Tripod Tips - Field Based
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There are a lot of ways to adjust and use your tripod, many of them are carryovers from a decade ago when we used skinny legged aluminum 055 Manfrotto Tripods with shaky center columns. These tripods required a lot of shooter input and even more practice. Loading hard into the tripod, using a reversed hand on the legs, and using slings to stabilize those shaky beasts, was a needed skillset. Fast forward to today, and the tripods are made of stiff and fat CF (carbon fiber) legs, with a robust Apex/Canopy/Base (the part that connects the legs all together), and almost shoot themselves. In the interest of transparency, I am assuming that you've made the jump to a modern, high-quality CF tripod. If you're still using something that is designed similarly to the old Manfrotto 055, even if it is CF, some of the tips might not work for you.
The tips are field-based, some of the positions hasty (made in the interest of speed or quietness), tailored to a match like ours with angled shooting positions and what you might encounter hunting in the hills. I am not covering tripods as rear support like you might find in a PRS/NRL styled match.
I am not attempting to teach people how to shoot from a tripod, everyone on YouTube is doing that, but rather show a few tips to consider if you are interested in increasing your speed or reducing your wobble zone when shooting from a tripod.
Your final body position is going to be unique to you, maybe your hips are a bit less bent, whatever, but if you can grasp the ideas, I believe it will be helpful. Even if just one tip saves you a few seconds, it might make a difference in a hunt or during a field match. Any time you save, or complexity you remove from your tripod set up in the field, allows you to use more of your brain to problem solve, break a better shot and make your outing more enjoyable.
That said, I am illustrating what for best accuracy, as such,
you need to let go of the past and let the tripod do the work.
It may look like we're loading hard into the tripod, but we are barely making contact; what we are doing is setting NPA so that once the rifles does begin to recoil, we are in a position that is straight and square with a super strong position to manage the recoil so we can still see the impact, but not driving into the tripod, AKA loading the tripod. PRO TIP: Bend at the waist! Note: when shooting a ultra-light weight hunting magnum, in you might actually be pulling the rifle into you a bit, but still looking for a minimal influencing interaction with the rifle.
Tip 1: Keep it simple
So simple, but few seem to do this primary operational step as efficiently as they could. When deploying your tripod to a standing position, extend the lowest leg fully first, then work towards the head. This keeps the tripod adjustment area in your control hand in front of your body and keeps you from having to shuttle it back and forth, reverse the process to stow. Here is a spoiler alert for Tip 2; leaving the lower leg non-extended for stability, is a throwback idea and not needed with today's larger legged, high-quality CF tripod's. It will come back and bite you with a time penalty if you later need to adjust the lower section of the leg.
Note: I am purposefully going slowly in this example, so that it is easy to see the concept.
I am loosening both leg locks but retain a bit of finger pressure on the middle section by holding the lower leg-lock. As the lower approaches full extension, I release the tension on the leg-lock as I continue to pull on the lower leg while I simultaneously lock the lower leg. My hand is already at the upper lock, so I fine-tune my height and lock the leg. While this is only marginally faster, it does keep the tripod from moving all over and contacting brushes etc., a value in some situations. Setting up for kneeling is of course much simpler and faster, as is setting up the tripod only as a rear support.
Tip 2: Adjust from the top
All micro height adjustment, especially if a rifle is on the tripod, should be done with the uppermost leg section. All other legs need to be fully extended before the top leg section. I can't tell you how many times I have seen a person with the rifle on the tripod, realize they need more height adjustment, dangerously, and slowly try to perform a three-handed change because the only leg available are the ones at the bottom. The chance of dropping your rifle, having to take your eyes off the target, and just being ultra-slow is not worth any perceived stability enhancement with our modern large legged CF tripods.
It is always hard to adjust up with a gun on the tripod. You must remain in 100% control of the rifle.
Below is not the way to do it!
If you are using the middle legs fully extended and you need extra height, the INCREASE adjustment must come from the bottom leg, and now it is a complete mess, and you'll no longer have control of the weapon system.
In truth, you generally only have to increase the height on a single leg. If you only had to adjust a single leg UP or down, the two rear-facing legs are easy to reach, with the shooter still facing the target. The safest way is to remove the gun. The videos adjusting all the legs are to illustrate the point.
