whats the best Arca Swiss style mount to run my chassis on a tripod? Is there any brands to stay away from?
Arca Swiss Plate for MPA Chassis
- Thread starter hoguer
- Start date
Recently spoke with them about this.
You van send stock to them and they will mill the dovetail fot $50.00 but will not be doing this till end of June early July.
They are also set to offer a plate that will replace the pic rail on the Trinity mount.
Last you can make your own by simply bolting a plate from Amazon to the Trinity.
You van send stock to them and they will mill the dovetail fot $50.00 but will not be doing this till end of June early July.
They are also set to offer a plate that will replace the pic rail on the Trinity mount.
Last you can make your own by simply bolting a plate from Amazon to the Trinity.
Best option by far is the dovetail cut directly into your chassis. You might reach out to Matt Yore at Sawtooth Rifles, he's done a bunch and is already tooled up to do it. I believe he was doing it before MPA started offering it.
If you just want a plate, buy a longer generic Arca style plate off ebay... something maybe 4" long with 2 screws and enough room to reach two of the threaded holes in the center line of the stock. Figure out what thread pitch they are and swap out the two screws from the plate so that you can screw it directly to the chassis. Might take a bit of drilling on the plate.
Last resort option would be using the picatinny trinity rail, then a Arca to Picatinny plate adapter like what RRS offers. That's going to be less stable and also a PITA since I think you'd have to screw on the trinity rail then screw on the arca plate every time you wanted to use it.
If you just want a plate, buy a longer generic Arca style plate off ebay... something maybe 4" long with 2 screws and enough room to reach two of the threaded holes in the center line of the stock. Figure out what thread pitch they are and swap out the two screws from the plate so that you can screw it directly to the chassis. Might take a bit of drilling on the plate.
Last resort option would be using the picatinny trinity rail, then a Arca to Picatinny plate adapter like what RRS offers. That's going to be less stable and also a PITA since I think you'd have to screw on the trinity rail then screw on the arca plate every time you wanted to use it.
Or just leave it attached. But agree milling stock is best option and thanks for pointing out Sawtooth!
It appears the dovetail is standard on the MPA BA Competition Chassis, or at least it was on the one I received last week.
https://www.ocabj.net/masterpiece-arms-ba-competition-chassis-preview/
Thanks for the link - excellent photos. I am tempted to try the vertical grip. I like the one that came on my MPA chassis, but that big thumb ramp looks good.
They offer an upgrade if you want the full rail - $50 plus shipping per, wonder if they re-cerokote,
I was just talking to a friend about this. We could probably ship ours together and split shipping, because I know it's going to be $$$. I would think they would Cera-kote. If not I'd just have the dovetail done locally.
I would suggest going with the cut in the chassis from MPA and just using a clamp on the tripod. That seems to be the most flexible and the fastest if you compete, with a really great lock-up. I am really liking the Sunwayfoto clamping quick release plates which use a lever instead of a knob to clamp and release the chassis from the head/leveling base. Feel free to call me if you have any questions on them.
I personally prefer a screw clamp vs a lever lock clamp, only because there is no definitive 'standard' for Arca Swiss style dovetails. You have may have an Arca Swiss plate or device with an Arca Swiss dovetail cut, but it may not work on a given lever clamp of another manufacturer due to tolerance differences. With a screw clamp, you simply just keep turning until it stops.
Of course, a lever clamp is definitely faster, and you can get lever clamps that are adjustable so you can tune the closed tension for your given application. And this is probably more applicable for most of you here who compete with your tripods.
But since I personally use a lot of different Arca Swiss plates with my tripods, I'd rather not have to adjust a lever clamp for each one.
Yes - this is what I am working with, and I am standardizing on the quick release plates to run them from the same manufacturer, that way I don't have to re-adjust once I have the tension set.
My biggest grip is that everyone make the levers locking, when I prefer them to not lock because its faster to get in/out of the Q/R. I solve it by increasing the tension so the lever doesn't close all the way, but only most of the way - which provides enough tension to keep the plate in place, but is very fast to open and close. If everything fell over, it would likely open, but for the rifle on the clock, it works well and is very fast.
We gave MPA our exact specs for the 1.5" RRS Dovetail. So all of our level release clamps will open and close easily without having to tune the clamps. Just letting you guys know which clamps should work without issue.
