PathFinder
WKR
Whoa man this is awesome, thank you! I'm really excited to put this head to work. Shooting you a DM now.
Ridge Warden Tripod Head Giveaway by Wiser
- Thread starter robby denning
- Start date
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2025
- Messages
- 14
PathFinder
WKR
That will be awesome! I'm heading out on a coues hunt that will involve an unreasonable amount of glassing and lots of potential to shoot from steep sidehills, so it will be a good test. There will be some feedback from shooting prior to that trip, and from the trip itself. Thanks!
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2025
- Messages
- 14
Head is in the mail! Hopefully USPS doesn't drop the ball on this one too and you have it for your Couse hunt.
TylerK11
FNG
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2025
- Messages
- 9
Have never heard of this brand before but this head is intriguing. Looks like it checks all the boxes for a good backcountry setup.
high_hunter
FNG
They are an awesome local to me company. Hope the winners enjoy the head and put it to good use. Looking at one myself as an upgrade to my current setup.
elkhunter505
WKR
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2018
- Messages
- 818
Back at home and just threw the head on my new Aziak (thanks to another rokslide member). Looking forward to putting it to use in a couple days. Thanks guys!!
PathFinder
WKR
The head showed up yesterday, thanks @Wiser Shane for getting it out so quickly! First impressions are positive, I spent some time playing around with it and installing on a Slik 622 last night. Tension settings and movement are easy to dial in and seem very smooth. Seems to have quite a bit more resolution in the adjustments vs the Tricer LP. Will update with more thoughts with some actual use.
sndmn11
“Daddy Zoltar”
Speaking of giveaways, this just popped up in my email. 
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2025
- Messages
- 14
You are very welcome! Looking forward to hearing your thoughts after you get some real time behind it.
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2025
- Messages
- 14
You're very welcome! Glad to hear first impressions are good. I would agree with you, the "resolution in adjustments" is extremely impressive with this head. Part of my QC process is glassing with a Kowa 77 spotter at max magnification (60x). The Ridge Warden can pretty easily follow a deer walking while at max magnification with that spotter.
elkhunter505
WKR
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2018
- Messages
- 818
So first impressions after a very minimal amount of glassing time. Solid system that does exactly what it is supposed to do. The tilt is smooth and the pan is also smooth with one caveat. Take this with a grain of salt as I didn’t fiddle with it before I took off to the first hunt. It seemed as though the pan function was stiffer when starting out in cold weather. Say 28 degrees or so. It seemed like it was very stiff and the ball would jump out of the pins to where the ball itself was panning rather than the pan. I didn’t spend the time to fiddle with the micro adjust for the pan, will do it in the future. The other thing that seemed different on mine than the one in the intro video was when the ball snapped back into the pan mode, it didn’t make a very noticeable sound or give too much haptic feedback. The video sounded like it would be relatively noticeable. However, that being said, I am very excited to keep working with it as once I got pretty used to it, I was very satisfied with the functionality especially the lack of bounce back when I would stop panning or tilting. Hopefully I can provide some better feedback here in a week or two.
PathFinder
WKR
Analysis so far, after a couple range days and a 5 day coues hunt:
I'm coming from 2+ years of using a Tricer LP, so much of my thoughts come from comparing to that.
Glassing: Very positive overall. One thing I don't love about the Tricer LP is that the UNC threads on the tension knobs leave very little resolution in tension adjustment. Meaning, there's a very narrow range where the friction is ideal, and small adjustments make a big difference. For the Ridge Warden, the amount of adjustment resolution on the vertical axis is excellent. There's a lot of range to get the tension dialed just right. The adjustment knob can get in the way and hit the head above it, but it's a simple matter to reorient it by unscrewing it enough to rotate the screw in its captured feature. It can have ~3/4 rotation of adjustment, which is enough to go from very light for small binoculars to very tight for shooting or large optics. I haven't messed with the horizontal axis tension, the factory setting has been good so far. The only thing I've found that isn't ideal for glassing is that when trying to spin an optic around quickly (change glassing direction, flip glass around to clean objective lens) the pins tend to pop out of the detents (as intended for shooting). Not a big deal, just have to make those movements somewhat more slowly or turn it by the panning section above the base. Movements are extremely smooth and controllable. No issues with steep angles or wind. This is a small scope, but it handled it really well.
