Exhibitor spotlight: 3 Legged Thing
3 Legged Thing took a gamble on a stand at the NEC in 2025 and left with an entirely new business. Ahead of the company's return in 2027, we look at how a tripod maker built a range spanning airgun, rimfire and centrefire
Visitors on the 3 Legged Thing stand at the NEC, where a tripod maker found a second business
Photographs: Sarah Farnsworth, unless otherwise credited
In February 2025 a Bedfordshire-based photographic accessories company took a 3m x 3m stand at the Great British Shooting Show, put a few tactical tripods on it, and waited to see what would happen. Its founder had barely fired a shot since his air cadet days. He had no products on sale to shooters, no distribution in the sector and no clear idea whether anyone would stop.
“We turned up at the show and got mobbed for three days,” says Danny Lenihan. “I could not believe how busy that show was compared to the photographic shows.”
Two years on, 3 Legged Thing is set to return to the NEC with a stand many times that size and a range that has spread well beyond where it started. Moderators and muzzle brakes, bipods and scope rings, gun saddles, stalking tripods and tactical tripods in service with police forces and the British Army. Whatever you shoot, there is a reasonable chance something on the stand is aimed at you.
From a chicken shed in Stagsden to 60 countries
3 Legged Thing has been a familiar name to photographers since 2010. Founded in a chicken shed in the village of Stagsden, where the company is still based, it built its reputation on tripods that were engineered properly and, unusually at the time, came in colours other than black. Distribution now reaches more than 60 countries. Danny himself arrived at manufacturing by an odd route, having left school without GCSEs, worked for seven years as a press photographer in London, and then built a career as a touring stand-up comedian before buying and selling camera gear on eBay turned into a business.
What brought him to the NEC was not a hunch. In 2018 the GB rifle team emailed to say they were already using 3 Legged Thing tripods, which was the first hard evidence Danny had that his products could take the punishment of recoil. The company sponsored the team, and shooters from other disciplines kept telling him he ought to build for the sector properly. The 2025 stand was his way of testing that.
Learning to shoot before designing for shooters
He came back convinced, and then did something more thorough than most brands entering a new category. He learned to shoot. He bought an air rifle, joined Oundle Rifle and Pistol Club, worked through his firearms certificate and bought a .308. “I can’t design a product without having a bit of authenticity behind it,” he says. The centrefire rifle taught him something the tripod business had never had to consider. A camera sits still, whereas a bipod has to absorb recoil, and he found himself repositioning after every shot. That led him into muzzle brakes, barrel tuners and barrel harmonics, all of which are now in development.
One tripod, three legs, every shooting position
The modular thinking that made the company’s name in photography is the thread running through everything on the stand. 3 Legged Thing tripods have three detachable legs, so one tripod converts to a monopod or a bipod in seconds and moves with the shooter from a standing supported position to kneeling, bench or prone. Stalkers and pest controllers are the natural users of the lighter models. At the heavy end, the tactical tripods are in service with UK police forces and the British Army, and Danny has supplied the US Navy in the past. Gun saddles launched recently and are already in use with police forces.
The £129 moderator that changed the company’s fortunes
The product that changed the company’s fortunes, though, was one he had not planned. Sitting in his garden with head of engineering Rob Kendrick, working on a bipod design, he was asked what the tube on the end of his rifle was. They removed the moderator, fired, refitted it and fired again, and Danny describes the difference as a light-switch moment. When they opened it up, what they found inside was a bare metal cage wrapped in wadding. It retailed at £129.
That teardown sent the company down a rabbit hole of vortex management, staged decompression and the behaviour of air leaving a muzzle behind a projectile. The result was two airgun moderator ranges: Reservoir Mods, built from identical stackable chambers so shooters can add or remove sections to suit the rifle, and the Modfather, a short high-capacity design. In the UK alone, the company sold thousands of moderators in May and June. The shooting range is distributed to British gun shops by Range Right.
The shooters testing them have not been reserved about the results. UK benchrest champion Matthew Gleaves told him the improvement in accuracy had been astonishing. Airgunner Matt Manning has been putting the moderators through their paces and, Danny says, reported back that what they were doing was remarkable.
Bigger airguns, rimfire and the Banshee
The suppression work is now scaling in both directions. Everything designed so far has been for the sub-12 ft-lb market, and Danny has been in the United States working on big-bore airguns far more powerful than anything sold in Britain. At the other end, a tuned moderator and muzzle brake system called the Rimfire Banshee is in development specifically for rimfire target shooters, with firearms-side moderators and muzzle brakes following behind it.
Danny is candid that his interest is accuracy rather than any one discipline. “I’m all about the science of it. I like making airguns and guns more accurate. I like enabling shooters to get those sub-MOA groups, really tiny groups at great distances.” He is equally interested in what better suppression does for a shooter’s comfort, particularly for anyone putting three or four hundred rounds downrange across a competition weekend.
That crossover shows in who is testing the products. Scope rings are already out with precision rifle competitors and with target rifle shooters who have been at world championship level this year, and the same engineering sits underneath the airgun range. Bipods and scope rings are Danny’s current focus, and both are expected on the stand.
What to expect on the stand in 2027
The 2027 show sits in the middle of a busy year for the company. Danny has SHOT Show, the Great British Shooting Show and IWA booked back to back, which for a business of 10 people is a considerable commitment of time and stock. The NEC dates are the ones where British shooters get first sight of whatever has come out of Stagsden in the intervening 12 months.
There is a punchline in this story somewhere, and Danny has the training to spot it. As a former stand-up comedian he spent years being paid to make rooms as loud as he possibly could. He now spends all his time working out how to make things quiet.
Find out more at 3leggedthing.com.
Frequently asked questions
Where is 3 Legged Thing based?
The company was founded in 2010 in a chicken shed in the village of Stagsden, Bedfordshire, and it is still based there. Its tripods are now distributed in more than 60 countries.
Who sells 3 Legged Thing shooting products in the UK?
The shooting range, including the Reservoir Mods and Modfather airgun moderators, is distributed to British gun shops by Range Right.
When is the next Great British Shooting Show?
The show returns to the NEC Birmingham on 12, 13 and 14 February 2027, where 3 Legged Thing will be exhibiting with a larger stand than its first visit in 2025.