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SunwayFoto TCM3560 with IB-60 inverted ballhead
Back to tripods
July 25, 2023
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Tripods have been coming up here with reasonable regularity and I have several for which I have not yet published a review.  Ideally, I should go to the range and make a proper video, but it is approximately eight thousand degrees outside in the Southwest and when you try to look up the UV index for this altitude in New Mexico, it basically says "are you f-ing retarded? this is when you stay home".  Perhaps, I should go back to making videos in my living room.

Either way, I have several SunwayFoto tripods here for review and I will do a video or two on them.  Now, that I have been using them for a while, I have to admit that they are well made and that they hold up well.  They also offer one hell of a deal.  The latest one I received is the 2830 and I will absolutely go on the record that if you are new to tripods and shooting off of them, this is the best deal going: https://sunwayfoto-store.com/products/t2830cs-carbon-fiber-tripod-for-hunting-with-inverted-ball-head-arca-swiss-picatinny-rail-adapter-clamp?ref=DLO&variant=42653765468318

This bundles a proper shooting tripod with Arca//Picatinny clamp and a cradle for conventionally stocked rifles. It is a pretty lightweight tripod, so it is not as sturdy as some with larger diameter legs, but the low axis head is very good.  The tripod is light.  Three section legs are quick to work.  It is plenty sturdy enough for most things you do with normal rifles.  If I were starting with tripod shooting, I'd focus on rimfire and midly recoiling ARs.  For that, it is perfect.  For typical hunting rifles, it is plenty sturdy enough for inside of 500/600 yards.

Sunway seems to be serious about the shooting market, so use "DLO" discount code to get another 5% off.

Now, I'll be clear: if you ask me what I will be taking to he field with me come hunting season, it will be the Gen2 Ascent from Spartan Precision.  The guys at Sunway will not like me saying it, but it is the truth.  However, for that, you have to buy into their magnetic stem ecosystem and the tripod itself is almost $1200 plus you'll need a few mounting adapters for your guns and optics.  If you are willing to spend this much money, it is the best made tripod I have.  However, if you are new to tripod shooting, I would suggest a smaller financial investment and more practice time. 

The tripod that is the subject of this article is the T3650 that is much beefier measurably heavier and undoubtedly sturdier.  Price-wise, it is a very good value for the money if you are looking for something that can carry a lot of weight yet collapse into a package that will fit into your luggage in a pinch.

Purely for shooting, having too many leg segments is not ideal.  The more segments you have, the longer it will take to deploy the legs and every interconnect between the legs adds weight.  T3650, as the name suggests, uses 36mm diameter carbon fiber tubes and has five leg segments.

I started putting together a spec table of all the different tripods I have.  There will be more columns here as I go along:

 Field Optics Research SequoiaField Optics Research Pro32-Mil ASFPLSpartan Precision Ascent Gen 2 Davros, WoodlandSunwayFoto TCM3650 with IB-65SunwayFoto TC2830CS
Weight, lbs3.955.53.75.62.9
Folded Length, in2723.7292325.2
Max Height, in58.558.3706656.5
Min Height, in4.57.171274.7
Leg max diameter, mm3232 3628
Leg wall thickness, mm11.2   
Max Load, lbs60115446644
Leg Segments33353
Pitch, deg+/-30+/-20+/-35, with 90deg portrait mode+/-47.5+/-35
Detachable LegsNoYesYesNoNo
Leg locksTwistTwistTwistTwistTwist
Pack diameter, in3.45.53.654
Head typeDome topBowl TopMagnetic stemIntegrated ballhed/flat top/bowl topEnbedded ballhead
ClampArcaArca/PicatinnyNAArca/PicatinnyArca/picatinny
Price$599$825$1,150$738$250
      
Best useShooting supportShooting supportShooting/ Hunting/ Photo/ ObservationShooting/ ObservationShooting/ Hunting/ Observation

As the specs suggest, it is a burly tripod that gets pretty tall, carries a lot of weight and packs into a fairly small size.  It comes with the usual accessories like spike feet, allen wrenches, adapter plate, etc.  More importantly, it also comes with a couple of different options to fit nearly any head onto the tripod body.  Mine arrived with the IB-65 head and also flat top and bowl adapters.  I ended up swapping the head for the IB-60 inverted ballhead which is also in these pcitures.

They have a few IB-65 heads from the first batch that did not lock all the way.  It locks, but if I mount a rifle in it toward the front of the stock, it can't quite hold it.  

Also, something I found with a large diameter integrated ball head is that when changing the shooting angle, the rotation axis is offset sufficiently far that the rifle buttpadtranslates forward or back a fair bit.

The IB-60 with the rotation axis much closer to the gun, keeps the back end of the stock more consistently.

