Ball Head Recommendations?

[Potsie]

I’ve been very happy with my current tripod head, a VA-5, for glassing. But I’ve recently gotten my 6 y/o out shooting with a tikka compact .223, and I’m thinking it might be a good idea for us both to learn how to shoot off a bipod. Not ideal off the VA-5 because you can’t level up the rifle.

Any recommendations on a ball head that won’t break the bank? Any out there that pull double duty for shooting and glassing?

 

[rtraverdavis]

Do you mean you want to shoot off a tripod?

I used to use a Sirui KS-10 to glass with. It was fine with binoculars but once I put my old spotting scope on there, which was fairly light and compact as far as spotters go, getting the tension on the tilt just right was a serious pain in the ass. Just a little too much tension, and the head wouldn’t tilt. Just a tiny bit too little tension, and the spotter would flop over. It was really annoying, especially once animals were spotted and I was trying to see them through the spotting scope. I can picture all kinds of frustrating situations trying to get a rifle aimed and steady while up on that ball head with a tripod, messing around with tension knobs trying to get things set right—especially for a young’un like J. Maybe it won’t be a problem, but I thought I’d throw it out there.

I’m sure there are far better ball heads out there though, so maybe there’s a few where that won’t be a problem.