Hog Saddle, Pig saddle, other? ARCA need not apply

hlee

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  • Jul 14, 2012
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    I have a hunting rifle that I’d like to be able to shoot from a tripod this year, but it doesn’t have a stock that will accept an arca rail. It seems like the hog saddle was the bees knees several years ago, but with the wide spread adoption of integrated mounting solutions on rifle stocks, rifle clamps have kinda died off. That said, is the hog saddle still the top of the heap for rifle clamps? Is the more budget friendly pig saddle a cost effective option? What is it giving up? Has some other clamp eclipsed the hog/pig saddle for “bang for buck” in this arena? Thanks.
     
    I have an older pig saddle that works great for rifles that are not modernized with the latest rails. It's also nice as a clamp for working on firearms on the tripod at home or running some dryfire drills.

    It is heavy so consider that if you are walking far. I have modern setups too but I still like the pig. The advantage with a modern rail setup is speed and less weight, but for most hunting the pig clamp is fine.

    It's also nice to bring to the range for guys that want to shoot off a tripod but have no rail to connect to. And I find all kinds of uses for it like holding work lights, laser levels, etc. It's just an awesome tool. (if you need help justifying it)
     
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    Reactions: DustCovered
    I apologize in advance because I did read the title, but I have to say going from a Hog Saddle to an Arca rail and head has made a huge improvement in the speed and stability of my tripod shooting.

    If you haven't looked at them the Salmon River Solutions rails can fit to a lot of standard hunting rifle stocks:
    20251019_194651.jpg
     
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    Reactions: Genin
    I left the HOG saddle and all the chassis equipped rifles are equipped with ARCA rails.

    However, I have some rifles with traditional style wood stocks that don't lend themselves real well to the HOG saddles.

    So, I tried this. It's a plate with ARCA rails on the bottom. I attached a bag that the rifle rests on. So far, I like it better than the HOG saddle.

    IMG_4651.jpg
     
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    Reactions: Genin