The Outdoorsmans F-12 Fluid Head

This tripod head is the culmination of years' worth of man-hours. Outdoorsmans has been known for making extremely durable and well-thought-out products, and it wasn’t an option for that to change. We set out to make the perfect fluid tripod head for western hunting; not just backpack hunting or just truck hunting, but all-around western hunting. There are times you may be using a pair of 10x42s one moment, then your buddy's BTX with a 115mm objective the next, and this head had to perform equally well using both. 

It also needed to be able to withstand dust and dirt from miles in the back of a side-by-side or on the back of a horse, just like all of its predecessors have been. This is no easy feat, and it’s why we felt we needed to create something. Fluid heads were often heavy, and backpacking heads were often flimsy. There was a hole in the market for this head, especially in the ever-shrinking market of American-made tripod parts. I believe that’s what we have created.

The Principles

The perfect fluid head for western hunting, to me, has to be able to pan and tilt smoothly and effortlessly with any optics on it. It also needs to stop and start without any hesitation or “stickiness,” but it also needs to be able to lock out completely and not budge. With nearly every head on the market, you get a couple of those things, but not all of them. Many heads pan smoothly and effortlessly, but they won’t lock out. Others will lock out with any optic but become choppy and hard to use when loosened.

Designing one that will do all of this isn’t easy, but we all knew it was possible, and we knew what it would feel like. I take zero credit in the actual design work, but I will say I’ve been a great “hey, I don’t think this is good enough” guy. The first working prototype was actually pretty good, but we still ended up changing nearly every single internal part (our machinist's worst nightmare). Rev 2 was much closer, with only a few changes needed, and Rev 3, finished only days before I left for Alaska, was what we thought would be the one, and it was.

This year, on a 12-day Dall sheep hunt I was a packer on, my assistant guide, Todd Harney, used the head extensively in weather conditions ranging from 70° and sunny to 35° and raining, and the head performed just how I wanted it to. It worked so well that I couldn’t wait to get back and tell the guys how awesome it was. They were happy to hear it and promptly ripped the head completely apart, looking for signs of wear or any problems that could potentially have formed. They even found some things that they felt they could improve from that test.

Motion

I am not a “gridder.” I seldom sit on a hill and pan one direction, then move down slightly and pan the other direction. I think that is a fine strategy, and it can absolutely be effective, but I personally like to follow the land more naturally. I will follow ridgelines and draws, letting my intuition guide my eyes. I think this helps me cover the country, and it makes more sense when I do find something.

What this leads to is a lot of panning and tilting at the same time, which, traditionally, can be tough with a head that isn't ultra-smooth in both directions. The F-12 has no problems with this, and one of the biggest things I noticed with it is that when I pause moving the head, it comes to a dead stop with no reverberation in any direction. When I start to move again, it moves in one smooth motion without any hesitation or any kind of "jump." If you haven’t tried a bunch of different tripod heads, it just feels, for lack of a better term, correct.

Interface 

On all of the Gen 2 Outdoorsmans heads, the interface is a three-position clamp, which we wanted to keep because we thought it was the best option on the market, but we did feel like we needed it to be adjustable. So, the guys designed a clamp that would still allow for the drop-in, slide-in, and tight positions, but also be adjustable with an Allen key, because, as most folks know, ARCA-Swiss is standard that most plate manufacturers adhere to a little too lightly.

Form Factor

We knew the head couldn’t be overly big and bulky, but finding the balance between a size that works well with large optics and a size you wouldn’t mind carrying all day can be tough. We landed on what I feel is a great compromise. It’s larger than most of the ultra-light options that don’t hold big glass well, but smaller and lighter than nearly every head that does well with optics like a BTX, Kowa Highlander, or dual spotters. The 12 in F-12 refers to the head's weight, and you may see that same naming convention in future projects. Twelve ounces shouldn’t deter many folks from carrying the head on extended backpack hunts, because what it adds in weight to your pack, it makes up for in usability. It weighs the same as the Gen 2 Pan Head and 11 ounces less than our original Fluid Head.

I am proud of this tripod head. In my eyes, it represents what American manufacturing can be. Thinking up an idea, sketching it in a book, and emailing it to a guy who is 5000 miles away to ask if he can make it is all fine and dandy, but dreaming up that idea, spending countless hours tweaking it, then building in a shop WE own, well, that's the American manufacturing dream.