Choose a leg height that works in multiple positions. Many people might be surprised that standing, kneeling, and sitting can share the same leg adjustments. Your tripod may only accommodate two of the three, but finding that sweet spot will save you a bunch of time. To do this, extend all your legs; adjust only one TOP section to find your "perfect standing height." With most 3 section tripods, simply collapsing the remaining fully extended legs will result in a stable kneeling position. Often then just widening the legs by unlocking the leg locks will work for a seated position. The idea here is that standing is the most critical to get correct, and the other two shoot well with more flexibility. If you find time to micro-adjust the kneeling or sitting, it should be so close already that it takes little time. With a bit of imagination, you can see that setting up with the legs super-wide, legs extended for a seated position, is really stable and perfect for a day at the range or maybe from inside a Hide. But getting in and out of that position to shoot super-wide seating, might take more clock time than it is worth. Vegetation and topography also can limit the ability of super-wide setups. If you can find a set up that works for standing, kneeling sitting, you'll be surprised how fast you can go between them.
Note this is my Son on my gun, the LOP is a bit long, but most importantly, these are hasty positions. Let's say you set up too high and need to get lower to see through a loop. If you have time, you could easily fine-tune the legs. * See Tip 9 for an alternate method.
Tip 3: It hangs in the balance
It's all a balancing act, generally, keeping your gun as close to the magazine well as possible without causing lever or mag interference on one of the legs, is going to be close to the balancing point, and that is what you are after. It is generally the most stable and a bit more resistant to the shooter's erroneous input, as the shooter side lever arm is as small as can be. But there are other reasons sometimes not considered.
For those that run their mounts far forward of the mag well, they'll get more height variation with significant angle changes. With my match rifle and my typical standing setup, by only moving my legs together and straightening my back (while not ideal), allows me to shoot from approximately -21% (downhill) to +32% uphill on a knee as the butt of the rifle swings 19" when completing its arc. On that rifle, mounting just a 6" forward creates 5" more vertical movement, resulting in 21% less range of motion.
Tip 4: Mark your stuff
As simple as this sounds, this is a timesaving measure that takes almost no time to accomplish. Once you've found your perfect standing height as described in tip 3, Get a white paint marker or silver sharpie and clearly mark the leg position as shown in the image below. I use "arrows" because they are fast and easier to know where you are; even the mark is not fully exposed. You can make multiple marks if kneeling requires an adjustment. You can also make a mark for your Binos that's usually the very highest position someone needs; in my case, I use a second mark to use for the front leg, see Tip 6.
The paint marker shown is from C.H. Hanson and lasts a long time.
Tip 5: You're High
People often set up higher when standing than they should. Make sure even with your feet spread at least shoulder-width wide, with a nice bend at the hips so that your back tilted forward and all principal body parts square; you are comfortable on the gun. An excellent place to start is just about with the top of the tripod at sternum height. As an individual, you'll need to experiment.
If you set up too high, you'll lose much of your range, especially if you need to shoot at an angle lower than you planned for during your set up. See Tip 3.
Tip 6: Don't work so hard
Lower the front leg position and let the tripod do more of the work; this enables the shooter to load a tiny bit less, and reduce the cheek pressure required, thus making the shot more stable. It has the added benefits of changing where the support hand rides; rather than reversed on the legs, it can remain on the head for rapid target adjustment while reducing the reach, keeping the shoulders a hair more square and less tense. With proper body position with your feet wide, hips bent forward, feet, hips, and shoulders square with less tension on the gun, your wobble zone will decrease, and your impact and miss identification will be reliable, and the tripod will not jump. You will really have to experiment and practice with the correct leg position for stability, amount of pressure, and balance of recoil management, and a light hunting magnum is going to take more force than a heavy match gun. Admittedly, it is a tip that takes a bit of practice.
The scale test was on level concrete to provide a fair comparison.
