Bipod for Sheep

[88man]

I just carry the harris in my pack. Really only put it on when the shots are over 300

 

[FishN4Eyes]

Hey Guys! I'm a new member to this forum, and also work for one of the companies you guys mentioned (Spartan Precision Equipment). If you don't want to pack a bipod into the backcountry, Have you ever thought about shooting off your tripod?

We talked to enough hunters who wanted to pare down their gear as much as possible, and that's why we designed the Sentinel tripod to pull double duty as a glassing platform and shooting rest. Have any of you used this before?

View attachment 161383

I recently bought the Spartan Sentinel Tripod in addition to the several bipods of theirs I have. This thing is pretty slick and I mount my Swaro spotting scope on the tripod via one of their nifty attachments. Again, it's not cheap but a heck of a lot lighter than my tripod I usually carry and I can shoot off it and also use my spotter. I am loving it so far.

 

[Fire_9]

Go the tripod route. If you carry a spotter, the tripod can now serve another purpose and they’re super stable. A bipod will always have its place in certain applications but in my opinion, the tripod is superior for most hunting situations

Smacking a 12” diamond at 500 from the sitting position in a stiff wind was a piece of cake with this setup

 

[EYJONAS!]

That's exactly what I bought it for, it's not the quickest to deploy but very stable. With a pack as a "rear bag" and the tripod up front you can get pretty darn steady. Sitting height bipods give up far too much in functionality and bulk IMO.

What's the chances of getting a picture of this setup. You have me intrigued

 

[EYJONAS!]

Go the tripod route. If you carry a spotter, the tripod can now serve another purpose and they’re super stable. A bipod will always have its place in certain applications but in my opinion, the tripod is superior for most hunting situations

Smacking a 12” diamond at 500 from the sitting position in a stiff wind was a piece of cake with this setup

View attachment 161450

What setup is this? For some reason this concept is blowing my mind

 

[Deleted member 16014]

What's the chances of getting a picture of this setup. You have me intrigued

I don't have a picture with the pack set up in there but I just position it along the butt of the stock as needed for elevation. For sub 350 yds or so my right knee pulled up high to rest the stock butt on is very adequate. Beyond that, or given time, the pack is preferable. My rail is up front, unlike Fire9's which is set where the rifle balances. His would be more stable, mine uses the same rail attachment for the tripod or bipod.

 

[Fire_9]

What setup is this? For some reason this concept is blowing my mind

It is a Two Vets no name jr tripod with a Colorado tripod company small ball head. I took one of their Arca plates and mounted it to my stock just forward of the recoil lug. Some guys us pic rails at the end of the forend but I opted to go more towards the balance point of the rifle. It gets in the way a little when I carry the rifle but it’s not a huge deal. It wouldn’t have hurt to move it a little further down the stock either though. Go over to Rokslide and look up salmon river solutions in the firearms section. He makes some pretty sweet rails. I’ll more than likely be trying some of his stuff out in the future

I gave it a try on my antelope hunt this year and it worked pretty slick. Was a short shot but it allowed me to get over the grass and kept me from having to belly crawl 15 yards or so to get a shot. As Snowy said, the pack works great as a rear rest

 

[Deleted member 16014]

One limitation of my setup is there is no on-the-fly cant to the pan head. If you used a ball head you'd have unlimited ability to adjust but with a pan head you gotta have it set pretty level from the get go.

 

[EYJONAS!]

I was looking at getting a VA-5 head I like a fluid head more for glassing especially for a bigger spotter. You think theres a little more restriction going that way vs. a ball head?

 

[Deleted member 16014]

With a pan head you can only adjust 2 of the 3 dimensions at once for the shot, if that makes sense; you can move it up and down for elevation and pan/swing left to right, but you can't tilt it side to side to account for an "uneven" tripod set up. We need an engineer to draw a picture here, ha.
I very much prefer a pan head for glassing as well.

 

[EYJONAS!]

With a pan head you can only adjust 2 of the 3 dimensions at once for the shot, if that makes sense; you can move it up and down for elevation and pan/swing left to right, but you can't tilt it side to side to account for an "uneven" tripod set up. We need an engineer to draw a picture here, ha.
I very much prefer a pan head for glassing as well.

