioned above by others you can have the best of both worlds. I have a Triclawps Solo with an Arca rail attached to the bottom of it. If I need the clamp I just put in on my Arca clamped ball head, if not I leave it behind.

Probably I always had was that my tripod(s) had multiple duties.
I had one with 40mm legs I used for PRS matches that was ultra stable, but way to big to hunt with.
I had one with 36mm legs that was great for hunting but too short and light for PRS Matches.
I had one with 25mm legs that was nice for hunting but really not worth much more than use as a bipod. too flimsy.
Problem for me is that I use a camera when I hunt as well, so when I would take one to the field, I had to pick between Arca or Manfrotto camera plates. One for camera, one for rifle...can't use both on the same system.

The tripod I got now has a fluid head that takes Arca plates...so I can run my camera OR rifle on the same head...and with an adapter, I can actually run them both on the same head at the same time.
There's just so many advantages of having an Arca system these days, especially now that you can find fluid heads for video or photography that take arca. I can't find any downside anymore.

Old System (Manfroto style fluid head) Can't put my rifle on it if I ever needed to. (i suppose I could add a Hog Saddle to a Manfroto plate)


New system is a Leofoto fluid head that accepts Arca...so if I need to, I can unclip my camera and attach my rifle in 5 seconds.