The Claw: First time test Impressive.

[bobbyo]

My best friend bought The Claw at the NRA show last week and we took it out for a test drive. First let me state i am not a gun freak and rarely shoot at the range. I am a terrible bench shooter. In addition i am not affiliated with The Claw folks in any way. We went out to one of our favorite camping spots to do some shooting. It was windy 10 Mph. We had the Claw set up on a Manfrotto graphite tripod and 701 fluid head. I brought my son's gun. A 243 savage 110 with a burris fullfeild scope. This whole gun including the scope would cost $550 dollars new. But it always has been a shooter. We had a target at 490 yards. Insert rifle in claw. Move the tripod arm and put cross hairs on target. Once set i would not even look in the scope. I just placed my thumb on rear of trigger guard. and index finger on trigger. Really not concentrating at all on squeezing. Just pull. Shot a 5 shot 5 inch group. Follow up shots just required slight adjustments and were done quickly. The tripod handled the entire recoil. Let me remind you it was windy. My buddy's 300 short mag had an even tighter group. Tripod handled recoil.

 

Really incredible. The claw is basically a bench rest that is highly adjustable and very portable. Works standing or sitting. Point and shoot. Would be great for sighting in rifle. You will not need any other bench rest mechanism. Basically takes out all human error in aiming and firing a rifle. Quite frankly it takes all shooting skill out of the equation. Lets put it this way. You could have your $5000 dollar hot rod gun with its $2000 dollar scope and your 10,000 rounds of practice shots and I am willing to bet I will print right next to you with my Walmart gun and The Claw with 20 rounds of practice.

 

I'm not sure that is a good thing? I know i am old school I think hunting and woodsmanship is about developing a skill set. Will people get so dependent on the Claw that they will not be able to cope without one. Sort of like the TV remote. " Oh my god I forgot my claw, I have to drive home to get it." Or possibly this:

"Dad I want to look in the scope when I shoot."

"No son you might move the gun. Just squeeze your thumb and index finger together. and watch with your eye's. You will be able to tell your friends you shot a deer at 650 yards."

"Daaad, The claw is shooting the deer. all I'm doing is putting my fingers together."

 

I think this is going to change western hunting significantly. I just don't know if it is for better or worse.

Bob

 

P.S. We were both using hold over lines in our scopes. not target turrets.

[az4life]

I wondered about the claw, and now I guess the only downside is packing it along.

Seems like it doubles as an optics pod so it could be the elusive, "win win" for hunters

[DubTee]

Good post bobbyo, thanks for the review. I bought the claw, have not used it yet. I am thinking it will be a valuable tool to sight in with, especially at longer distances. Also, it would be nice to have if you have an animal bedded and you are waiting on it to stand up, we all know that can take a while sometimes. I wouldn't want to depend on it for all my shooting though, I would think a lot of shots would still come quickly after a stalk or a quick spot and I would still want the ability and confidence to get on the nearest rest and make the shot. I have also helped out on hunts where the hunter (usually inexperienced with inferior equipment) just simply cannot pick up the animal in their scope, cannot tell you how frustrating that was. It would be nice to throw the claw on and help them out. I am looking forward to using it in the future.

[soazarcher]

The Claw is always worth packing along

 

On a side note, I heard you can get them through Jim White and Outdoorsmans.

Looks like they are catching on.

[JMP]

"Dad I want to look in the scope when I shoot."

"No son you might move the gun. Just squeeze your thumb and index finger together. and watch with your eye's. You will be able to tell your friends you shot a deer at 650 yards."

"Daaad, The claw is shooting the deer. all I'm doing is putting my fingers together."

 

 

 

 

So... in theory, the kid, or the client, or the 70 year old dad who can't walk as far as he used to could actually just stay in the truck, they could run a fishing line from the truck to the trigger, the dad could aim it since the kid or client would obviously have trouble finding it in the scope anyway, then radio back to the kid or client to pull the the line. he pulls the trigger, and could still tell his friends he killed the deer at 650 yards?

 

Or if they make one for a bow, maybe the guys who get reemed for taking 90 yard shots would feel more comfortable posting their success stories.

[ac guy]

I'm not big on giving crap for how guys hunt, but where does this end? I find a good boulder to lay my gun on, and it doesn't move at all. Pretty soon we will set our guns into a contraption with a computer, which zeroes in on an animal, and fires a round after we push a button. Our fathers hunted with no fancy camo, glass, or electronics. Are we getting better, or worse?

[RoughCut]

I'm not big on giving crap for how guys hunt, but where does this end? I find a good boulder to lay my gun on, and it doesn't move at all. Pretty soon we will set our guns into a contraption with a computer, which zeroes in on an animal, and fires a round after we push a button. Our fathers hunted with no fancy camo, glass, or electronics. Are we getting better, or worse?

Pretty soon we won't even need to leave the couch.

[June]

"Dad I want to look in the scope when I shoot."

"No son you might move the gun. Just squeeze your thumb and index finger together. and watch with your eye's. You will be able to tell your friends you shot a deer at 650 yards."

"Daaad, The claw is shooting the deer. all I'm doing is putting my fingers together."

 

 

 

 

So... in theory, the kid, or the client, or the 70 year old dad who can't walk as far as he used to could actually just stay in the truck, they could run a fishing line from the truck to the trigger, the dad could aim it since the kid or client would obviously have trouble finding it in the scope anyway, then radio back to the kid or client to pull the the line. he pulls the trigger, and could still tell his friends he killed the deer at 650 yards?

 

Or if they make one for a bow, maybe the guys who get reemed for taking 90 yard shots would feel more comfortable posting their success stories.

 

 

No can do?

Can't shoot from the truck. Right?

