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For some time I've used a medium weight camera tripod with a yoke(?Stoney Creek) to support my rifle in the popup blind. While sufficient to provide a steadier hold when shooting, rifles do not tend to stay on the yoke and tend to tip stock down/barrel up if not held all the time.

I decided to upgrade with a heavier tripod and, although I have professional heavy tripods for spotting scopes, decided to try an alternative to the yoke support.

Enter the Bog Deathgrip. However, the panning movement is choppy, feeling like a bad ball bearing as the head rotates. Wondering if anyone else has had the same issue and came up with a fix. Bog sent a replacement pan head but it has the same disease.

Thanks
Bill

I suggest you get another bidpod. An affordable one like the Harris. Nothing under $100 is worth the hassle.

I just lash 2 green sticks together for ground blinds. spread the legs together to lower ,bring together to raise. Simple and the price is right. I leave them in the blind.

I use a carbon fiber tripod from Hog Saddle, called the Piglite, total weight is about 5lbs without the Hog Saddle mounted.

For my longer reach hunting riles (and tgt rifles) I've mounted Swiss Arca plates to the stocks:







I have a ball head on mine, which has very, very smooth panning.

Clamping in with the Arca plate allows for the best stability.. a close 2nd that may work for your BOG is to just remove the head and use a lightweight bag:




IMHO it's just about as stable as clamping in and I've set up my rifles to balance just in front of the magazine. A huge advantage is that IF things don't go as planned and your target takes a different approach, simple lift the rifle off the bag.

I've got the Hog Saddle clamp for rifles without Arca plates, but honestly it's heavy and slow to get in and out of:

Any type of a rest is better than using none, especially for longer shots.
How well they allow staying on or at least close to the target on follow up shots is a game changer however.
Losing the target in the scope due to the recoil of the rifle, even for a brief period, can be disastrous, especially in wooded terrain.
The best shooting tripods tend to also be on the heavy side, and as a result arent very conducive to be carried by those who are moving about.
But for those who spend much of their day in a single location, a few extra pounds can be very worthwhile.
The very best tripods can be as solid as a bench, yet offer the versatility of a tripod.
And these will as a rule have been custom built after much trial and error by the user.
However, good alternatives are out there.
One of the better ones is the ( Ultimate Tripod ).
Built by the Mc Fadden Machine Co. in Blairsville Pa.
I have owned and used one for more than a decade.
Using that tripod, with an 18# rifle resting on it, 3 of us within a period of a few minits killed 3 bucks at ranges starting at 635 yds to about 750 yds.
And we never lost sight of the deer in the scope during that period.
The total weight of the tripod setup is about 15#.
Mine is set up with an optional rear rest so i can utilize a rabbit ear bag.

PRST makes a nice carbon fiber tripod, we like ours.

I got this one, I'm pretty happy with it.

https://leofotooutdoors.com/collect...fle-tripod-with-rapid-lock-ball-head-set

You can buy this ball head conversion kit from Zero Fox Given:

https://zerofoxgivenllc.com/products/bog-deathgrip-ballhead-conversion

I did & I love it! It is smooth as butter.

Learning stuff. Thanks for the input!