Arca rails?

[Hawkeyemm]

Can someone explain to me the difference between an arca rail vs arca trax rail vs arca 3-way rail? And their applications?

thanks in advance

 

[fast_hand84]

Can someone explain to me the difference between an arca rail vs arca trax rail vs arca 3-way rail? And their applications?

thanks in advance

As I understand it, Arca Swiss is the standard that came from the camera world, and is still hugely popular today for shooting (like the RRS stuff)
Arca Trax (Arca Lok, etc) is a modular rail system that adds notches on the sides to mitigate against recoil, I suppose. RRS uses a set screw system to achieve the same thing.
Arca 3 way is a plate that has Arca, picatinny, and a Harris bipod attachment in one piece.

 

[Hawkeyemm]

As I understand it, Arca Swiss is the standard that came from the camera world, and is still hugely popular today for shooting (like the RRS stuff)
Arca Trax (Arca Lok, etc) is a modular rail system that adds notches on the sides to mitigate against recoil, I suppose. RRS uses a set screw system to achieve the same thing.
Arca 3 way is a plate that has Arca, picatinny, and a Harris bipod attachment in one piece.

Thank you much Fast Hand.

 

[Hawkeyemm]

So to follow up, is there one version in particular that is most common or most preferred? Or Is it all personal preference?

 

[Dthomas3523]

So to follow up, is there one version in particular that is most common or most preferred? Or Is it all personal preference?

Personal preference as long as its a “1.5” dovetail standard” or “rrs 1.5“ standard” or any other wording that shows it’s the 1.5” that RRS has basically standardized to. Most rifle rail and accessory manufacturers will be using that spec.

 

[fast_hand84]

So to follow up, is there one version in particular that is most common or most preferred? Or Is it all personal preference?

The post above is spot on.

One thing I’ll add is that some of the cheap accessories you’ll find explicitly state they are “RRS or Arca compatible”, and they seem to be legit when they arrive (from China). Many of these accessories (clamps in particular) are made with wild tolerances and, when subjected to a little stress, won’t hesitate to dump your $6k rifle from a chest-high tripod into the gravel.

 

[Hawkeyemm]

The post above is spot on.

One thing I’ll add is that some of the cheap accessories you’ll find explicitly state they are “RRS or Arca compatible”, and they seem to be legit when they arrive (from China). Many of these accessories (clamps in particular) are made with wild tolerances and, when subjected to a little stress, won’t hesitate to dump your $6k rifle from a chest-high tripod into the gravel.

I have no intention of buying knock offs intentionally. I figured if I stick with known brand names I’d be okay. Anything I should specifically be on the lookout for?

 

[ScottDWallace]

Something interesting happened to a buddy of mine last week. He was shooting a loaner JP in a match and my custom gamer plate didn't fit the JP chassis dovetail. They figured my mount was out of spec, but then the RRS bipod clamp wouldn't fit either. The rail was undersized and had to be shimmed with a business card to lock up!

 

[morganlamprecht]

happens fairly often unfortunately when you start mixing manufacturers

ive seen chassis with a machined in arca cut that were too small for clamps to lock up tight more than once

 

[hlee]

Advantage goes to the thumb screw clamps over the throw lever clamps when mixing manufacturers...

 

[fast_hand84]

Advantage goes to the thumb screw clamps over the throw lever clamps when mixing manufacturers...

Thumbscrew clamps definitely have the advantage over levers when mixing mfg’s, but even they can fail when not properly matched. The failure I experienced was using a thumbscrew clamp made by Leofoto (or Sunwayfoto, possibly) to hold the RRS plate on my rifle.
Both mating surfaces were oil/grease-free when attached but, no matter how tight the thumbscrew was torqued, the very modest recoil of my .308 was enough to slide the clamp in the plate with each shot.