Sticks

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Tregullon

Tregullon

Well-Known Member
Watching some modern stalking videos I notice the pros now all use quad sticks. Personally I have always been keen to minimise weight, bulk and equipment, even buying a smaller, lighter if less efficent set of binoculars than my best pair, which give me neckache. I can see the benefit of a single-stick rest (which might also double as a walking stick and obviate the use of a bipod) but carting around four of them, no matter how convenient and carbon-lightweight, is an idea of which I need convincing. Open to persuasion/enlightenment as always. Appreciate any views on offer or recommendations, thanks
 
Tregullon said:
Watching some modern stalking videos I notice the pros now all use quad sticks. Personally I have always been keen to minimise weight, bulk and equipment, even buying a smaller, lighter if less efficent set of binoculars than my best pair, which give me neckache. I can see the benefit of a single-stick rest (which might also double as a walking stick and obviate the use of a bipod) but carting around four of them, no matter how convenient and carbon-lightweight, is an idea of which I need convincing. Open to persuasion/enlightenment as always. Appreciate any views on offer or recommendations, thanks
Click to expand...
Ultra light weight sticks then you could well be dragging a large deer some distance (which does happen)

Pigeon shooters take 200 cartridges shoot a hundred pigeons but try to save a few oz's on kit...

Your saving on light weight sticks would not be noticed dragging/carrying your deer back...

I like to focus on the deer with most of my kit in the truck...
 
You'll never get the steady support that quad sticks provide using a single stick so it may as well be left at home and you instead use your bag as a rest, a fencepost, tree or other steady. I carry a compromise which is the lightweight telescopic Vanguard tripod with tracking V neck support. I find that sitting for the shot I can find a steady braced position with the tripod to take an accurate shot to 150 yds no problem, but further than this I'd prefer quad sticks. If using the telescopic carbon ones you can tether them after use no problems to your roe sack in the folded position and won't know you're carrying them. I used to use the garden cane "monkey sticks" but found that for stalking, they were too bulky and awkward if having to drag or carry deer, hence now exclusively use the Vanguard which is a very good compromise, especially if the head is replaced with one that provides a better shelf for the forestock. However if I had the spare cash and could justify the spend I'd be using carbon quad sticks.
 
Tregullon said:
Watching some modern stalking videos I notice the pros now all use quad sticks. Personally I have always been keen to minimise weight, bulk and equipment, even buying a smaller, lighter if less efficent set of binoculars than my best pair, which give me neckache. I can see the benefit of a single-stick rest (which might also double as a walking stick and obviate the use of a bipod) but carting around four of them, no matter how convenient and carbon-lightweight, is an idea of which I need convincing. Open to persuasion/enlightenment as always. Appreciate any views on offer or recommendations, thanks
Click to expand...
Carrying a single stick will save you some weight on your way out to shoot and on the way back to the car…’cause you’ll miss the deer and won’t have to carry it. 😊
Regards,
DG
 
I've been using a Primos Trigger stick for about 3 years for foxing. Its light and quiet, BUT its taken me a lot of practice to be able to keep a steady bead on a rabbit or a fox at distance over 100 yds. I've considered quad sticks which are undoubtedly a more stable platform but, give or take a few degrees, you can only point them in one direction.
 
Pete1774 said:
I've been using a Primos Trigger stick for about 3 years for foxing. Its light and quiet, BUT its taken me a lot of practice to be able to keep a steady bead on a rabbit or a fox at distance over 100 yds. I've considered quad sticks which are undoubtedly a more stable platform but, give or take a few degrees, you can only point them in one direction.
Click to expand...
Why not try some quads and see how many deer use lose due to the perceived lack of movement off straight ahead?
Edit. As Stephen Toast has just said!
 
baguio said:
Why not try some quads and see how many deer use lose due to the perceived lack of movement off straight ahead?
Edit. As Stephen Toast has just said!
Click to expand...
Think that is the likely plan. Might cost a bit more than £20 I suspect. Thing is the pros know what they are doing, but amateurs overequipping is a trap
 
Sticks................ some of the prices being spent on these things is ridiculous. £400 for some real fancy ones, but the general ball park is £250 to £300.
When I started there were none for sale. You made your own, and learnt to shoot with one or two sticks, or neither in some cases.

I now carry the latest generation trigger sticks for clients, if they dont have their own. I would guess about 80% of the people I take out have sticks, although some turn up having forgotten to bring them.
Out of that number many have quad sticks. I would anticipate that 70% dont know how to deploy them quickly and silently. I hate to think how many opportunities were lost by people waving the sticks about and rifle in the air, whilst trying to set themselves up with a group of Fallow in late winter staring at you for a second.
NOT a chance.
People need to practice shooting free hand at 40 to 60 yds. Most cant, or wont, and prefer to try and set sticks up. In deep woodland with deer at close range, its a waste of time. Their gone.