Also, IB-60 has a tightening clamp where I can more easily adjust the ballhead tension.   The long lever of the IB-65 is either on or off.  With the IB-60, I can lock it tight or leave with some tension yet movable.

https://sunwayfoto-store.com/products/ib-60-inverted-ball-head-for-hunting-tripod-load-55lb25kg?_pos=1&_sid=4251fd49d&_ss=r&ref=DLO

In theory, IB-60 is a little taller, so it might be slightly less stable for shooting, but in practice, I can't tell the difference.  On balance, bowl top tripods like the Pro32 from Field Optics I have are still the steadiest, but we are splitting hairs here.  TC3650 can be set up as a bowl top, but I was looking for more flexibilty here, so I settled on the inverted ballhead.

Overall height of the tripod ended up about eye level for me.  I am 6ft tall and the clamp is right at the same height as my eyes.

In terms of problems with the tripod itself, I really did not have any.  Everything works as it should, but also keep in mind that it had primarily range use for me.  It packs short, but it is not a lightweight tripod.  For hunting, I prefer tripods in the 4lbs and under range.  Another thing to keep in mind when thinking of tripods is that smallest diameter it can pack into it.  That can make a difference whether you can slide into a side pocket of your pack or have to bring an extra bag for it.  It does come with a respectable carry bag.

TC3650 clocks in at just over 6 lbs with the IB-60 head.  However, given how stable it is, the weight is reasonable.  The height becomes very useful when shooting off of complicated terrain since it has enough leg length to accomodate slopes and inclines.  Another advantage of shorter leg segments is that if I want to collapse the legs and open them to the widest splay angle, I do not need quite as much space.  It is a very flexible tripod in terms of accomodating weird terrain.  The clamp natively works for both Arca and picatinny Rails, so you can adapt almost anything to it.

What is my final conclusion?  It is not a cheap tripod.  For how much you get, it is not an expensive one either.  Build quality is very good.  The issues with the IB-65 head that I had appear to be isolated to a couple samples from an early batch.  There is very little you can not do with this tripod be it hunting, shooting, observation or photography, but the price of flexibility is weight.  It is not obsenely heavy by any means and to go lighter you will give something up.  If you are looking for a "one and done" tripod, you could do a lot worse than this one.

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Delta Stryker 3.5-21x44 Wrap-up

This scope comes up a lot since I really like the configuration. It is time to do a final wrap-up of it.

It is one of my favourite scopes on the market today, especially for the money, since I naturally lean toward general purpose-ish designs. Still, while the 3.5-21x44 Stryker is relatively compact and light, it still clearly leans toward the precision side of things, which suites me very well.

https://annexdefense.com/optics-and-optic-accessories/delta-optics/

00:10:25
The 40s: SwampFox Recce MRAD Reticle in Warhwak 2-10x44

As is usually the case, I am taking my sweet time with the 40s comparison. There are several reasons for that. One is that I am busy. Another is that I really like this very underappreciated riflescope category and want to make sure I am doing the right thing with them. Yet another is a simple fact that I insist that I spend a LOT of time with each scope before I can recommend it and there are quite a few scopes to look at for this comparison.

Swampfox Warhawk 2-10x44 is sort of an odd duck here in many way. In terms of magnification range and objective size, it is right at home in this lineup. However, it is a bit big and heavy for the mag range at just under 13" and just under 30 ounces of weight. It has a lot of adjustment range at 35mrad, but has no zero stop. On the other hand...

It is sub-$500.
It has very good Apparent FOV at 24 degrees.
It is a lot better optically than I expected.
It has a very solid reticle with a clever illumination scheme.

The way this scope is set ...

00:08:40
AR-15 Handguards with integrated Arca rail

I had a couple of ARs I wanted to set up for long range training. There is more to do with them, but I started out by swapping out the handguards for models with an integrated full length Arca rail. Larger flat on the bottom of the handguard helps it settle on the sandbag and makes it easier to shoot off of a tripod. I also found the ability to slide the bipod to different positions occasionally helpful.

The two handguards I have been testing are:

Fast Track my Catalyst Arms: https://www.anarchyoutdoors.com/fast-track-arca-precision-rifle-handguard-ar-15-rpr-only/?ref=fl0iza41

IWI/CMT HDM https://alnk.to/8iWcTQE

Both work well once installed, but IWI/CMT was ultimately less of a hassle to get properly lined up.

Fasttrack barrel nut arrangement is a little goofy and getting properly lined up took some trial and error. Here is the video they made that shows how it is set up. I was going to do my own, but once I got it all aligned, I did not want to mess with taking it up and ...

