It all depends.
Meaning that it depends upon what your needs are.
Jorden is correct in that nothing is as stable as a solid bench with good support for the gun.
But as a rule we cant take a bench along hunting, unless its some type of a portable one.
They can be made to be very good also, and also pretty light and portable.
A big problem with hunting, especially long range hunting, is that it isnt always a bang/flop situation with the first shot.
Meaning of coarse that a follow up shot or shots might be necessary.
Adding to the list of possible problems is the type of terrain involved.
Tree covered terrain for example can mean that with a few steps the target can become very hard to relocate after the shooter recovers from the recoil of the first shot. Therefore the device used needs to be designed in such a way as to allow for quick follow up shots by keeping the gun pretty much on target during recoil.
I would argue that the clamp type devices mounted on camera type tripods are not very good in that type situation.
There are however specifically designed shooting tripods that work very well.
But they arent cheap and they arent very portable either for a hunter to be carrying around.
For hunters who use a fixed location for l/r hunting, such as the vast majority of us do in PA, a good quality shooting tripod can have definate advantages over a good quality portable bench. Especially when setup for shooting from a standing position, which also has advantages.
For hunting, even l/r hunting, having the ability to shoot small groups is far less important than accurate shooting with the ability to stay with the target for quick follow up shots.
Check out the Lone Star shooting tripod made in Texas, or the Ultimate Tripod made in Blairsville PA.
Some even have better ones of the home brewed variety. lol