If your going to use quad sticks learn to use them, and set them up. Practice, but more than that practice without sticks for close range work. I find they are fine for shooting over a distance of over 60 yds and out to over 100yds, or standing and waiting for a deer to move through. But stalking in woodland, especially for Fallow or Sika, and trying to deploy them without all the palaver of setting them up...................................No for the vast majority.
 
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Quad sticks were designed to fool old folks that aren’t as limber as they used to be and those folks of any age that never learned how to spot and use the rests provided by nature in great abundance that they are (still) lethal with a rifle in any situation and can come down out of the high seat every now and again.
Often these are the same guys who ask how many cartridges it takes to complete DSC1.
A single stick is ample and if you use a fairly stout, plain one it shouldn’t cause much anxiety if you break it by using it as a yoke to extract a carcass or leave it behind.
Definitely not the case with your 200quid carbon fibre quad sticks.
 
Tregullon said:
Now that IS something I would like to learn how to do :)
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www.thestalkingdirectory.co.uk

Monkey Sticks !!

Right, Ive been meaning to post this for a while! What follows is a step-by-step guide of how to make the most stable shooting sticks you will ever use for about £10 !! Firstly, get down to a DIY type garden centre and purchase 4 of their 1.8m plastic coated garden canes (which are actually...
www.thestalkingdirectory.co.uk www.thestalkingdirectory.co.uk
I use the rubber grommets that go in the holes of metal 3 pin socket back boxes instead of elastic, bicycle inner tubes or whatever else has been used in the past. Use what you like but there's no need to drill holes in anything.
I also put heat shrink uver over the tops of each cane to protect my rifles. I have shot hundreds of deer off them them. Cost less than £15 to make.
 
Tregullon said:
Watching some modern stalking videos I notice the pros now all use quad sticks. Personally I have always been keen to minimise weight, bulk and equipment, even buying a smaller, lighter if less efficent set of binoculars than my best pair, which give me neckache. I can see the benefit of a single-stick rest (which might also double as a walking stick and obviate the use of a bipod) but carting around four of them, no matter how convenient and carbon-lightweight, is an idea of which I need convincing. Open to persuasion/enlightenment as always. Appreciate any views on offer or recommendations, thanks
Click to expand...
Most of us that use quad sticks regularly do it largely because it’s more accurate and repeatable than any other method of taking a standing shot, almost as good as a bipod. The other advantage I get when stalking is the quad sticks take the weight of the rifle so you can essentially stay in a shooting position much longer when you are waiting for the animal to broadside or get a clear head shot. Downside is bulk and weight but some of that is offset by carbon lightweight versions. Other opinions will follow
 
I found quad sticks were a massive step up, once you get used to deploying them. I pretty much use quad sticks for every shot now, passing on other dodgey rests like (rotten) fence posts, trees or stone dykes. For zeroing, I now prefer to use quad sticks, with an added stability gain from having your back/bum against a tree. I also feel it must be a good thing to consistently have the same body position. For quick shots you can bunch all the sticks together and use like a single stick, or open up to a double stick, then if the deer settles down, open up to a quad stick. At the opposite end, quad sticks are so good at taking the weight of the rifle, you can wait for ages for a deer to broadside no problem.

Practice, practice and practice using them.
 
i got a cheap set of sticks (about £70) from my local gun shop
ive used them nearly 3 years now and shot foxes out to 230yds off them
i love them and well worth carrying
bi pods are ok but how often can you lay down to shoot?
also because your shoulder height and pointing down i feel its a safer shot from quad sticks than
laying down shooting up from a bi pod
 
Tregullon said:
Think that is the likely plan. Might cost a bit more than £20 I suspect. Thing is the pros know what they are doing, but amateurs overequipping is a trap
Click to expand...
When it comes to pros if you are talking about selling promoting kit then most just do that "sell promote"
As a very common fault not addressed is..
Every commercial high seat I have seen/sat in the front rail is too low also they are a fixed angle so a tree on the lean will affect the seat angle also the rail height...nothing worse than sitting feeling you are tipping fwd...

I use this as an example as these faults spill out into the quad stick world as most have a moulded stop so the leg can only open so far. It is a feature to do away with the spreder cord but on a number of times I have been with one leg on a narrow headland the other in the edge of the plough on my own sticks where the "Pro" sticks will have run out of width travel. Break a yoke or leg on a pro set and you will cry and wait for a replacement part
They do work but good marketing covers over the faults, people make sticks for many reasons, I make high seats that counter act tree lean as I see the fault in the ones sold...
People don't even was their own car let alone try to make a set of sticks lol
 
the only problem with my cheap ones is they live in my motor and the sun has faded the black to a bronze colour
just going to camo tape them when it gets to bad
 
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