Looking to get my first rifle tripod and ballhead for shooting.

I have  a nice Gitzmo tripod for my spotting scope, but it is too lightweight for a rifle.

RRS would be great but I am far from a competition shooter, my old ass eyes suck too much for that. So something less expensive but still pretty darn good would be great.  

I have ARCA rails milled into the bolt gun chassis,and can add one to the AR.

Been looking at TwoVets, QDT series, Feisol CRETAC series, and Leofoto.

Nothing really stands out one way or the other on these, others that I should look at or avoid?

This may not be what you need but it's what I found to be incredibly useful at the range and shooting coyotes. The Bog Deathgrip makes it easy for a quick rifle change and suits me pretty well. Solid, sturdy and not terribly heavy.
Couple of examples

I was gonna suggest the bog tripod.    Then f you use it frequently it will be time to upgrade a special platform for all rifles.

I bought the Night Stalker Pro that NightGoggles sells. I have owned a Sirui set up and I liked it pretty well. My buddy had a Bog Deathgrip and uppgraded to the Night Stalker. I got to try his and it was hands down way better than both the others mentioned. I thought the only weakness on the Night Stalker was the ball head, so I just bought the tripod. The price is $554 for the tripod and ball head and a nice carry case but they do put them on sale a few times a year.

off to check on night stalker, thanks

take a look at the inorel rt-90

it's beefy and makes a pretty stable platform to shoot from

never heard of them, off to search.

Quick tripod run down video going over different styles and features.

Id avoid the BOG, the absolute best thing you can do them is replace the terrible factory head for a ball head.

I have a lot of time behind different tripods of all brands and price ranges.  Feel free to shoot me a PM if you have questions or want to talk about options and what's gonna work best for you.

I use the QDT shooting PRS and have been very pleased with it.

I started with the Night Stalker and upgraded to the Two Vets QDT. The Night Stalker just wasn’t sturdy enough.

@MSC182

Thank you for the info, I am strongly leaning Two Vets, there is the QDT, QDT V2, QDT V2 LS1, QDT LS, one has inverted legs but not really seeing much difference between them.

The QDT and QDT LS will accept leveling bases.  The V2 versions are ball head/screw on head only.

I was going to post a new thread but finally saw this gear forum and this one was on top.

so I was sort of in the same situation. I was torn between the BOG setup, but kept seeing people say they swap ball heads, or the clamp isn't great. Others recommend the SLIK tripod and adding a ball head or going with a two vets setup.

I want to be able to clamp different rifles in it while I shoot, and to give my kids another type of rest so they can shoot more stuff. (family land without a great bench) I didn't want to put ARCA rails on everything, so that put me wanting a clamp.


Two Vets setups were initially a bit out of my budget from what I was looking at for just the tripod + nice ballhead. So I pieced this one together over the past year to spread the cost. $91 Slik tripod from Amazon, $36 46mm Cavik amazon ball head, $145 Pig Saddle. Then a some Krylon and camo wrap. So like $275 all in.

I'll totally admit that I'm not positive if I went the right route, but it seems solid and I'll learn as I go. I still need to take it shooting. but if nothing else I think I can upgrade tripod / ball head later and still have a decent top clamp instead of the $60 Amazon one.

It weighs 7.75lbs so it's not light either. But is 12 Oz lighter than the BOG death grip, and 4oz heavier than their carbon fiber one.


anyways, thought I would share my route. Hope it helps narrow down some stuff for you.Cheers!



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Just out of curiosity, was it the Night Stalker or the Night Stalker Pro?

It was not the Pro.

At least take a look at Neewer tripods... they make both carbon fiber and aluminum tripods, they will easily handle a rifle and they are priced right..the one at the link is CF, holds 26.5 pounds, 68" tall and only 125 dollars...We have several, have abused the shit out of them over several years and they flat work...Mine is their older 63" CF and is built to take up to 33 pounds, but my buddy has the newer lighter one and it also does fine...


Mine with my 16 pound hunting rifle on it...

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https://neewer.com/collections/tripod/products/tripods-66601443

I've us a Leofoto, no problems.

As an FYI to those us interested in tripods. A relatively new player in the shooting tripod arena is an outfit called Fatboy Tripod. Very slick website and marketing content. I took the plunge with them as a result, but I regret it.  They say they have a no questions lifetime warranty, but that is false.  I simply dropped the ball head from a shooting bench and it actually cracked/fractured the aluminum alloy, making it unusable. They refused to back their warranty.

Avoid Fatboy Tripods.

Love my BOG.

Sent you a PM