Shooting sticks vs bipod vs tripod

Three different tools, not three versions of one

These get compared as if they were competing products at different prices. They are not. They solve different problems and the right question is which problem you have.

• Shooting sticks — a yoke on one, two or three legs that you set the rifle into. Fast up, fast down, light to carry, and you are still part of the structure.
• A bipod — two short legs bolted to the rifle's forend. Always with you, adds nothing to carry separately, and only usable prone or off a bench.
• A shooting tripod — three legs with either a yoke or a clamp. The steadiest of the three, the heaviest, and the only kind that holds the rifle without your hands.

Why a bipod is usually the wrong answer for hogs

A rifle bipod is excellent at exactly one thing: shooting prone off relatively flat ground. For feral hogs that is rarely the shot you get. You are in a blind chair, on a tripod stand, leaning out a box blind window, or standing in knee-high grass where prone puts your line of sight into the stems.

A bipod also does nothing for the longest part of a night hunt — holding the rifle ready for an hour while you wait, or tracking a moving sounder across a field. Both of those are tripod jobs. Keep a bipod if your rifle already wears one; do not buy one as your hog rest.

The rests side by side

Which one by situation

Sitting a feeder or a trap site

A clamping tripod. The hogs arrive when they arrive, and the difference between a rifle you are holding and a rifle that is held is the difference between a steady shot and a shaky one at the end of a long wait. The BOG DeathGrip goes from 7 to 59 inches with 360 degrees of pan, so you can track movement without touching the legs. It is 8.5 lb, which is fine for something you carry fifty yards from a truck and leave in a blind.

Shooting from a ground blind chair

The DeathGrip Bantam. Twenty to forty-two inches covers seated and kneeling, it clamps the rifle hands-free at just over 3 lb, and its twist locks are quieter inside fabric than lever locks. It will not do standing shots at all, which is the trade. Pair it with one of our ground blind picks.

Shooting out of a box blind or tower window

The Primos Edge. Nine to sixty-seven inches is the widest range here, it clamps, it pans 360 degrees and it adjusts shot angle up to 50 degrees, which matters when you are shooting down at a feeder from a raised window. At 5.75 lb it is lighter than the DeathGrip; its 33 inch collapsed length is awkward to carry through brush.

Walking in, or hunting with a thermal

The Primos Trigger Stick Gen3. Pull the trigger and the height changes from 24 to 62 inches one-handed while your eye stays where it was. About 3.5 lb, and the yoke detaches so the same legs steady binoculars or a thermal monocular while you scan. This is the rest that gets used on a stalk, because it is the one you actually carry.

Packing light, or doubling up as a walking stick

The Vanguard VEO 2 CM-234TU. Carbon fiber, folds to 24.4 inches, stands on a folding tri-foot base, rated to 11 lb and usable as a staff on the walk in. A monopod on a small base is less stable than three full legs, and on a long shot you will feel it. For the walk-and-glass hunter it is the right compromise.

Clamp or yoke?

This is the real decision, and it is simpler than the brand question.

• A clamp grips the forend and holds the rifle on its own. Best for waiting, for long shots and for anyone whose hands shake at the end of a cold sit. Slower to get the rifle in and out of, and you cannot swing it onto a hog that appears behind you.
• A yoke cradles the rifle while you hold it. Far faster, far more natural for a moving target, and lighter. Less steady, because your own pulse and breathing are still in the system.

If one rest has to do everything, a yoke tripod is the more versatile buy. If you mostly sit a feeder, the clamp wins outright. Our shooting stick ranking scores all five of these, and Trigger Stick vs DeathGrip takes the two head to head.

Getting the height right

Height is where people buy the wrong rest. Work out the position you will actually shoot from, then check the published range:

• Standing: you need roughly 55 to 65 inches. The Trigger Stick Gen3 (62 in), the Primos Edge (67 in) and the Vanguard (64 in) reach it; the DeathGrip Bantam does not.
• Seated in a blind chair: 20 to 40 inches, which is the Bantam's whole range and well inside the others.
• Prone or off a low window: the DeathGrip's 7 inch minimum and the Edge's 9 inch are the only ones that get that low.
• Tower blind window: measure the sill height from the floor and add your seated eye height. This is where the Edge's 67 inches earns its keep.

What changes at night

Three things, and they all push you toward a tripod rather than a bipod or a single stick.

• You are often scanning for a long time. A rest that holds an optic steady while you glass is worth as much as one that holds the rifle. The detachable-yoke designs do both.
• Magnified thermal and night vision show every tremor. At 8x and up through a digital optic, handheld shake is the limiting factor long before the sensor is — see how to use a thermal scope.
• Noise costs you the sounder. Twist locks and rubber feet beat lever locks and bare metal inside a blind.

Mistakes buyers make

• Buying a bipod for hog hunting. It only works prone, and prone is rarely the shot you get in brush or from a blind.
• Buying the heaviest, steadiest tripod for a stalking hunt. An 8.5 lb rest you leave in the truck steadies nothing.
• Ignoring the maximum height. A 42 inch rest cannot be used standing, no matter how good it is.
• Buying a clamp when you need to swing. Hogs appear where they want to. A clamp is slow to break out of.
• Forgetting the optic. The same legs will hold a thermal monocular steady while you scan, if the head detaches. That doubles the value of the purchase.
• Setting up in the dark on a hog. Set the height when you arrive, quietly, and leave it.