Tip suggestion: seated shots?

[hereinaz]

I doubt I would ever leave my bipod at camp. If a long range shot is offered, my skill level in any position other than prone with my bipod would limit my range. I am already carrying my tripod, Suriu VA-5 head, along with a spotter too, so I already carry a lot of wt. I have never shot from a tripod, but realize I probably need to start practicing using one. I'm just not sure how my current Slik 734 CF tripod will work, given the 11 lb rating, and my rifle is a bit heavier than that, did I mention I carry a good bit of wt? I also have the Wiser treking pole quick connect fittings on my 'old man sticks' that I need to practice with also.

A tripod and walking sticks can make for amazing positions, as stable as prone in many situations. It’s something to experiment with at home.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

I shot a coues deer from one hill to another at 400 yards last week if that counts, but I wasn't able to take a picture of myself while I did it (?). I was sitting on a rock on a ledge and my tripod was situated on three stable rocks on the ledge as well. There was no room to get into a prone position, so no need to use the bipod that I also brought with me. I had my pint size gamechanger (git-lite fill so 1.2 lbs) tucked into my armpit to stabilize my right arm. My rifle has a full length arca rail on the bottom of the fore end so I just clipped it directly into the Anvil head and it's almost as stable as prone with a solid bipod (not just a dedicated hunting bipod). Realistically in that position I could have made the shot out to at least 700 yards if there wasn't much wind and I actually wanted to take that distance of shot, which I don't.

If I'm spotting the animals by glassing off of my tripod, meaning it's already in front of me and deployed, how many shots do you think I'm missing by not being able to drop everything and shoot in 5 seconds if something is in range? And how often in big game hunting are you running into scenarios where your window to shoot doesn't allow 30 seconds to set up? If often, is something about your style of hunting contributing to you having that little time to set up? Whatever the reason, I don't run into that and I'm not constantly missing out on animals with how I do things.

It depends on the hunt and terrain for sure as mentioned above. Sometimes I have time, sometimes I don’t.

I hunt coues every year as well, those shots go from glassing on a tripod, to hurry up and shoot a lot of them time too. They don’t just stand there waiting to be killed. Last year my coues buck at 480 yards allowed for plenty of time luckily. 5 days later, my buddies buck at 530 yards did not. If he didn’t get set up quickly and shoot (less than 30-40 seconds) there would have been no kill.

 

[hereinaz]

I shot a coues deer from one hill to another at 400 yards last week if that counts, but I wasn't able to take a picture of myself while I did it (?). I was sitting on a rock on a ledge and my tripod was situated on three stable rocks on the ledge as well. There was no room to get into a prone position, so no need to use the bipod that I also brought with me. I had my pint size gamechanger (git-lite fill so 1.2 lbs) tucked into my armpit to stabilize my right arm. My rifle has a full length arca rail on the bottom of the fore end so I just clipped it directly into the Anvil head and it's almost as stable as prone with a solid bipod (not just a dedicated hunting bipod). Realistically in that position I could have made the shot out to at least 700 yards if there wasn't much wind and I actually wanted to take that distance of shot, which I don't.

If I'm spotting the animals by glassing off of my tripod, meaning it's already in front of me and deployed, how many shots do you think I'm missing by not being able to drop everything and shoot in 5 seconds if something is in range? And how often in big game hunting are you running into scenarios where your window to shoot doesn't allow 30 seconds to set up? If often, is something about your style of hunting contributing to you having that little time to set up? Whatever the reason, I don't run into that and I'm not constantly missing out on animals with how I do things.

Once I am glassing I can shoot fast enough off my tripod that I am as fast or faster than going prone.

 

[id_jon]

This summer I was playing with different scenarios with my shot timer. Starting with everything packed as it would be hiking, with my rifle in my gun bearer, I was averaging 25-30 seconds to get tripod setup in a kneeling position, clipped into my anvil head, and a shot off. I was shooting 3" target stickers, and anything outside of that sticker was a fail, so some of my time was eaten by my trigger press. This is with quite a bit of live and dry fire practice managing gear and knowing exactly where everything on my pack is and how to get what I need setup with no wasted time/movement.

@mxgsfmdpx I am curious about your 5 second time, is this a "par time" with a shot timer, or just an example number of "fast"? Just want to make sure I understand what you're saying, because 5 seconds is incredibly fast to get a shot off if you're having to manipulate anything other than your rifle for an offhand shot.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

This summer I was playing with different scenarios with my shot timer. Starting with everything packed as it would be hiking, with my rifle in my gun bearer, I was averaging 25-30 seconds to get tripod setup in a kneeling position, clipped into my anvil head, and a shot off. I was shooting 3" target stickers, and anything outside of that sticker was a fail, so some of my time was eaten by my trigger press. This is with quite a bit of live and dry fire practice managing gear and knowing exactly where everything on my pack is and how to get what I need setup with no wasted time/movement.

@mxgsfmdpx I am curious about your 5 second time, is this a "par time" with a shot timer, or just an example number of "fast"? Just want to make sure I understand what you're saying, because 5 seconds is incredibly fast to get a shot off if you're having to manipulate anything other than your rifle for an offhand shot.

A friend and I time each other. That’s from pack on with bipod strapped to outside of pack to seated and shot on target. This is obviously moving quite fast and is a bit noisy depending on ground type. When big game hunting, depending on how far away the animal is, you will likely want to slow this down a touch but will still be under 10 seconds easily with practice.

