The topic is ok, like discussing any other piece of equipment. It's that we discuss the value of the application in the overall kit, and I admit to taking a harris with me on my first ever trip, along with many other 'luxuries', I quickly put on the... 'DO NOT TAKE AGAIN LIST'. The learning and evolving is probably what is so fun and rewarding about backpack hunting, sometimes it don't seem so fun in the middle of it...
Course the day after you get home you wish you were back out there.
For day hunting with a full pack on, that's a different story.
Just the way I go about it. If I pack in, I'm much more slow/sneaky/unobtrusive, which means more sitting and glassing from vantages and such. Why, because my range on my legs is limited to the area I'm in and I better not blow all the animals out or I've wasted all my effort. Hopefully I've scouted and know the animals in the area and have a plan. Once located, another plan is made to make the kill and over 300 yd shots are very possible with time to position and setup.
As a sidenote where I hunt, bipods seldom have enough height to get over the vegetation, few flat spots in Coues country, my tripoded bigeyes are in line usually or my pack on a rock outcropping or a steady tree branch. If a quick shot is needed past 300 then the hunt will continue for a better opportunity. Patience is something else that evolves.
The bipods may be interesting, just no one I know that BP hunts would consider it, so in this application is a nonissue.
Different methods of rests in the backcountry is interesting though.
My personal longest was a Coues deer at 420 off my bigeyes, usually my rest of choice, cause it's right there in front of me.
Kent
