BT-20 vs Front-country

[bielenbm]

I’m looking at upgrading my head. Does anyone have experience with both these yet?

 

[patagonialuke]

Following. Very interested to hear how well they manage both shooting and glassing duties.

 

[patagonialuke]

Just got the Frontcountry head, plus the matching tripod that I convinced myself I needed. My wallet isn't happy, but I'm pretty excited about its potential. Planning on bringing it as my sole head for hunts, and as my primary shooting head for practice this summer.

I quickly threw my 85mm spotter and 12x50mm binos on the Frontcountry + my Sirui VA-5X pan head for comparison. Very initial impressions:

• The Frontcountry's Tilt Lock Knob feature is pretty dang slick. Tilting still feels super smooth, and I don't notice any significant play / slop when the ball is locked into tilt-only axis.
• The VA-5X offers slightly finer control over the tilt tension, but it's a much smaller difference than I expected. I suspect that I'll be very happy with the Frontcountry for glassing with my spotter.
• The Frontcountry's lack of a handle seems like the main potential downside as a glassing head. I don't think I'll miss the handle with a spotter, but I appreciate a handle when attaching binos via minimalist, less rigid adapters (Wiser Sparrow in my case).
• More of a convenience than a significant feature, but I like having the Frontcountry's minimum-tension knob as an option; seems like it could reduce the chances of me letting a big optic abruptly tilt down and/or knock over the tripod.

As for the shooting side of things, this is my first ball head, so I won't be able to offer anything super insightful. But I'll report back if I notice anything significant once I get a few range days with it.

I don't have the budget to also get the Ridge Warden and compare the two, but if anyone wants me to try anything on the Frontcountry, let me know.