They will have to unload him and place him in a non-motorized chair. Dang, I know that didn't sound too cool. But, I'm going to write that one down in my will. That way when I can't remember anymore. They will have to unload me from the truck. I wonder if i could get some assistance from social security to pay for the claw.

[hawkeye]

I'm not big on giving crap for how guys hunt, but where does this end? I find a good boulder to lay my gun on, and it doesn't move at all. Pretty soon we will set our guns into a contraption with a computer, which zeroes in on an animal, and fires a round after we push a button. Our fathers hunted with no fancy camo, glass, or electronics. Are we getting better, or worse?

 

I am one of those older guys that had to use a boulder and a gun that would only shoot about 200 yards. Back then a deer tag only cost .75 cents and we cried our eyes out when they went up to $1.50. With the cost of hunting these days I think anything that helps with your hunt is OK. A good freind just gave me a CLAW and I can't wait to try it out. My only problem is that I retired my heavy Bogen tripod a couple of years ago, now I will have to start packing it again. I think the CLAW will help my old shaky a$$. I will trade the weight and take my Harris bi-pod off of my Sendaro 300 ultra-mag.

[bobbyo]

[

I am one of those older guys that had to use a boulder and a gun that would only shoot about 200 yards. Back then a deer tag only cost .75 cents and we cried our eyes out when they went up to $1.50. With the cost of hunting these days I think anything that helps with your hunt is OK. A good freind just gave me a CLAW and I can't wait to try it out. My only problem is that I retired my heavy Bogen tripod a couple of years ago, now I will have to start packing it again. I think the CLAW will help my old shaky a$$. I will trade the weight and take my Harris bi-pod off of my Sendaro 300 ultra-mag.

 

Unless you have a muzzlebrake I'm not sure if the ultra mag will stand upright. The heavy Bogen, may be the right medicine. I would love to see any pics of bucks you or your buddy's shot with the $1.50 tags. I get a kick out of seeing that. Was it like Nevada back then where body weight of the deer counted more than antler size.

[Kilimanjaro]

I picked mine up from Jay and Cade this past weekend at the NRA convention.. I have been practicing off of it a couple of times already and i must say that I'll NEVER be in the mountains again without it!! I LOVE it!

[yumabowhunter]

I don't think we have to worry about the claw ruining hunting. You still have to get out in the country and find a quality animal worth taking.

[GameHauler]

Amanda,

Have you checked into putting the Claw in your store?

I still think they are way over priced but I do want one

If I have to pay for something like that I would love to see

a bit of my money go to the site.

Even if it is only 50% which they could afford to help the site

[The Claw]

It was a pleasure meeting many of you at the NRA show. I am looking forward to seeing the bull that Scott shoots this elk season. Great guy to talk with. I won't comment too much on the Claw's ability to "change hunting as we know it", although I did find some of the conjectures pretty creative and funny. Like any device (ie four-wheeler, GPS, radio, or different types of weapons themselves) it has the potential to do many things, but it is the ethics of the hunter that decides how it is used. Having said that, I wish I could say all you have to do is get a Claw and the shooting is all taken care of. I appreciate BobbyO's review but shooting with the Claw does NOT make up for poor shooting gear or poor shooting techniques. If you are not up to par with either of those then you will still be a bad shooter. What The Claw does is provide for the most versatile shooting platform on the market so that you are able to dictate when you have a shot versus the terrain or animal dictating if you have a shot. Now, my dad and his dad did pretty well shooting off of tree limbs and rocks but for most of us we do not feel bad about already making the jump to utilizing some kind of shooting support. Sure you can shoot very long distances off The Claw but only if you can already shoot long distances accurately. I am sure BobbyO was already a great shot. But his enthusiasm that exuded when he described shooting off of it is the normal response. It is really fun to shoot off of and it is for that reason that it is particularly enjoyable for the beginner or youth hunter as well. For those of you that have already purchased a Claw, Enjoy and please send pictures of your adventures to us!

 

My main purpose of this post was to make a comment on the price. There will always be some who have a problem with the price of something. I have problems with the price of many things, not just outdoor gear. Heck I paid over $200 for a level and angle indicator for my rifle but when that equipment played an integral part in my dad being able to shoot his elk this year with all his sons there to watch.....I would have paid double that.

 

Having said that, it has always been our goal to make the Claw more affordable without sacrificing the imperative quality restrictions. Now that we are near the end of our first fabrication lot when production costs were outrageous, we are anticipating being able to reduce fabrication costs and have thus decided to reduce the suggested retail price of The Claw to $120 in advance. I know that this may still be high for some and I wish we could do more but all I can say that if you can afford it....it will be a worthy lifetime gear investment.

 

It is true, Jim White and The Outdoorsman's has started carrying some units. As you may already know they are tripod pro's as well so they can get you outfitted into the tripod that best suits your hunting needs if needed.

 

I would also like to mention that we donated two Claws to the Arizona Deer Association for the upcoming Banquet so that may be a good opportunity to get one and help a worthy cause at the same time!

 

Enjoy the summer and get ready for what looks to be like another great hunting season!

[firstcoueswas80]

I get a kick out of people placing $100 bi-pods on a rifle, but no wanting to carry a Claw because of price!

 

I am 99.999% I will be with Scottyboy on his elk hunt, and I will watch him smoke that 390" we are going to find (no pressure Scott). I am also sure that I will get a chance to play with it. As well, I am quite sure it will find its way onto which ever rifle I am packing at the time... (been eyeing that Kimber in the classifieds!)

 

I have seen and handled one, but never shot off of one and I think it looks like one Bad Arse piece of equipment. I cant wait to test one out, and strap one to "El Chupacabra"!