Shooting: Haven't shot from it yet, just messed around with the rifle in it. The ARCA opens up plenty wide to drop ARCA straight down into the clamp. Rolling the rifle on the ball feature, to unlock the pins from the detents, is very smooth. It feels seamless. I didn't feel any need to lock the head, just left the same tension on it as for glassing with a pack as a rear support. Panning, tilting, and leveling were all very controllable. I haven't clipped in on ARCA for a few years, but I'm planning to do a lot of shooting that way in the coming months. There were a few spots I set up on the coues hunt where the tripod would have been the primary option to shoot.
Here you can see the detents in the head. Don't laugh too hard at my hasty stock work and paint. I dug all the factory putty out of this Manners, gave it some proper structure, and it lost 8 oz.
Other: This thing is impressively small and light. Notably more so than the Tricer LP. Having it fold tight to the tripod is nice too. It has me convinced that an adapter like the Sparrow would be nice vs the Outdoorsmans adapter I've used for years. I'll likely give that a shot for next season. The ball itself is really the key feature of the head. It's a clever design that I'd like to nerd out over the production of some more. Whether the detents in the ball wear or not will determine a lot of the head's longevity, I don't see that as a concern so far. I used it from 10F to 65F with no changes in performance. It got drug around in the dirt a bit while strapped to my pack with no issues, didn't notice any debris sticking to the ball or affecting it.
I'm coming from 2+ years of using a Tricer LP, so much of my thoughts come from comparing to that.
Glassing: Very positive overall. One thing I don't love about the Tricer LP is that the UNC threads on the tension knobs leave very little resolution in tension adjustment. Meaning, there's a very narrow range where the friction is ideal, and small adjustments make a big difference. For the Ridge Warden, the amount of adjustment resolution on the vertical axis is excellent. There's a lot of range to get the tension dialed just right. The adjustment knob can get in the way and hit the head above it, but it's a simple matter to reorient it by unscrewing it enough to rotate the screw in its captured feature. It can have ~3/4 rotation of adjustment, which is enough to go from very light for small binoculars to very tight for shooting or large optics. I haven't messed with the horizontal axis tension, the factory setting has been good so far. The only thing I've found that isn't ideal for glassing is that when trying to spin an optic around quickly (change glassing direction, flip glass around to clean objective lens) the pins tend to pop out of the detents (as intended for shooting). Not a big deal, just have to make those movements somewhat more slowly or turn it by the panning section above the base. Movements are extremely smooth and controllable. No issues with steep angles or wind. This is a small scope, but it handled it really well.
Shooting: Haven't shot from it yet, just messed around with the rifle in it. The ARCA opens up plenty wide to drop ARCA straight down into the clamp. Rolling the rifle on the ball feature, to unlock the pins from the detents, is very smooth. It feels seamless. I didn't feel any need to lock the head, just left the same tension on it as for glassing with a pack as a rear support. Panning, tilting, and leveling were all very controllable. I haven't clipped in on ARCA for a few years, but I'm planning to do a lot of shooting that way in the coming months. There were a few spots I set up on the coues hunt where the tripod would have been the primary option to shoot.
Here you can see the detents in the head. Don't laugh too hard at my hasty stock work and paint. I dug all the factory putty out of this Manners, gave it some proper structure, and it lost 8 oz.
Other: This thing is impressively small and light. Notably more so than the Tricer LP. Having it fold tight to the tripod is nice too. It has me convinced that an adapter like the Sparrow would be nice vs the Outdoorsmans adapter I've used for years. I'll likely give that a shot for next season. The ball itself is really the key feature of the head. It's a clever design that I'd like to nerd out over the production of some more. Whether the detents in the ball wear or not will determine a lot of the head's longevity, I don't see that as a concern so far. I used it from 10F to 65F with no changes in performance. It got drug around in the dirt a bit while strapped to my pack with no issues, didn't notice any debris sticking to the ball or affecting it.
Great review I’ll have to give this a hard look in the coming years!
sndmn11
“Daddy Zoltar”
just come grab mine.
Great review. It would work great for my 308 when rattling behind it!
PathFinder
WKR
A few updates from using the one from the giveaway:
Got to spend more time shooting from it. That included an 8ish pound 243 Improved and a 9lb 223 AR. The BT-20 is mounted on a Slik 622, so a very light tripod. Last time out included a couple of dud coyote stands and some shooting at a 12x12 plate from 500 yards.