Notice the angles of the rear legs and the height reduction of the front-facing leg in the right side image. On the left side, the tripod having all legs with the same adjustment as most people set up; my match gun averages about 6LBS of force pulling straight back along the bore axis to lift the front leg. With the change suggested, it takes about 10-11lbs, Kneeling 7lbs vs. 14lbs. The point being, if you experiment, you might suddenly find yourself with less wobble and better POI tracing. Both pictures have the gun level. A 40% improvement is nice, but it is crucial to acknowledge that with a leveling base, you may not have enough headroom to utilize this suggestion. A ball head guy that takes the time to run the apex perfectly level (I do not) will lose the pan feature of the base, but see the last image in Tip 8. If you are shooting a 6br variant with almost no recoil, and realistically up to a 6.5, just about any leg orientation will work fine. But when you get to the lightweight hunting magnums, this setup helps.
Note: When glass in high wind, the kind of wind that threatens to blow over your tripod if you leave it unattended, spin the single-leg (the one that is usually in the front) into the wind. You need to make sure it is much shorter (lower) so that you are creating resistance to the wind force like you are above the recoil path; by having the two leeward legs, angled more steeply into the wind. You may want to attach your pack at some point, but that tends to swing around and create its issues. The hanging bag for me is the last resort.
In the videos below, both guns are shooting about 3100fps at the 700y plate and using the suggested leg arrangement. Obviously, you can load into the gun much harder, but I wanted to show the extreme of almost no shooter influence, eliminate the wobble while simultaneously illustrating just how much the rear legs angled more by the lower front leg (shorter), helps.
Match gun, ultra-light shooter load & input, and can easily see the impact. Watch the front leg, no big deal here it is a 20lbs match gun.
This is not a match gun, it is Lightweight Carbon Fiber barreled, Hunting Magnum, you can see the impact, but more shooter input is needed. If you've shot a lightweight hunting magnum, you have an appreciation for how much work this tripod mod is doing. The front leg does not hop and relocate; the rear legs bend to absorb recoil. Make sure you use a good tripod!
If you have a leveling base or that ball head that you feel that you must use the pan feature, you can keep the apex level and accomplish some recoil mitigation by rear-facing a leg to 5 or 7 o'clock (hand dominance dependent and if mag clearance is needed). This will take more practice; the gains are smaller, and you will need to be careful that you are not letting the tripod hop. The school of thought is that the recoil can spin if the back legs are not perfectly perpendicular to the bore axis. This is true if all other parts are not squared away. Strangely you'll get more hop with the standard method, especially if you lock-out your support elbow and stiffen your shoulders as some guys recommend. Each technique has disadvantages; all could fail if a total system, implementation, and practice are wrong. All the ways are also useful if mastered.
This is an example of groups from standing position on a tripod using the suggested techniques. Standing tripod on RRS TV33 is the lower-left group, the control group was shot prone and the upper left group.
Tip 7: Work the angles
On an angled slope, not only do you want to adjust the legs to be at the correct height, but often will run out of adjustment, especially if shooting from a lower position. Don't forget to use the additional angles the leg catches at the apex provide to enhance your tripod's flexibility. It's often better to reduce the effective height of a leg by actually extending it outward, by unlocking the apex leg lock and drastically opening up the leg. The mistakes people seemed to make at our last match, was becoming confused with the initial setup height.
When shooting from a slope set up higher than you think. Because you probably can't set up your body as stable as you can on flat ground, sitting is usually hard or impossible from some of the positions. When shooting downward, modify the above lower, and when shooting upward, modify your tripod lower. Angled, shooting often dictates a rear racing leg for speed of deployment, micro height adjustment, and simplicity.
On a downslope, the shooter on the uphill side, you need to set up higher than you might think because the distance where the gun mounts, with the length of the buttstock, moves toward the slope as the slope rises. See the image in Tip 9. When shooting on a steep uphill, the opposite is true, but you're not going to be stable sitting on your ass. The same is true for a steep sidehill position; you'll need to modify your legs and, in turn, your position, to keep from sliding down the hill.
Hills sloping away with cross canyon shots are often another problematic scenario if you have a bush or other obstructions that require you to take a standing shot. With the down legs fully extended, most tripods will still be too short if the shooter has to stand on the uphill side; essentially the slope makes the shooter much taller than the tripod. Both images below have the downhill tripod legs extended 100%. The image on the left has a maximum height that would be very uncomfortable for a standing shot, while on the right, it provides almost another foot of elevation. Comfort aside, this might make the difference between making a shot or not having a clear bullet path. It's straightforward to gain extra height out of your tripod without adjusting your trip leg locks; just like in Tip 3, where we bring our feet together to get more shooter elevation, you'll do the same with the tripod legs. You may want to utilize this even on flat ground if you notice you set up a hair too low and need to get the bullet path to clear an obstruction quickly and quietly. It's not quite as stable as the legs set to their maximum width, but we're talking about hasty field positions throughout this thread. If you're on a slope, you'll need to also extend the uphill leg that was not fully extended, to keep the apex level.
