Well make up your mind that there is no perfect one size fits all with regard to shooting tables and tripods.
Where you hunt as for distance, and type of terrain is just one important element needing consideration.
Portability is another, and mixing both together and coming up with a perfect solution is all but impossible, at least for everybody.
Nothing is better than a well made bench for stability. And they need not be very heavy, if that factor is a priority in the design and material used in building of it. I have one weighing just about 20# with 4 fully adjustable legs I use for guns weighing over 30#. If I were building it again, it would have 3 legs, with the single leg in front.
But steady and light are not the only important factors either. Staying on a running animal regardless of the direction it takes after a shot is also extremly important, so that when it stops, the gun can be fired again right now. And frankly thats where most devices fail and fail badly.
You will find very few shooters having the ability to do that while laying on their belly also. But it can be done and weve done it, with not just one but 3 different bucks taken within about as many minits by 3 different shooters using the same gun at distances from 635 for the first, to roughly 750 for the third. 6 shots total fired with 2 of the 3 taking 2 hits. The gun was a 20# 300 Norma on a Mark V set up as a (single feed gun). My young grand daughters job was to stand near the gun holding the ammo box and lay another round in when the bolt was opened. lol
And we do that often, the shooters job is to concentrate on the animal and shoot, nothing else.
Our setup that day was a heavy duty tripod system made by McFadden Machine Co in Blairsville PA and known as the (Ultimate Tripod). I have done some minor mods to it by way of gun supports to accomadate that gun, and I recommend the optional flat rear support for a rabbit ear bag.
Another excellent tripod system, and maybe even slightly better but more costly also, is the (Lone Star) system made in Texas. Another in our group has that one as well.
As good as the benches are, they cant begin to compete with the tripods as for speed in using them. We simply couldn't have accomplished that had it not been for the tripod and standing while we shot, as opposed to sitting or kneeling as we do from my bench. And there also is a need in those type situations for a band director, otherwise people tend to get short term brain freeze.
Thanks for the replies!
