Tripod Shooting

[Peter988]

Yep. It’s a bit like fishing. Post a photo of a good fish with a new lure and people rush off to buy the lure. Still doesn’t make them fishermen.

[Fester]

For me, standing with my hand on a tree or sitting behind a log will always be the go-to.
Also, offhand shooting is a skill the deer hunter needs.
Some blokes just can't do it, others will never put in enough practice to become proficient enough.

When the local SSAA range was run by a great manager and team, I was allowed to use what he named the all-purpose range.
The pistol and rimfire silhouette range that they wasted lots of time and money on, making it pneumatic, now a white elephant.
Interestingly, only a couple of other blokes used that facility; they all just sat in a line on their benches.
A keen PRS shooter was one, and I nicknamed him Plinkster, after that yank Youtuber.
He could sure shoot, he demonstrated offhand shooting by lifting his .22 and shooting a 100yd ram with 1 shot.
The rams are bigger, but still only a few inches; practice makes perfect is the motto.

I can't take advantage of sitting unsupported, maybe my back, lack of flexibility; I just can't shoot accurately enough.
Same with a single stick; that could be easily carried, and I did try to master it with practice.
The 3-legged trigger sticks can be carried, but like anything in the hands, apart from a rifle, even trekking poles that high country, backcountry hunters swear by, could cost you a snapshot opportunity on a wary forest deer.
My plan was always to drop lower and dump all such items, but still prefer to have nothing further than a day pack.

Unfortunately, as the worn-out body won't be getting better, I will have to consider walking less and carrying the Darchi chair and trigger sticks to sit and wait, move a bit, and repeat.

To walk with my $50 Bummings sticks for a longer shot opportunity is pretty easy, and it takes about half a second to just drop them for a snap shot.
Just another tool in the bag and next time won't be the last time when the only opportunity is to freeze and take that shot that is a bit far for offhand confidence, that's when those cheap Bummings sticks could well bring home the meat.

Would I ever consider paying $700 for such a contraption, not a f__g chance lol.

[JDM9691]

Mate, it's because you're a hunter. Hunters use their rifle and their opportunities, and their skill.
Nobody hunts carrying that stuff around, a hunter knows there is no time or opportunity to even set one of those dead Giraffes up.

I agree with most of the rest of what you said, but this last bit is rubbish. Not everyone hunts deer in the forrest.
I don't call myself a hunter - I'm a farmer controlling pests, but in this context I'm a hunter, so I guess I'm Nobody. I walk around the paddocks of ewes and lambs at night stalking foxes. Time is not a problem, because I often I see them 1km+ away and it can take 5 - 15 minutes to get to the right position for the shot. Even so, It only takes 5 seconds to take the tripod off my shoulder and be in position to take a shot - the sticks maybe 10. If others can take foxes at 200m standing unsupoorted, well more power to you. For me, no matter how much I practice that would be a lottery, but with a tripod or sticks it becomes a certainty..

In our undulating country a fox that can be seen standing, often goes under the horizon when I go prone on a front bipod, or it disappears in the stubble. There are no logs or trees to support yourself on, so if you are serious about taking foxes, you need elevation. A couple nights ago I was taking roos on the sticks from 340m in a crop that was 2ft high - prone, sitting or on one knee you would have seen nothing.

I'm no spring chicken either - I've been controlling foxes for 45+ years, but using tripods and nightvision gear, is far superior and preferable to previous methods I've used. Each to their own.

The point I'm trying to make is that the sight picture from my $5 home made quadstick is not that different to that from a $800 tripod.

[JDM9691]

Would I ever consider paying $700 for such a contraption, not a f__g chance lol.

Fair enough, and I was the same.
Those tiny little lambs I was protecting back in March/April, were sold for $330 each a month ago. At that rate, if a tripod/sticks can turn just a handfull of impossible or low% shots into kills, the investment can pay for itself very quickly. Not having the right tool for the job is frustrating, time consuming, often a false economy, and I went through that for a year before buying a tripod. I can fully justify having the gear, but everyone else has their own trigger points.

Regarding the practicing, I worked for a couple Canadian brothers in the 90's, who were both great shots and their 'party trick' was they could throw a small rock up in the air, and shoot it out of the sky with an open sighted .22 . They would then move to a 3/4" washer - most times you would hear the sound as they hit it, but other times there would be no sound yet they would still say "Got it". To prove the doubters wrong they would then wrap some electrical tape around the washer, and sure enough the next time they claimed a hit without noise, there would be a bullet hole through the tape covering the centre of the washer!

