Caldwell Chair Pod

Start a conversation among shooters about the perfect shooting rest and you’ll find advocates for everything from a fencepost to a machine rest, by way of bags, bipods, double, triple and quadruple sticks, and any number of other devices. Nevertheless, all rests are a compromise between stability – their primary purpose-, portability – they’re no use if they’re not where you are-, and, flexibility – they’re no use if they don’t let you point your rifle at the target. The choice of rest will therefore depend on what the buyer wants to use it for.

For example, when stalking, I generally take a traditional single stick with a fork on the end. It’s very portable and flexible, and even though it’s not particularly stable, typical ranges are short enough that this doesn’t matter. When sitting still to ambush quarry, however, I often use a high seat. It doesn’t need to be carried into position each time, so portability isn’t an issue. It also comes with its own rifle rest, which offers a fair degree of stability, but does restrict the angle at which shots can be taken to some extent. At other times, I shoot from ground level using a low-slung folding chair from Cabelas, combined with a pair of aluminium Stoney Point sticks. This gear is readily portable, even when wearing a backpack, and when set-up is stable enough for a couple of hundred yards. Moving the chair and sticks round to take a shot at an animal that has come up on a flank or from behind is awkward, however, so this set-up doesn’t score very highly on flexibility.

Enter the Chair-Pod from Caldwell. Imported and distributed in the UK by Edgar Brothers, the Chair-Pod takes the rifle-rest element from Caldwell’s successful tripodbased Dead-Shot Field-Pod, adds an articulated arm, and mounts the lot on a sturdy folding chair.

Out of the box, there’s a little assembly to do, but 20 minutes, an Allen key (supplied), a Philips screwdriver (your own), and the well-illustrated instruction booklet easily take care of that.

U-Pod

Assembled, the Chair-Pod weighs 22lbs, its seat is 19 inches from the ground, and its four legs give a footprint around 19 x 14.5 inches. The legs have broad rubber feet, but surprisingly are not individually adjustable for height to accommodate uneven ground, with clear implications for stability in some locations.

The legs are topped off by a turntable, on which the seat can rotate smoothly and silently through 360 degrees, winning it major points for flexibility. The bottom and back of the seat are formed from a single piece of dense nylon mesh that is strong, light and breathable. Projecting from the front of the seat is a bracket with a big polymer knob. Like all the knobs on the Chair-Pod it’s reassuringly rugged and easy to grip. It supports and secures the upright part of the articulated arm on which the shooting rest itself is mounted. This upright is slid through the bracket – configurable for use with either hand – and locked in place to set the basic height of the rest.

At the top of the upright is a sturdy pivoting arm that pans from side to side, and at the end of this is the connection to the shooting rest, which pans and tilts like a tripod head. In each case, movement can be controlled by tightening or loosening the relevant knobs.

Further flexibility is provided by the shooting rest. Identical to the one found on the Dead- Shot Field-Pod, it lets you adjust the height of both rifle supports and the spacing between them, and move the rest forward or back, so that the rifle’s centre of gravity sits right above the pivot.

The supports are tipped with wide rubber yokes to hold your rifle securely without scratching it. Other parts of the rifle rest are made either from anodised aluminium tubing or polymer, whilst the articulated arm and the frame and legs of the chair are tubular or square-section steel, with a powder-coated finish.

The aluminium parts are an attractive light-bronze colour that nicely complements the desert tan of the seat material, frame and fittings. Tan is a good general-purpose choice, and doesn’t look as bright from a distance as it does up close, but you could always paint the Chair-Pod if you preferred a different colour scheme.

Take A Seat

Having assembled the Chair-Pod and familiarised myself with it, it was time to try it out in the field.

Two shoulder straps let you carry it like a backpack, but first you have to remove the articulated arm from the seat bracket, fold up the seat, secure the legs with a pair of small, tan-coloured straps with hook-and-loop fastenings, fold the rifle supports flat, and slide the upright post of the arm through two black rubber grommets attached to the seat frame until the rifle rest engages with a pair of rubberised stops on top. It takes more time to describe than to do.

The wide, adjustable shoulder straps spread the weight nicely, but the Chair- Pod can dig into your back a bit, and of course it also stops you wearing a backpack unless you devise a way of hanging one off the chair frame. So it is portable, but at a price in comfort and convenience.

Once in position, it’s quick and quiet to set-up, and its inherent weight helps keeps it stable. Nevertheless, you do need to make sure you are sitting on it – or that you pivot the support arm so that it is centred above the seat – before you place your rifle in the rest, or both chair and rifle will end up in a heap on the ground.

Now you can really start to appreciate the Chair-Pod’s design. Properly balanced and tensioned, it’s a bit like having a robotic exoskeleton! The rifle moves where you want it to go, but then stays where you left it. The Chair-Pod takes all the strain too, and frees your hands for other tasks, such as glassing or calling. Movement is completely silent, and you get a true 360-degree traverse, as well as plenty of downward adjustment, though the rest is not well-suited for shooting steeply upwards, since the centre pivot cannot be raised even to shoulder height.

When you come to take a shot, don’t expect the hold offered by the Chair-Pod to be as solid as a bench-rest. Instead, act as if you were shooting off-hand, and use the rest to supplement and enhance your skeletal strength and muscle control. To get on target, begin by pivoting the seat so you are sitting at 45 degrees to your target, then swing the pivot arm towards you and lean back to get extra support from the chair back. Make the rifle come to you. Don’t go to it!

Once settled, fine-tune the height and balance of the rifle by adjusting the support, and experiment with your hold to put as little of your pulse into the system as you can. Once you have found a method that works for you, you’ll find your confidence quickly grows with each target you hit.

Trio Test

So how does the Caldwell Chair- Pod stack up overall against my three basic criteria of stability, portability and flexibility?

Stability: 7/10. The Chair- Pod requires fairly level ground and does show some flex and bounce, but appropriate technique can compensate for this.

Portability. 7/10. The Chair- Pod is compact when collapsed for carrying and is a manageable weight, but it is also a bit uncomfortable and limits the amount of other kit you can carry.

Flexibility. 9/10. Except for the hunter who needs to shoot steeply up-hill or into the treetops the Chair-Pod is a superb performer: a cross between an exoskeleton and a tank turret!

As I implied at the start, I don’t believe there’s any such thing as the perfect shooting rest for all conditions and purposes, but if you ambush your quarry from ground level, whether in the open or from a hide, and want 360-degree coverage, then the Caldwell Chair- Pod fits the bill very well indeed. Price: £244.99 from the Sportsman Gun Centre