00:19:29
PA PLxC 1-8x24 SFP Blem

We are finally going home tonight and as we wait for the flight, I decided to check my email.

One of the first things I saw is an email from Primary Arms about their Summer Clearance event. In there is a cosmetic blem SFP 1-8x24 with the fiber illuminated reticle for just over $1k. That is an exceptionally good price for this scope: https://alnk.to/ei43zXN

There is quote a lot there aside from the PLxC, like the blem Geissele handguard for ~$210: https://alnk.to/aLKTXFp

Here is a link to the rest of it: https://alnk.to/3nj4LpX

I did not look through everything, but there is quite a lot that's interesting int he first half dozen or so pages that I flipped through:
https://alnk.to/aLKTXI2
https://alnk.to/5Q7GuSW

Sig P320

I just got an e-mail from my local range that they are banning any and all use of the Sig P320 due to the appearance of the gun going off by itself.

I have not been following the P320 saga very thoroughly, so I did a quick search to try to figure out what's happening and then called a friend of mine who is more on that side of the gun industry than I am and has better insight.

Here is a gyst of it.

There is a good number of anecdotal accounts of P320 going off on its own, including the incident that resulted in the tragic death of an airman in Wyoming a few days ago.

Neither Sig, nor the various government entities nor any of the 3rd parties were able to re-create ANY of these incidents.

A large number of P320s were retrieved, tested and abused. That includes the actual firearms that the incidents happened with.

Noone, to the best of my knowledge, has been able to make any of them go off without trigger manipulation.

What does that mean? That means that we do not know what is true ...

Leupold Scope dump at CDNN.

I just got an email, multiple models and reticles for 3HD, 4HD and 5HD scopes. You need call to get prices.

https://www.cdnnsports.com/optics.html?manufacturer=LEUPOLD

Scoping Gas Guns
an interesting question that acme in via PM

I received this question via a private message and thought it was interesting enough to answer it in some detail.  I have been thinking a lot about appropriate optics for gas guns recently, so this came it at the right time.

 

Here is what I ahve been messing with last few days:

 

Above: 18" WOA barrel 5.56 AR-15 with Burris XTR PS 5.5-30x56 on it.

Below: 22" Satern barrel 224Valkyrie AR-15 with Delta Stryker 3.5-21x44 on it.


For obvious reasons, I am not posting who asked the question, but what I'll do is send him a link to this article, so that he gets an answer and we might have a good discussion.
Here is what I received:

Had a question for you
I have a Knights Armament SR25 6.5CM with a 14.5" barrel - I plan on shooting 100 - 600 yards at targets at 100 yd intervals
I am favoring the TT 315P with an Aimpont Acro mounted on top -( see you liked the TT315M) - would that be enough magnification?
I saw the SB SB 5-20 which offer more top end - I like the turrets on the Tanget and tooless Zero - what are your thoughts between the 2?
If I stayed 400 and under - how do you see the TT315P with the Acro Red dot against the SB 1-8 Short Dot (saw your review on that)

There isn't really enough information in the question for a simple answer, so let's consider a couple of options.

What is the gun for? 

For shooting medium range (out to 600) with occasional close range use?  If yes, go with a conventional scope and offset or piggybacked RDS.

For shooting at close distance with occasional med/long range use? If yes, so with a nice LPVO like the above mentioned S&B Short Dot 1-8x24 https://alnk.to/3J8vlFv.  It is quite capable at long range, but where it will really knock your socks off is up close and personal.

The question of what is enough magnification is pretty personal.  For me, 3-15x is plenty, but I shoot a lot off of the tripod and off of barricades which likely influences my decision.  For that, my 3-15x50 TT315M Tangent works great and 6mrad of elevation is plenty.  https://alnk.to/gVNkUXB  175gr #08 out of a shoter tube will drop in the 5 to 5.5mrad range at 600 yards.

For a dedicated long range semi-auto, other than the looks, there isn't much downside to a larger scope, which is why I set up Burris' XTR PS on the 5.56 AR pictured above.  It is for my son to learn to shoot at distance and to us in next year's BOTC match.  https://alnk.to/gp33YuR

If I were setting up an accurate semi-auto and wanted a high mag scope for it, I would likely lean toward March 4.5-28x52. https://alnk.to/dLjHgjh  It is compact, relatively light and very good optically for any use other than the dead of the night (for which we should be using clip-ons anyway).

S&B Short Dot is a very nice scope, but March is a newer design and, other than the lowest light, has an edge in terms of image fidelity and stray light control.

TT315P Tangent is a veyr ncie scope and toolles turrets are appealing.  However, there is a weight penalty to that.  For me, that was not worth it.  I ahve 5-25x56 and 7-35x Tangents and those toolless turrets are spectacular.  However, in a 3-15x50, I am quit ecomfortable with simpler 6mrad per turn knobs on the TT315M.

