Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Best lightweight tripod for bigeyes....

Let’s have er.

Jud, I just came across this old thread. The past few weeks I've been using a Slik 634 carbon tripod with a Slik SH707E head. It's not as steady, or easy to use standing up as my aluminum manfrotto, but I sure like packing it better! I'm happy with it, when I'm going as light as possible, but still need a decent tripod.

Gracias pard..

I went through this recently too, after you made this thread in January. I have a few tripods, and take different ones depending on circumstances.

I've got Slik, Manfrotto and Field Optics. Aside from weight and packability, I have found that the tripod itself makes little difference. It is the head that is key, and others I have talked to believe this too. Ball heads are useful for many things, and most certainly have their place, but a quality pan head makes gridding a mountainside much easier, as you'll be sweeping on a level horizontal (or vertical, if you prefer) plane, without accidentally "migrating" if you will up and down as you can easily can do with a ball head. A good pan head will allow you to 100% cover a hillside and easily lock the position when you see something. Does that make sense? Re-finding something after you loose it in your binocs is frustrating and something I think all western hunters have dealt with. A quality pan head will prevent this.

Right now I run a Field Optics FT6229C and a Manfrotto 190 when I am not going too far in, and a Slik Sprint Mini II if I need weight to be at a minimum. None are tall enough to glass standing up, but I find glassing from the standing position to be too shaky anyhow, even with a quality tripod with weight on the hook. The Slik Sprint Mini II isn't real stable due to it's weight and small size, so I may continue my search for both the Hemi and the good gas mileage. I do 100% prefer carbon to aluminum, regardless of the price.

Here's my Field Optics tripod with FPH-230 pan head. This head is OK for panning, but I am upgrading it soon. I am still researching what I want, but won't be going cheap.

Tinman, let us know what you find for a panhead to go on that tripod. I agree about the panhead, I like the two directions to be independent. The slik head I'm using now works okay for panning if I get the tension just right, otherwise it's a pain. I like the manfrotto 128rc head but it's heavy, need to find a good lightweight fluid panhead.