While I've talked about the most efficient way to shoot off a tripod, is generally with two rear-facing legs; not all situations are best served by trying to force this setup. You've probably noticed when I display pictures where the ground is sloping or where I tend two need to make a height adjustment quickly; I will use a rear-facing leg so that I have to adjust only one leg rather than two. It will give you more stability in some situations, but primarily, the ease of setup is worth the trade-off.
For high angle shooting, it is ideal to have a full-length rail. It allows the shooter to micro-adjust the gun by sliding the mount more forward if needed to find the perfect setup height and fit. Even if the angles at not at the FFP, maybe just a small obstruction that requires high or medium prone that a bipod can not accomplish; the full-length rail is key to the field shooter as it provides the ultimate in flexibility. High prone below, two lower positions are easily possible, I no longer carry a bipod when hunting.
Personally, I run Henderson ARCA rails on all my hunting rifles and field guns. the 12" version is just over 3.5 oz and actually lighter than some 3" rails and a pic front mount.
Low prone below: It's about the same height as an Atlas or Harris in the standard position - there is another position in the middle even before pulling the legs out and getting all funky
Tip 8: Dressed for speed
Sling your tripod, so you are ready; this might be in the dead space just before you anticipate your final stock, or help when moving from the staging area to the FFP, especially if they happen to be far apart. Extended tripods are hard to carry, even harder if you need to move through, over, or under the brush, as you approach your FFP. Anything you can do before you move to your final stock, to stay quiet and speed the setup will be helpful. So, if you can preset your primary adjustment legs as illustrated in Tip 2, and easily carry the tripod slung either under your arm or like your rifle, you'll be one step ahead. If you expect to stand, full extended also works well with an underarm slung carry. RRS makes flush cups for this hands-free purpose.
Left image: Leave your Binos attached, and sling the tripod extended. This is an example that saves a ton of time, all the complexity of breaking your gear down, repacking only to unpack it at the staging areas that are maybe a hike just a several hundred yards away. It also keeps you from banging people on the hike and your hands-free. Of, course if your match only has the stages a few yards apart, just carry the darn thing in your hand.
Center image: Packed for a hunt preset to kneeling, But it is fast to extend the lowers 100% for a fast standing position. For a general pack-in, I'd have it collapsed fully and the rifle in the Kifaru Gun Bearer.
Right image: On the approach to a stock I sling the tripod, sometimes, fully deployed like the left image. I sling it horizontally, so it doesn't hang on bushes, or overhead vegetation, especially when on your hands and knees. The gun would then also be off the sling and in my hand. The orange tape on the sling is used to show how I tape all metal and plastic parts that might make noise.
Tripods are changing the game and worth taking on your hunt.
Left image: Here is an example, although not as steep as what was shown in Tip 7, the first and second image shown. I set my gun up for my brother-in-law (my tags were already filled), The set up was fast; I set up as low as I could from a modified kneeling position and opened the apex leg lock on the uphill side. Of 6 Elk taken on that trip, this was the lowest setup we were able to shoot; no prone opportunities were available the entire trip. The gun is the same magnum in the video in Tip 6. The shot was over 900y, and it dropped instantly.
Center image: This is a good example but not unique; you need a strategy for going over and underbrush especially if you are adding in a tripod. Both your rifle and tripod may need to be horizontal at times. Anything above your pack will hang up, even when you are on your knees or sliding down the very steep hills on your butt. My buddy Max (on the hide) is a tall guy and retrieving an Elk. He has been hunting in this BLM area, for 20+ years and is simply amazing.
Right image: In Tip 6, I made this comment, "A ball head guy that takes the time to run the apex perfectly level (I do not) will lose the pan feature of the base." Well, while "movers" can travel a predictable path, most animals do not. This pig was running at full-gate, my son leads it with a crazy lead using the Anvil 30 at about 400y. It did a front flipped and died. The point is don't be so worried about leveling your apex and using a pan function; you'll get the job done faster and maybe more stable using some of the tips where the apex is NOT level.