While going back and forth on the tension range of the ball, I've come to prefer just leaving it around the tension range used for glassing. I haven't found, with the light tripod/head combo, that it is capable of supporting the rifle effectively on its own for shots over ~400 yards in the sitting position. That said, when used with a rear support such as a backpack or trekking pole, that tension setting works well. Utilizing it more as a very secure front rest was more effective than attempting to get it to act like a typical PRS/NRL type tripod. In the prone position, I did the same but with a rear bag. That was very solid and removed the last temptation I had to haul a bipod around on backpack hunts.
For coyote hunting, with most shots being quite short, it was plenty solid. I prefer to leave it somewhat loose to rapidly change direction as needed, without bothering to tension it tighter to shoot.
Overall, I think it does exactly what it's supposed to do at the size and weight of the head.
As for the clamp, it has stayed very secure so far. Shooting a ~6.5lb 6.5 CM, it takes around a dozen shots before it has slid far enough in the clamp to be of any concern. That is on a fairly short SRS Arca section.
This head will definitely be on my tripod for the coming season. The one thing I haven't settled on is what to do with the Arca rails on the bottoms of stocks. Option one would be to recess them into the stock. Takes a bit of work with the necessity to reinforce the stock after removing so much material. Option 2 would be one of the Odinworks/Seekins style Arca sections that are rotated 90 degrees. Those would require much less material removal from the stock to recess the rail. Anyone have any experience with those?
Got to spend more time shooting from it. That included an 8ish pound 243 Improved and a 9lb 223 AR. The BT-20 is mounted on a Slik 622, so a very light tripod. Last time out included a couple of dud coyote stands and some shooting at a 12x12 plate from 500 yards.
While going back and forth on the tension range of the ball, I've come to prefer just leaving it around the tension range used for glassing. I haven't found, with the light tripod/head combo, that it is capable of supporting the rifle effectively on its own for shots over ~400 yards in the sitting position. That said, when used with a rear support such as a backpack or trekking pole, that tension setting works well. Utilizing it more as a very secure front rest was more effective than attempting to get it to act like a typical PRS/NRL type tripod. In the prone position, I did the same but with a rear bag. That was very solid and removed the last temptation I had to haul a bipod around on backpack hunts.
For coyote hunting, with most shots being quite short, it was plenty solid. I prefer to leave it somewhat loose to rapidly change direction as needed, without bothering to tension it tighter to shoot.
Overall, I think it does exactly what it's supposed to do at the size and weight of the head.
As for the clamp, it has stayed very secure so far. Shooting a ~6.5lb 6.5 CM, it takes around a dozen shots before it has slid far enough in the clamp to be of any concern. That is on a fairly short SRS Arca section.
This head will definitely be on my tripod for the coming season. The one thing I haven't settled on is what to do with the Arca rails on the bottoms of stocks. Option one would be to recess them into the stock. Takes a bit of work with the necessity to reinforce the stock after removing so much material. Option 2 would be one of the Odinworks/Seekins style Arca sections that are rotated 90 degrees. Those would require much less material removal from the stock to recess the rail. Anyone have any experience with those?
OP
OP
I missed your December update but saw everything today after you freshened up the thread.
Big thanks for taking the time to come back and review everything you won. Really helpful but not common! People are gonna appreciate this if they're in the market.
(and you too @elkhunter505 )
PathFinder
WKR
You're welcome, I appreciate you facilitating the giveaway!I missed your December update but saw everything today after you freshened up the thread.
Big thanks for taking the time to come back and review everything you won. Really helpful but not common! People are gonna appreciate this if they're in the market.
(and you too @elkhunter505 )
It has been really good so far. The BT-20 seems to occupy a nice Goldilocks niche for backpack hunting. I plan to update this thread with more experiences throughout this year.
elkhunter505
WKR
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2018
- Messages
- 818
Will try to provide my own update as scouting season heats up. My hunting season mellowed out considerably after I returned from Colorado as work jumped into the mix. Just now getting caught up. Hope to have some updates soon.I missed your December update but saw everything today after you freshened up the thread.
Big thanks for taking the time to come back and review everything you won. Really helpful but not common! People are gonna appreciate this if they're in the market.
(and you too @elkhunter505 )
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