Anybody have any plans or ideas on how to use two trekking poles and an arrow as a spotting glass tripod? Thanks.

Yeah, Mcgyver....all you need's some chewing gum.

Lol...well, I broke down and bought myself some Leki trekking poles and they arrived today, I already have an arrow on me...so why not possibly put a Crown Royal fleece bag with some on site sand on top of all three, and have a usable tripod without lugging one along is what I am thinking.

I can't hold a mono pod steady enough for viewing, or a bipod. I want it to be rock solid so that all I have to do is look through the glass without touching the tripod or scope. Well I have been outside glassing with this exact idea and it works VERY well. The weight of the sand in the Crown Royal bag locks the 2 poles and arrow tight. The 2 poles are already locked, due to their bigger diameter in small carabiner, and the weight of the sand on the arrow further solidifies the tripod. Of course, the sand makes for an easy adjuster of the scope, just like when shooting a rifle. This would easily work for a camera too for self portraits. $1 caribeaner and free Crown Royal bag that I get anyway cause I like the bottle that comes in it. Sand; plentiful everywhere. Bushnell 18X36 sitting on it. Nothing fancy but it works well. I have a new pair of ZEN RAY ED2 8X43 binos that I do most of my glassing with, and the spotting scope is for further examination if need be.

I like the looks of that. I going to have to copy your idea, and see how it works for me.

Great job!

Thats.....ummmm.....interesting!

Looks a bit tippy for steep terrain, and I couldnt see myself carrying around a sandbag in the hills (unless it was filled with salt maybe).

But hey....McGyver would be proud!

Beans/peas will work, so will a sock stuffed with holofil

I wouldn't carry around a filled bag. Every 1/2 hr, hr,or 4 that you fill the need to scope, you can quickly grab several handfuls of sand. Guys that want a tripod, you will just have to try this. I wouldn't consider this setup as a balancing act, or a risk that the scope or camera is going to fall off either. My scope sets on the sand bag very solidly and I can't imagine the wind blowing this off. The scope settles into the bag and is even gripped by the contour of the bottom of the scope sinking into the bag. This setup also allows for uneven ground as is much simpler then trying to adjust the legs on a conventional tripod imo, as the 3 legs here are set at whatever the terrain is needed automatically, for the most part, by gravity setting the pole/arrow bottoms where they should be. The bag then placed onto locks the legs into place.

Looks intereting I guess. Just can't see me using this type of setup for a couple reasons.

1) If I need to use my spotter I don't want to be looking around for a bunch of sand in order to do so. Most of the areas I hunt sand isn't readily easy to find.

2) What if you need to adjust your scope to look at something up the mountain and then need to adjust your scope to look something behind you don't the mountain. Seems like it would take a lot of monkeying around with it in order to get your target in the sight picture of the spotting scope.


Seems to me I'd time ahead lugging the extra 1.5-2 pounds of tripod along and having it ready whenever I need it rather than having to stop build the tripod everytime with my trekking poles and then finding some sand to throw in the bag in order to use the spotter properly and then use mess around aligning the scope on top of the sandbag to find your target you wanted to look at (if it hasn't walked into the brush after all the prep work to get your tripod in working order)

Not trying to rain on your parade just see that as being more trouble than its worth. For my uses I could better cut weight in some other aspect and not lose the functionality of having a traditional tripod. I mean if you really wanted to you could get a little table top tripod for your spotter that weighs only 2-6 oz and would likely be more user friendly and probably the same weight as your bag that you put the sand and the caribiner combined.

I agree with Alaska, its a very clever design though.

A couple things I have used for lightweight tripod & camera support is a 1/4"x20 bolt welded to a short wood screw and a 1/4"x20 bolt welded to the adjusting screw of a pair of mini vise grips. A tiny ball head can then go on the screw-pod or clamp-pod.

These work great in timber country but not as useful above timberline.

I've had a design in my head for a few years and just havent built it yet.

My plans call for carbon arrow shafts for legs, some sort of aluminum base block with thumb screws to adjust leg lengh and a ball joint with teflon bushing and tensioner for the scope mount. Should come in very light, less than 1 pound and be fairly servicable though likely a pain for panning and such like the Leupold tripod with similar ball joint.

Still just a pipe dream though.

This might be adaptable:

http://www.campmor.com/outdoor/gear/Product___82059

I don't know if they're still on the market, but I once saw a panhead made to use 3 arrows with inserts. You removed the heads and screwed the shafts onto 3 studs on the panhead.

I have used the Ultrapods and they work ok for smaller cameras but I have found them unstable with a spotter.

Here is an image of a mini ball head on a screwpod. The spotter is a Minox 50mm

Ironically..... 99-100 trees that are "spiked" that our metal detector picks up, are done by bowhunters.

Remember to take your metal with you when you leave There's a hilliblly that runs a debarker somewhere out there

Dan,

The ball head wouldn't be of much use with out the screw