Those of you who have or have used a hog saddle….

The Oregonian

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Missoula, Montana
I have RRS Anvil 30 and 24L tripod with the hog saddle on top. I'm definitely getting better at it and will continue to practice a lot as the season approaches. I have a nylon sling on order from Cabela's and want to try disconnecting the rear and wrapping it around a tripod leg based on some videos I have seen.

I think I am on a good path as far getting better but curious if anyone has any tips from their experience with a hog saddle.

Thanks
 
My best tip is to put a rail on your rifle and direct mount to your anvil. Thats what ive done, pretty much only use Hogsaddle for friends that shoot off my tripod with their rifles.

As for the sling, detach from butt stock and make 1 wrap around leg and attach sling to your belt via carbiner. You can thrust your hips back and really lock it in.
 
My best tip is to put a rail on your rifle and direct mount to your anvil. Thats what ive done, pretty much only use Hogsaddle for friends that shoot off my tripod with their rifles.

As for the sling, detach from butt stock and make 1 wrap around leg and attach sling to your belt via carbiner. You can thrust your hips back and really lock it in.
My understanding is that it needs a rail fairly well centered fore and aft, or at least much closer than where a bipod rail is. I'm not really crazy about putting a rail there with a rail for a bipod.

I haven't used that type of setup, but I would think it might be hard to get the ball head locked down and have the right balance of play that creates unsteadiness that can make distance shots tough with the play that allows for small POA adjustments after lacking down the anvil.
 
Using the front bipod rail to clamp into an anvil works fine, it's just harder to reach the tension lever since its so far out toward the front of the stock. But the ball head will hold the weight no problem. But I'm with Wyfox, I have very few rifles that don't have at least a small section of arca right in front of the mag well, strictly for tripod shooting. It's less than $100 to add one, I get the like 3" long arca rails from RRS for like $55, then my local smith charges like $30 to mount them to a stock. They only weigh a few ounces. Also I have seen someone on here that is making small arca rails in titanium that are crazy lightweight, don't hold me to it but I think they are like 1 ounce or something crazy like that.

They are a very small price in cost and weight but add so much functionality to a rifle, I would recommend trying it on at least 1 rifle to see if you like it.
 
I have RRS Anvil 30 and 24L tripod with the hog saddle on top. I'm definitely getting better at it and will continue to practice a lot as the season approaches. I have a nylon sling on order from Cabela's and want to try disconnecting the rear and wrapping it around a tripod leg based on some videos I have seen.

I think I am on a good path as far getting better but curious if anyone has any tips from their experience with a hog saddle.

Thanks
You're on the right track here. I own a hog saddle that I purchased after I took a long range shooting course (and subsequent 1 day refresher courses over the last few years). I shot standing, kneeling and sitting using the hog saddle from all sorts of improvised positions. I learned to use it like you describe with wrapping your sling around 1 leg. Shot out to 1060 yards sitting, kneeling to 850 and 600 standing. It works really well. My instructor is a former Marine recon sniper and also SEAL sniper team instructor.
 
Rear rest of possible. I often carry a fold up set of shooting sticks or use trekking poles for shooting over a tripod from a kneeling or sitting position. Can be pretty stable. Some say shooting this way is slow to deploy, but sometimes so is finding a suitable prone position. With a little practice with your gear setting up on a tripod can be fairly quick.
 
I've had a saddle and currently use an Anvil30 on a set of RRS 2-series legs. I shoot from my tripod at least once a week. The Anvil30 is probably the best shooting head on the market right now, and your RRS legs are also some of the best. However, you're hamstringing yourself by throwing a hog saddle on top. As others said, attach a rail to your rifle and directly mount the rifle to your anvil 30. You'll be so much faster, more stable, and overall lighter.

As far as wrapping the sling around the legs, that was a "trick" used when shooting off of unstable cheap-o tripods. You have a very stable tripod/head setup and don't need to wrap a sling or belt to help stabilize.
 
Hog Saddle 7 years. Ergonomically it is going to vary per shooter. I encourage you to find all the various ways people use them, but most importantly settle on what works for you.
Since I sight my long gun prone. I like to shoot my Tripod/Hog Saddle Combo as comfortably low as possible.
But I can surly tell you that does not work on down hill shots.
So learn to use your sling tight around your arm or even the around the tripod / belt loop leg back tension.
Keep away from any info. that this is the right way to do things. I've learned personal ergonomics and environment really messes with peoples head. Just do your research then practice, practice, practice.
A good test is know your farthest comfortable shooting range prone or on bench. Then throw it on your tripod and you'll discover really quickly how hard it is to hold stable. But it is also a time to figure out how to hold true on a tripod.
 
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Mount one these as close you can to your rifles balance point, that'll probably just forward the recoil lug area of the stock. Mount it directly to your anvil. I have all my hunting rifles set up this way anymore. Shooting off a tripod is easy peasy like this. For competition, I use a 7x9" carbon table on top the anvil, and throw my gamechanger bag between thr gun/carbon table. It's a lil quicker for shooting multi targets from multi positions.
 
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