Vortex Pro Rifle Clamp Tripod Mount

Vortex recently released their new Vortex Pro Rifle Clamp.  This is machined out of magnesium to allow it to be rigid, but still relatively light weight.  It mounts to an Arca-Swiss style tripod head and allows the shooter to attach nearly any rifle to a tripod without additional accessories or mounting options.  Let's take a look at some of the features and my thoughts after running it for a while.

First thing I noticed is that this feels solid in the hands.  I have not been a fan of some of the plastic mounts on the market that feel flimsy or flexible, especially with the weight of a firearm mounted.  At just under 1 pound, this is not heavy, but feels very secure.  The inside of the jaws have a rubber padding to prevent scratches and to help secure the gun.  It uses a dual jaw clamp that means that both of the sides of the jaws move at the same time, so the clamp tightens and releases evenly from both sides.  The turning knob is large and easy to manipulate.  It can also be pulled out and rotated without engaging.  This allows for moving to a position with better leverage, or out of the way.

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When mounting to my aluminum tripod and clamping down on a variety of rifles from a small .22lr bolt action to a heavy long range competition style gun I found it easy to get it secure and stable.  I has a small issue with flex that I figure out came from the ball-head mount, not the Vortex mount.  So you may see some limitations based on how stable your tripod is, but you shouldn't see much of a difference in the mount itself between light and heavy guns.  It could be mounted directly to the top of a tripod, using the mounting screw instead of the Arca rail.  You would loose adjustability, but would have a little more stability.

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The main advantage of this mount is the fact that you don't need a specific mount for each rifle.  Over the years I have added Arca rails to several guns and bought multiple stocks with Arca built in.  You can still mount those rifles in the rifle clamp, but also pretty much any other rifle or shotgun that you own as well.

Overall, I'm impressed with the mount.  It is much sturdier than then plastic options on the market and less expensive than some of the other metal mounts out there.  I will definitely be bringing this to the range whenever I'm shooting rifles and will also bring it along for hunts where I'm using a tripod.