 

[5MilesBack]

A couple years ago my daughter and I had depredation cow elk tags, and kept seeing some whitetails as well. So we picked up a couple OTC tags and found those WT's one evening. My daughter was shooting a 6.5CM and I had my 7mag. Ranged the distance at 375 yards. We dialed the scopes and I got her set up seated, with her knees up, and resting her elbows just above her knees (toward her thighs) to support the rifle. She had never taken a seated shot like that before. She picked out a doe and I told her to shoot when she was ready, and I'd do the same on a different deer. As soon as she fired, I fired. Two deer center-punched. I have no idea how far I would shoot in that position without better support, but I'd have no problem taking that kind of shot again at least to 400.

 

[Lawnboi]

A real shot time is an awesome tool to have if you have the luxury. That little thing dosnt lie.

 

[dirtytough]

I hear you on seated while calling. I couldn’t kneel the whole time doing that.

What are your thoughts on the double pull? And how long have you had it. That one is on my short list.

I agree with some of the above on both sides. I think a tripod is a great tool but it is the absolute last item I’m reaching for and takes a special situation, they just take too long and use too much movement to deploy. When I go on a stalk I have my tripod with a small bag attached in my left hand.

I’m thinking a taller bipod with a tripod read (legs fully collapsed so it’s fast) might be worth a shot. After some practice tripod rear is stupid stable

It’s easy and fast to use. The double is slightly short for me to shoot sitting uphill like mentioned above. I’ve had it since mid summer.

For day hunting it’s a no brainer.

 

[LaHunter]

What can I expect from a quality ball head like the RRS Anvil, or maybe the Hog Saddle GNN XB-44DL ball head, in terms of use with a spotting scope compared to my Suriu VA-5 head?

A tripod and walking sticks can make for amazing positions, as stable as prone in many situations. It’s something to experiment with at home.

 

[dirtytough]

What can I expect from a quality ball head like the RRS Anvil, or maybe the Hog Saddle GNN XB-44DL ball head, in terms of use with a spotting scope compared to my Suriu VA-5 head?

I used to use the outdoorsmans pan head with a BTX/ATX 95 and binos. Now I use an Anvil-30 with them. I don’t mind glassing from it at all.

 

[mj23polaris]

Get a tripod you can shoot off of.

Taken today 375 across a valley, kifaru pack across my lap, Armageddon gear x wing on top the frame. My body was not in tension super comfortable. Put 2 shots on a bull right where I was aiming.

Sent from my motorola edge 5G UW (2021) using Tapatalk

 

[justin davis]

I’m a big fan of tripods. I use them to glass off. And I have found that I can shoot pretty dang good off them. I feel like sitting off a tripod is just as steady as prone. But prone seems to never work good for me to due to grass and terrain etc. Sitting seems to work well.

I also like to for my wife to shoot. Creates some stable shots for hunting for her

Quick video of my position. Shooting at 600 yards.

 

[Dobermann]

I’m a big fan of tripods. I use them to glass off. And I have found that I can shoot pretty dang good off them. I feel like sitting off a tripod is just as steady as prone. But prone seems to never work good for me to due to grass and terrain etc. Sitting seems to work well.

I also like to for my wife to shoot. Creates some stable shots for hunting for her

Quick video of my position. Shooting at 600 yards.

Justin - what tripod are you running to shoot of when hunting / in field scenarios?

 

[hereinaz]

What can I expect from a quality ball head like the RRS Anvil, or maybe the Hog Saddle GNN XB-44DL ball head, in terms of use with a spotting scope compared to my Suriu VA-5 head?

You don’t get the same sort of “unlocked” and “smooth” panning and gridding with a long handle. They are not “fluid heads” which is why they are better for shooting.

You can sorta lock them up partially and use them like a fluid head, but I find it is more like unlock, move, lock, view, unlock, move, lock, and view.

 

[JohnJohnson]

What can I expect from a quality ball head like the RRS Anvil, or maybe the Hog Saddle GNN XB-44DL ball head, in terms of use with a spotting scope compared to my Suriu VA-5 head?

I use an Anvil head and my solution to glassing off of it was to buy the RRS PT-Scout pan head. It clips into the Anvil and is an actual pan-tilt head for glassing. So (for 8 oz extra if that makes a difference to you) I get the best shooting ball head on the market as well as a head more suited to glassing. And when I need to shoot, I just unclip my PT-Scout head using the lever in about 1 second and can clip my rifle's rail directly onto the underlying Anvil that the PT-Scout was clipped into.

 

[bmart2622]

Maybe this photo helps. Both elbows into legs. Legs and core do all the work stabilizing.

View attachment 623370

What bipod is that?

 

[parshal]

For those considering a double or triple instead of shooting off a tripod I suggest you look at their weight. They are not light and the triple is quite long.

I use the lightweight double for NRL Hunter. I had a triple and sold it on the spot after shooting a match with it (hunted a year with it). It was just too wide to set up on rock scree-type terrain. It took longer to set up (moving legs around to get them solid) than raise the legs on the tripod and shoot.

I have the Scout for glassing as well. I removed the panning knob and added a set screw to pre-tension it. I run it without the handle.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

What bipod is that?

Spartan with long legs.

 

[dreamingbig]

I like the quick sticks from wiser precision. They attach to your trekking poles. You can imagine the height you get.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Lawnboi]

For those considering a double or triple instead of shooting off a tripod I suggest you look at their weight. They are not light and the triple is quite long.

I use the lightweight double for NRL Hunter. I had a triple and sold it on the spot after shooting a match with it (hunted a year with it). It was just too wide to set up on rock scree-type terrain. It took longer to set up (moving legs around to get them solid) than raise the legs on the tripod and shoot.

I have the Scout for glassing as well. I removed the panning knob and added a set screw to pre-tension it. I run it without the handle.

I’m using a tall atlas cal for now. And thinking of potentially replacing it with a double. I’m 5’6 and would likely only do it if I can shoot seated.