Are there any good, ready-made shoulder stocks suitable for serious telephoto (image-stabilized, of course) wildlife work?
I've never come across one any better than the older NovoFlex shoulder stock that was bundled with a Novoflex Follow-focus kit I picked up a ebay a while ago: it's well-built and solid, suitable for a hefty telephoto; and reasonably adjustable for the user and camera; but it is not as quickly and flexibly adjustable as a unit with a ballhead would be; and many current models continue Novoflex's practice of incorporating a trigger for the camera's shutter release on the (often pretty bulky, to my taste) foregrip, which is pointless unless the right hand is needed to operate a Novoflex-type squeeze-focus control. As a right-hander, my trigger finger is on my right hand, and in all the various shoulder stocks I've made for various rigs, I've always used the camera's shutter button (gripping the camera with the right hand), and relegated the left arm/hand to supporting the lens and manipulating the zoom and focus rings. The only minor disadvantage to this is in taking a picture in Portrait (vertical) orientation, which on most cameras requires raising the right elbow and twisting one's wrist--not much of a hardship, and unnecessary with the D2X, which has a vertical grip and second shutter button for this orientation.
The important qualities for a shoulder stock for telephoto wildlife work, IMHO, are that it be
1. very solid and secure, and not flex or slip when slinging a hefty telephoto lens around (mounting the lens-camera as low as possible, not perched atop a vertically-mounted ballhead--as the Novoflex type would require--helps in this, and makes handling easier);
2. that it be infinitely, and quickly, adjustable to varying circumstances and surroundings, to be able to quickly expoit any awkward field of view an elusive subject may present, and take advantage of any "rest" (tree, or car window-sill, or sunroof) that might be available.
3. and that it permit quick changes from Portrait to Landscape orientation (on lenses with a "tripod" ring; the other option is an L-bracket, which is much slower);
My current favorite shoulder stock, shown below with the D2X and Nikon 200-400mm f4 VR (which weigh in at over 12#) is one I made up from an inexpensive monopod I picked up on ebay, and an Acratech ballhead (rated at 25#, none too much):
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I replaced the stock Nikon lens foot with a low-mount Wimberley foot, attached "backwards" and amputated to just clear the D2X body so it can be quickly rotated between Portrait and Landscape orientations; and added a simple aluminum "forestock" so the left hand can support the lens without actually contacting it, which in the heat of following an elusive subject might inadvertantly change the zoom or focus settings. It's no thing of beauty, but I don't know of any ready-made shoulder stock that can do the job as well.
Below is the shot that made me realize the importance of point 3. The Wurdmann's heron is normally very spooky and camera-shy, but this one was unusually close, and I got several good, full-frame shots of him as was standing around like a lamppost, in vertical Portrait orientation. But he then abruptly began hunting, too quickly for me to change my then inflexible rig to Landscape orientation; all I could do was zoom out and try to follow the action, which included this shot, which happened to catch him at the peak of a strike, and was quite sharp. Even after heavy cropping, it made a decent 10" x 15", 300 dpi print; but it would have made an even better one if I'd been able to fill the frame. (D2X + 200-400mm VR @ 220mm, f8, 1/350 sec; RAW/NEF)
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