Poll: More “ARCA at home” stuff I modified.

Member 34319 · Dec 31, 2022

I've been competing in NRL22 and have learned the convenience of the ARCA rail over pic rail.

With that said I'm also a poor.

So…

I modify stuff.

ARCA isn't anything new at all. It's from the camera world. Camera realm standardized this dovetail size rail into their mounting systems.

Someone decided they wanted to mount their gun to a camera bipod via that rail. Since then the precision shooting competition community has been using it for mounting various gear to their rifles.

I think it is very practical for the real world too.

So I have had this UTG bipod for quite a while now. I love the thing. It's my favorite bipod. I was using an expensive $65 Wiser ARCA to pic adapter prior to this. I swapped that adapter to a recently purchased Fab Defense bipod. (Seen on rifle using a pic section mlok'd to rail) I was about to buy another Wiser $65 adapter for this one. Then I thought back to that camera community and just looked up a basic camera ARCA clamp on Amazon. Yep sure enough, they have them for $10.

Ground off the pic portion of the mount and drilled and tapped it to mount the camera mount.

Boom, "ARCA at home" baby!

Now my favorite bipod is even more better good!

Anyways, whatcha think?

Reno

Hueco · Dec 31, 2022

I'm all for the at home shiz. That being said, the camera stuff varies in quality just as much as gun stuff.

A bipod on a gun doesn't need to be as stable as, say, a full DSLR rig with pro glass and filters running a 10min exposure…but it would have to survive a good bit of weight and recoil.

I would tend toward the over engineered goodness of Really Right Stuff…but will the cheaper mounts work for your application just as well? Time will tell but I'm not about to knock it. Well done.

ilikegunspdx · Jan 1, 2023

It seems to me that it's just connections and adapters. Whatever works, works, whether it has a fancy name (and cost) or a generic name (and cost).

I've used most all kinds of camera tripods etc and went to arca Swiss ages ago for photography. You can buy short to very long arca Swiss plates for about $10$-18 and mount them on pretty much anything you want such as spotting scopes, binoculars etc. I have one for my sound level meter even. And any adapter u you can think of is available for peanuts on Amazon.

I prefer gimbals for photography but have used them for guns as well (see video below of arca plate attached to $120 gun with Velcro as a hobo example). The gimbal is a Webley knock off and costs $57 instead of $600. Works great even with an 11 pound lens + dslr. Ball Mounts work just ok (I don't recommend) Imo and the regular video type mounts are good. The $15 arca Swiss lens plates can be mounted to anything, with or without adapters. If you can screw it into the gun via m lok, or into an adapter for 1913 rail, bipod mount adapter, etc it will work fine Imo.