I'm looking to upgrade my tripod for night hunting and am getting lost in the weeds on all the options. Use is for night hunting only, no comp shooting. Needs to be able to support up to a M110ish clone with a PVS-27 on it. Everything else I hunt with is lighter than that. My current tripod is a Slik D700 with the old school Pan/tilt 2 lever head wearing a Triclawps saddle - major budget rig. This is the only tripod I have any experience with. I actually don't have any complaints about its performance and for what I paid for it ($170 with saddle) its been completely awesome, but its pretty big when collapsed and well over 7 lbs and I don't like the head on it at all.
What does The Hide say would fit the following requirements best?
1. I want carbon fiber with as small a footprint (when folded up) as possible while still doing its job as a shooting platform. Size matters more to me than weight, but light weight is pretty nice also. I do most of my hunting with my father who is now 70, so I expect I'm going to also be carrying his gear for him alot more going forward for as long as he can hunt.
2. I'm open to head suggestions but leaning towards a standard ball head. Seems like everyone likes the Anvil-30 as THE standard, but I don't like that it doesn't pan separately. I am also not ready to spend RRS money on this, see #3 below.
3. Looking for a mid-grade quality option. I'm not willing to spend RRS prices for a hunting rig. $500 total budget would be about right. A Two Vets at $600 plus $200 head would not be out of the question if its THE way to go based on specs, but that would really be a stretch. I'm pretty confident I can get something that would meet my needs for way less, like maybe a leophoto.
I saw this tripod below and was amazed that it collapses to 18" under 4 lbs. That form factor would really be nice for hunting, but is it going to suck at everything else? Also I know from another thread I read that this is likely a rebranded Innorell that can be had for even cheaper. Does anyone know if there is a mid-grade option somewhere that would have size/weight specs similar to this thing? But maybe a bit more solid, and more quality?
What does The Hide say would fit the following requirements best?
1. I want carbon fiber with as small a footprint (when folded up) as possible while still doing its job as a shooting platform. Size matters more to me than weight, but light weight is pretty nice also. I do most of my hunting with my father who is now 70, so I expect I'm going to also be carrying his gear for him alot more going forward for as long as he can hunt.
2. I'm open to head suggestions but leaning towards a standard ball head. Seems like everyone likes the Anvil-30 as THE standard, but I don't like that it doesn't pan separately. I am also not ready to spend RRS money on this, see #3 below.
3. Looking for a mid-grade quality option. I'm not willing to spend RRS prices for a hunting rig. $500 total budget would be about right. A Two Vets at $600 plus $200 head would not be out of the question if its THE way to go based on specs, but that would really be a stretch. I'm pretty confident I can get something that would meet my needs for way less, like maybe a leophoto.
I saw this tripod below and was amazed that it collapses to 18" under 4 lbs. That form factor would really be nice for hunting, but is it going to suck at everything else? Also I know from another thread I read that this is likely a rebranded Innorell that can be had for even cheaper. Does anyone know if there is a mid-grade option somewhere that would have size/weight specs similar to this thing? But maybe a bit more solid, and more quality?