Lightbulb, thanks for the explanation. Will look into this more thanks guys!

 

[buffybr]

I've had a Harris bipod for many years and I use it at the range almost every week practicing. In all of my hunting, including 6 successful sheep hunts, I've never taken or used a bipod. My longest sheep shot was 206 yards at my Dall ram and like for my Bighorn rams and Aoudad, I was able to just lie down prone for the shots.

I have however taken a 3-leg Trigger Stick on some hunts and I did use it for a Arapawa ram in New Zealand and for a Leopard in Mozambique, and maybe a Pronghorn antelope or two here in Montana. I've also used my PH's tripod sticks on a number of African hunts.

 

[Fire_9]

I was looking at getting a VA-5 head I like a fluid head more for glassing especially for a bigger spotter. You think theres a little more restriction going that way vs. a ball head?

If you do more glassing than shooting, the va-5 is probably the way to go. If you do more shooting than glassing, go with a ball head. The little bit of glassing I’ve done with the ball head actually hasn’t been that bad though. I’ve got a Coues trip planned for December so that’ll be the true test. I have a feeling I’ll pack the ball head more often in MT

 

[OregonHunter 300]

Kurt Racicot from Stone Glacier has a piccatinny rail attachement on both his rifle and spotter. He can remove spotter and attach the rifle to his tripod to shoot. I forget which brand it is but he covers it in this video.

Seems like more and more people are using tripods to shoot off these days. Makes sense. If you're already carrying it to use with your spotter/binos, might as well make it serve double duty as a shooting rest.

 

[OregonHunter 300]

I recently bought the Spartan Sentinel Tripod in addition to the several bipods of theirs I have. This thing is pretty slick and I mount my Swaro spotting scope on the tripod via one of their nifty attachments. Again, it's not cheap but a heck of a lot lighter than my tripod I usually carry and I can shoot off it and also use my spotter. I am loving it so far.

Thanks for the shoutout!

 

[OregonHunter 300]

Last year I got to do a Corsican ram hunt in Utah. As a quadriplegic, I have real limited arm strength and hand mobility. Using the Sentinel tripod to shoot from made a big difference because we could adjust the tension in the head, which locked my rifle down and gave it so much more stability.

 

[EYJONAS!]

I recently bought the Spartan Sentinel Tripod in addition to the several bipods of theirs I have. This thing is pretty slick and I mount my Swaro spotting scope on the tripod via one of their nifty attachments. Again, it's not cheap but a heck of a lot lighter than my tripod I usually carry and I can shoot off it and also use my spotter. I am loving it so far.

How do you like the Spartan w/ their ball head attachment for glassing with spotter/binos? Would like to hear the pluses and minuses of it. I am in the market for a new setup, this one is fairly intriguing to me vs installing rails on each adapter.

Thanks

 

[ZMT588]

Whats the difference is you just put a rifle clamp like a triclawps or a hog saddle on the end of your tripod?

 

[Stubaby]

Hatch bipod. I ended up with some in-store credit with Outdoorsmans a few years back. It’s the best Tripod ever BTW. We agreed that if they just sent me the Hatch bipod it would be a wash. Totally awesome.

Easy on easy off. Worth its weight in gold. Keep it in your pack and throw it on your pic rail when it’s go time. Easy to adjust and can even do off-camber.
Haven’t even thought about shooting over a backpack since. I know it would have come in handy for Randy on that Wyoming deer hunt i just watched.

Seeing that rifle bounce around then at one point slip off the top of that pack was hard to watch. That hunt was the best one yet btw.

Once you get used to it you can adjust without even thinking about it

 

[Deleted member 28227]

With a pan head you can only adjust 2 of the 3 dimensions at once for the shot, if that makes sense; you can move it up and down for elevation and pan/swing left to right, but you can't tilt it side to side to account for an "uneven" tripod set up. We need an engineer to draw a picture here, ha.
I very much prefer a pan head for glassing as well.

No Roll adjustment.