Tipton Ultra Gun Vise Review: A Must-Have for DIY

I doubt any tool in my office sees more use than my Tipton Best Gun Vise. I can’t begin to estimate how many scopes I’ve mounted using that vise, but the number is well over a hundred. As highly as I regard my old Tipton, the design had room for improvements. While I could work on bolt-action rifles and shotguns without issue, using the vise for handguns, ARs, and break-action muzzleloaders was challenging.

Tipton’s new Ultra Gun Vise addresses those challenges and is perhaps the most versatile tool for any hunter or shooter. Thanks to the new, easy-to-adjust modular design, the Ultra Gun Vise serves as a functional workstation for any firearm, and even vertical bows and crossbows. What’s more, the Ultra Gun Vise offers plenty of storage options, so you can keep tools, screws, scope rings, and any other small items close by and organized.

Tipton Ultra Gun Vise Design

At the heart of this vise is a rigid steel tube frame that supports your firearm and secures all the included accessories in place. The four articulating leveling feet at each corner of the frame adjust independently, which is an excellent feature when you’re working on uneven terrain at the range or in the field. The pads on the feet won’t mar the surface of your workstation, yet they provide a secure, solid contact point for the vise. If you’d prefer to bolt the vise to a tabletop, it’s a simple process: remove the four leveling feet following the directions in the manual, replace them with M8 fasteners and bolt the unit to the surface of your table.

There are five primary attachments that secure to the Tipton’s metal framework: two gun clamps, two removable trays, and a vise block. With these five components, you can assemble your chassis however you’d like in a matter of seconds. The gun clamps and vise block slip in place onto the metal frame and rotating the oversized knobs allows you to secure these items in place on the chassis. The trays simply click in position, so they’re very simple to install and remove anywhere along the metal frame.

The gun clamp pads feature a ball-and-socket design that allows them to articulate. This also helps secure bows and guns with uneven surfaces that might slip free from a traditional gun vise. The clamps can even be removed for cleaning firearms with wide forearms, and the soft-rubber surface of the clamps lock firmly in place on your firearm without marring the wood or metal. Since each gun clamp offers adjustable elevation, you can raise or lower the front or rear clamp as needed based on the design of the firearm. For example, if you’re working on an AR upper, you might want the clamps to be at equal height, but if you switch to a bolt-action rifle, you’ll likely need to lower the rear clamp to level the rifle. Doing so requires nothing more than loosening the elevation knob on the side of the clamp and lowering or raising it to the desired height.

The vise block allows shooters to clean and maintain their AR rifles and pistols and features special tools to help with the process. On one side of the Vise Block there’s a molded bolt service station with a bolt lug retaining rib. This allows you to secure the bolt to perform disassembly and assembly tasks that can be a real hassle to accomplish. The vise block also has a hammer-stop function that protects the lower receiver while dry firing. When the lower receiver is positioned on the vise block, simply rotate the hammer block into position and you’ll prevent any potential damage to the firearm.

Each of the polymer trays contain three separate compartments of different sizes. This makes a great place to store items like cleaning jags and brushes, screws, or small tools. On more than one occasion, I’ve removed a screw from a scope or reflex sight and misplaced it, but with the modular tray design, you’ll always have a secure space to store small items close at hand. The trays lock into place on the metal frame, and the flat base allows these trays to rest securely on a flat surface after being removed from the vise.

For more information on the Ultra Gun Vise or any of Tipton’s other firearms products visit their website at tiptonclean.com.

Light, Durable and Highly Configurable

If I’m traveling to a shoot or a hunt in my vehicle, I like to carry a vise with me if possible. Tasks like removing tight thread protectors or adjusting optics can be accomplished in the field without a vise but having one close by makes life much easier. Plus, since the Tipton Ultra Vise measures just 32 inches long and 12 inches wide, it doesn’t take up a lot of space in your truck or SUV.

Even with its durable steel frame, the Tipton Ultra Gun Vise weighs just 15 pounds, which means I can easily slide it into the bed of my pickup with the rest of my shooting gear. I hauled the Ultra Gun Vise to the shooting range, and while I didn’t need to make any scope adjustments, it offered a secure resting spot for my bolt-action rifles as their barrels cooled between shooting sessions.

The Ultra Gun Vise’s polymer construction make it light, but it’s also very robust. This vise firmly secures even the largest firearms, and the polymer is resistant to damage from gun cleaning solvents. Even after years of use as a cleaning station, my old Tipton vise remains in perfect condition, and the Ultra Gun Vise is just as rugged. You can expect decades of service from this product.

The Tipton Manual offers a guide to various Ultra Gun Vise layouts that will fit most any firearm. Bolt-action rifles require adjusting the front and rear clamp to level the rifle. You can remove the vise block or, if you’d prefer, simply loosen and lower it so it stays out of the way. The layout for AR rifles is quite similar (although you’ll want to rotate the vise block upward and insert it into your rifle’s magazine well). Raising one gun clamp and lowering the other makes it easy to secure break-action firearms, and I could easily reconfigure the vise to lock my Ruger Redhawk .44 Magnum revolver in place. Mounting bows, crossbows, bullpups and muzzleloaders is just as easy, so the Tipton Gun Vise works for everyone.

The Vise for Every Shooter

I’ve gotten a great deal of use from my first Tipton vise, but it’s time to upgrade. It simply can’t match the one-vise-for-all versatility of the Ultra Gun Vise. And, despite its array of potential configurations, the Ultra Gun Vise doesn’t take up much any more space on my workbench than my old gun.

If you’re a shooter, hunter, gunsmith or bow shop owner, the Tipton Gun Vise is a must-have accessory, and at a price of just $189.99, it’s a great value. Is there a shooter on your holiday gift list? Look no further than the Tipton Gun Vise. This really is one accessory that fits all shooters.

---