Tip 9: It's easy to come down
By default, it is always easier to set up the tripod too high, and micro-adjust down, or for that matter, go from standing to kneeling, than it is the other way. On your range or flat ground, your height marks will always be useful, but once out on an untested slope with untried angles, that will no longer be true for all the legs. Going from the gun setup for kneeling to standing, is really hard, the other way almost manageable.
The main takeaway here is that this method allows you to keep control of your gun "if" for some reason, you need on the go from standing to kneeling after making the mistake of having a weapon deployed. This is anything but elegant or something I'd suggest unless you had no other choice.
Here is another method if you know the stage is going to require standing to kneeling or kneeling to standing; well, any combination.
This works best in a PRS/NRL type match where the ground is flat and not covered in brush or tall weeds. You use a reverse setup with two legs in front and one in the rear. You control the tripod with the one rear leg and use the “apex lock” on the rear to control the height. You'll notice is once again, the low standing height you marked on your legs from Tip 4, are again perfect to provide an excellent kneeling position.
In addition to using the Apex leg lock to swiftly go from standing to kneeling, or the other way around as shown above, if you carry your tripod pre-staged and slung like in Tip 8, you can swiftly set up at any height. This could come in hand if you just were not sure of the tripod height you need. I am shooting left handed on a right handed PCP to illustrate this (it has about the same recoil as a 6br). BTW It is much faster if you use the correct gun.
Either way the point is you just do not need to shoot a long range target off hand even if rushed; this method is certainly capable of very good accuracy.
Last year it seemed shooters set up their tripods before they found all the targets. Many of them set up in the most stable positions rather than spotting and shooting from a more reasonable level. They often ended up timing out trying to adjust their tripods back to a standing position. Remember, it is much harder to adjust UP with a rifle on the tripod than it is down.
In the image shown, the tripod is too low, see the "red arrow" in the picture. Make sure you set up the tripod from where you are going to shoot. The shooter has not noticed the issue with the slope causing an impossible position to shoot from, because the shooter didn't build the tripod position from where he planned to shoot, nor took notice of the significant difference in his and his spotter's height. More to this, see Tip 10.
Tip 10: See what your spotter sees
When glassing, especially with a teammate, don't set your rifle to low until you know you can see the targets from your intended height. Vegetation, ridges, or slight ground height differences could create dead space and hide the target even though while glassing standing, the target was visible. The same can be said the other way if your shooting under or in trees. If your glassing by yourself, the same principle holds true. If you plan on shooting seated, you might as well glass from that same height or decide to set up your gun higher to match your glassing height. If you are glassing from a position that differs from where you plan on shooting, pay particular attention to anything in your peripheral vision that might present a visual obstacle from the shooting position. If you are unsure, pop your binos off and take a quick peek from the other height.
Just like above, I saw many teams with one guy standing glassing and the shooter setting up kneeling or sitting at our 2019 match. There is no way the shooter setting up is going to be able to see at least 1 of the targets from his low position. The glassing teammate should notice that a ridge between the FFP and target, is relatively close to the LOS from his position. That would be a huge RED FLAG. The two shooters have a LOS offset that is about 5'. (side note: The RO missed that the spotter was outside the FFP before time started, this is a stage DQ in our UKD Team Match.)
Recap:
- Two rear-facing legs are usually best, lowering the front leg can really help with recoil when using light rifles or hunting guns.
- Some angles and situations are best suited to a rear-facing leg, like high angles, downward and upward FFPs.
- Spot your targets before you set up to shoot, you never know what height is required.
- Bend more at the waist than you think you should, using the stance of your feet to make height adjustments.
- Get a full-length rail even on a hunting rifle, it will offer the ultimate in flexibility.
- Mark your tripod legs and practice going from position to position.
- Practice setting up quickly, be ready when you approach and FFP.
- It is much easier to default to a higher position and come down with the tripod height than to go up.
- Buy a great tripod, it will become one of your most valued assets if you’re a long-range hunter and field shooter.