 

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A morning with a chronograph

When I tell people that I am using Hornady's factory ammo for matches, I get occasionally surprised looks.  Occasionally.  Most of the time, I get fairly condescending looks from handloaders who would not let a factory round pollute the chambers of their precision rifles if their lives depended on it.

To be fair, if I had the time, I might be reloading as well.  I might be able to do better than modern factory ammo, but the truth is that I am not a quarter MOA shooter, so a lot of that would be lost on me.  The UKD matches I fidn most interesting can be done by a competent shooter with a 1MOA gun.  I am working on that first part.  I reload when I have to, but if I can get factory ammo that's not outrageously expensive and that shoots well, I will go with that every time.

I looked around and realized that I have about 600 rounds of Hornady 147gr 6.5CM factory ammo from two lots.  400 rounds from one that I will use during the match later this month.  The remainder I will likely use up practicing prior to that.

I woke up early and snuck out to the range while my family was still asleep earlier today.

I set up in the 100 yard tunnel we have.  I took my four shots to zero with the lot I plan to use for the match.  Then I fired a six shot ~0.7MOA group.  That's accurate enough for my purposes.

Here are the chronograph results:

It is slow, but accurate and consistent.

Then I shot a five round group of Hornady 147gr ammo from the other lot.

Both of those lots are not too shabby for factory ammo.  POI was within 0.2mrad between the two lots, all laterally.  

 

I had some other ammo on hand, so I fired two five shot groups with Berger 144gr hybrid target ammo and Sako TRG 136gr.

Here is what I got for five rounds of Berger:

That's not a ton of statistics, but it is a data point.  The group was ~1.1MOA

 

Here the data for the Sako TRG 136gr ammo:

This ammo showed some mild pressure signs, but not too significant.  

Again, this is not a ton of data, but Hornady is looking pretty decent here.

I'll repeat the zero retention and consistency tests a couple more times between now and June 18th when we head to Wyoming.

I might pick up a couple more boxes of Hornady 147gr from a different lot to get some more data.

More to come.

 

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First PRS Match is behind me
High Noon at Del Norte

My first PRS match is officially behind me.  It was, I think an officially sanctioned regional PRS match at the shooting range called Del Norte about an hour from me (just east of Rio Rancho).
As I discussed previously, rather than using the rifle I originally prepared for it, I ended up having to change gears at the last moment and slapping a 5-25x56 Tangent on my daughter's 6ARC MiniFIx.  A lightweight 16" Proof barreled 6ARC is not an ideal set up for PRS competition, but, in the grand scheme of things, the rifle did hot hold me back at all.  I had a couple of weights that fit the Q-cert handguard, so I slapped them on there as well, which got the rifle to right around 12lbs.  The balance point was almost where I want it, but not quite.  In all other ways, this was a very handy rifle to shoot.  I am actually thinking of getting a couple more weights that I can stack on it (Sawtooth weights are stackable), so that I can shoot some future local matches with it.  It shoots Hornady's Black 105gr ammo very well (it also shoots 108gr ELD-M and 103gr ELD-X well, but I had a larger supply of Hornady Black ammo on hand).

It chrono'ed pretty consistently for factory ammo.  Here are the measurements for a 20 shot group.

If I were to take out the fastest shot, SD drops down to 8fps.  

In terms of wind performance, it is a 5mph rifle, so slightly better than the 308 ammo I was going to use originally, but not as good as the 6.5CM that was my intended match rifle for this year (we make plans, but then life happens).

I do have to admit that I really enjoyed shooting the match with the MiniFix.  So much so, that I am seriously thinking of building another one for myself, since this rifle is technically my daughter's.

The closest shot we had was a bit over a couple of hundred yards.  The furthest was around 1150.  That was a bit challenging for the 16" barreled 6ARC, especially since the terrain there is tricky and wind is doing strange things.  Morning was relatively quiet wind-wise, but then the wind becamse gusty with changing directions.

It was a one day match with about 30 shooters (six squads) and ten stages.  The 17 year old kid who won the match was in my squad with his dad.  Apparently he is on the US team, so it should not be surrpising that he won.  He was very good.

Overall level of the shooters in the match was quite good.  I really was not sure what to expect.  Somewhat paradoxically, the only matches that I have shot in so far are the much larger two day NRL Hunter matches.  In those, I am just out of the bottom third in terms of skill level.  In this match, it was pretty much in the same spot, I think.  

The terrain was a little bit like Cameo, I think (I have been there, but not shot there), with some angle changes and sufficient vegetation to make getting on target occasionally troublesome. 

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