I wondered how much practice and how many hundreds or thousands of rounds they must have fired as kids to get that good?! It was very impressive, but my old man would have throttled me if I wasted that much ammo, because a box of .22 was expected to bring back 30 rabbits!

[Fester]

Yeah, some blokes can justify all this latest thermal stuff, but I just couldn't.
Would the bought version of my Bummings Euro type sticks be nice? Sure would, but not for the price I used to pay for a rifle.

Fox shooting like JDM does is a different ball game really; small targets at a few hundred yards is not always easy, and field positions are not enough for that.
I can get accurate enough with a chair and trigger sticks, bipod off the ute tray, but without that, and lamb-eating foxes running around, I could understand those exy quad stick purchases.

My .223 is more a varmint rifle; a 24" Weatherby Sporter with a 6-18x50 Meopta is no mountain rifle.

Yeah, the Annie Oakley stuff was amazing, and even at old days ammo prices, it must have taken a lot of shooting.
Did you ask those Canadians if .22lr barrels can be worn out.
They may know the answer.
.22mags can be shot out, and when I sold my High Standard Victor as a young bloke, the shop bloke said it had next to no rifling left.
He was a shop bloke buying it to make profit, and I thought it looked normal with the torch and bit of paper method.

[Wapiti]

I fell for the tripod, bought one. Special at Cleavers, got it sent out. An aluminium construction type. Where is it? in the gun room, behind the gun bags hanging up. What a waste of money. I'm a hunter, and a farm shooter. Why did I buy something like that? F'ed if I know and it gave me nothing.
These were the Primos Trigger Sticks tripod, as well as the monopod meant for hunting.
In fact the tripod was touted as one too, carry on a pack for hunting.
I also bought a rifle clamp for it.

For me, and I'm not a bloke who will rabidly justify something just cos I bought it, it's given me nothing, no advantage, only disadvantage overall.
On this purchase of gun gear, I blew my money and have no advantage for hunting whatsoever.
The monopod, well I took it for a few walks in semi-open grazing country, and to be honest, I was better off and quicker using a tree as a rest, with the rifle sitting on my wrist.

For longer shots over the grass, when it was there mind, I could also splay the legs of the tripod wide so I could sit. Overall, I was not satisfied with this setup, being more unstable and wobbly as my super-long Harris bipod. That was actually more stable for me.

People reading this, considering buying something which is the cost of a rifle - remember when you are standing that a human being is a very unstable thing, we saw from side to side, forward and back, shake - and yes, standing you can take a good shot but it's a case of trigger break just at the right moment the cross-hairs sway past your target,
I can do that on a readily available tree.
For me, I found the monopod to be unacceptably wobbly. I have to cull animals to protect my valuable breeding and like to hunt, but these animals deserve better when they die than a shot where it shouldn't go.

And load testing and super accurate target shooting? Get a benchrest and it's truly stable, or a good bipod and a rear bag. You will not get the best standing or sitting, with a tripod, even with a clamp.

Interestingly and timely, our latest Qld SSAA magazine THE REPORT, has an article on this set-up and the author loves the Primos thing, and has a shot at the others with clamps in his write-up. But what he says about using the thing was contrary to what I find. Yeah he shot a pig on open country waiting in the dark with a thermal on a rifle, but the pig was unaware of him, he had plenty of time and a pig close up is a big target. On reading these articles on this stuff they all get donated, I always wonder why so much is contrary to what I find, I must be just f**ken hopeless at this shooting game.

I reckon, for those of you blokes making your own shooting sticks to suit your own use and even body type, keep doing it and enjoying making great hunting accessories and the satisfaction of using them. What a great rewarding achievement.

For those of you without the expendable income to buy expensive carbon-fibre gear, especially nowadays with us all being raped and disrespected by these Labor monsters, do not at all feel like you are missing out, because you aren't.

For those shooters who have the dough to buy all the latest and greatest new gear that comes and goes, good on you, you keep the retailers alive, good stuff.
But for all you hunters out there, use the money for fuel to drive to a few hunting spots over the year, or pay for ammo to practice in the field with (NOT at the damn range), or pay to stay at a place where you can have a lifetime's memories. Practice on your skills.