The outcome:
Just a reminder, you might not even notice the benefits of some of this stuff if you are always shooting in the same place, without time pressure, mainly shooting on flat ground, and know your tripod setting. If you can put all these pieces together, add in your spin and practice a lot, you'll be efficient and far less task loaded. You'll be ready when you have to set up on a funky area you've never seen while hoping that Elk doesn't walk away, or able to concentrate far more on the series of targets you are about to shoot because you saved a few seconds, or worse yet, didn't set up completely wrong in your first field match.
The thread only lets me post so many images, so I had to be as brief as I could, and I choose to pick the topics that I've witnessed that seemed to contribute to shooters struggling. Like I said in the intro (post 29),
I do not have all the answers, many will have better ways to skin a cat. If you have tips or tricks that can save seconds, feel free to post them up.
Postscript:
Although I have an Able Table, I didn't cover it or using a bag for a field match. A bag on a tripod actually provides an ultra-fast way to change between targets.
For the ultimate in speed, between spotting and shooting, check out this link.
looking forward to the tripod class also, you are putting out so much info, i really appreciate the time your putting into this.
www.snipershide.com
BTW you can really deck out your tripod.
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Hopefully,
@hic28 and
@NoLegs24 can chime in on the use of the Able Table and maybe offer a few tips. These guys do well at team matches (so do a bunch of other shooters).
Below is a video comparison of an old school Manfrotto 055 vs. an RRS tripod illustrating the raw stability differences. (This is from a thread I did compare RRS and Feisol legs as well as head options.)
A dirty non-scientific look through my night vision shot on my pest control PCP. The purpose is to illustrate the difference in stability between a high quality set up and what we used to use. The house in the video is at 350 yards, at 14x. NOTE that my match gun is way better balanced, more substantial, and way less shaky in general.
I purposely mounted the gun and unmounted without much technique to show how the vibration, the time it takes to settle or how wind might vibrate the gun. (remember wind causes a lot of issues with vibration.)
I ran 9 steps to show instability, both the same (times below are only for the RRS video)
1. Turned on to see how much vibration takes to settle. Please pay attention to the test in this area. All I did was press firmly on the scopes power button. I did not touch the gun in any other way..
2. Mounting gun, getting comfortable with NPA. 0:12 –o:15
3a Moving to target - holding the tripod loaded on the target (note you can free recoil and be dead still on the target, but I was purposely trying to show realistic shake if your loading the gun) 0:16-0:20
3b Deciding on target 0:21-023
3c Holding target 0:34-0:26
4. On mounting the gun 0:27-0:29
5. 1st of 2 Tapping HARD on the Buttstock sideways to show how long it takes to settle 0:30
6. 2nd of 2 Tapping HARD on the Buttstock sideways to show how long it takes to settle 0:36
7 Mounting the Gun 0:40
8a Moving to a new Target 0:41-0:46
8b Setting on Target 0:47
9. Un-mounting the gun 0:50
HINT: Play both at the same time. Turn up your sound and listen for when I hit the stock with my hand.
RRS with Anvil 30 stability, video 1 of 2 comparing Manfrotto Takes 50 seconds to complete even taking extra time, not sure what I was really planning on doing. Also, going super slow even though the gun settled.
RRS Anvil test
Manfrotto 055 with center column up the match the RRS height. Video 2 of 2 comparing Manfrotto Takes 1:46 to complete.
.NOTE the first few seconds of this video as all I did was press the power button on the NV just like all three tests; holy smokes, there is a HUGE difference!!
Here is a link to the tripod comparison thread:
My intent here is to add a few images comparing the setup of the RRS TVC-33 with the TA-3 to the TA-3 used on the 3372 and add a couple of comments about the TA-UL on the 3372 and 3342. Plus, a quick note after a ton of time on the RRS Anvil 30, my overview of the different RRS head options...
www.snipershide.com
Here is a link back to the original post. You will see an index to other topics.
See the 2021 match schedule here: https://www.avenaltactical.com/ including the next UKD Team Match, 2 PRS Pro Bolt series, PRS SW Regional Qualifier, and monthly Hunter and PRS regional series, matches. Because our match was sold out 10 months in advance, we feel we should offer a spin up...
www.snipershide.com
2020 UKD TEAM Match Sponsors:
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LOL.
