I occasionally hunt from a seated position on the ground, but it's not always easy for me to get a steady shot while doing so. I love my Atlas bipods, but they are nowhere near long enough to use while sitting on the ground.
So a few weeks back, I was browsing Facebook and saw B&T industries (Atlas) posted a link to their leg extensions, which look very nice...but they also mentioned that the inside diameter of their bipod leg is .5" (with the feet removed) and a wood dowel makes a perfect DIY leg extension. Wow, what a great idea...so credit goes to B&T industries for this project.
This past weekend, I ran to Lowes to get a few home improvement items, and the wood dowel leg extension project popped back into my head. So I took a detour to the lumber section and grabbed two oak 1/2" diameter dowels.
After getting home and measuring, I figured that a 20" extension would be ideal to allow me to shoot comfortably while seated. A few quick minutes of work with a hand saw, I had the dowels cut to length. They took a bit of sanding to make them fit inside of the Atlas legs, but nothing major.
after I got them finished, I wanted to dress them up a bit. After rummaging around in my garage, I dug out a few pieces of 1/2" heat shrink tube I had leftover from the service change I did on my house last year. Perfect fit, and it looked damn good once installed and shrunk over the dowels.
Well, I wasn't happy leaving them that way...I wanted a way to run the factory bipod feet. Simple and cheap fix was two 1/2" coupler nuts from Home Depot. I drilled the threads out with a 1/2" bit, and did a little more light sanding on the dowels to make them fit nice and snugly. There was just enough thread left inside of the nuts to grab the detent on the factory feet, so they hold in place perfectly...takes a few pounds of pressure to pull them out. And to cover up that shiny metal, a few inch piece of 3/4" heat shrink tube did the trick.
Im very happy with how these turned out, after doing a little testing...they seem like they'll be perfect. Total cost for this project, under $10 and about an hour of my time.
I didn't mention it, but while at Home Depot grabbing those coupler nuts, I saw 1/2"x36" aluminum rods ($7.xx).Perfect, no worries about snapping the legs like the possibility with the oak (although that's very unlikely in itself, the oak ones are very strong). I ended up cutting the aluminum legs to 17", that way I could get 2 legs from one piece of stock and I could use some of the factory extension on the atlas bipods without making them too tall for me to use comfortably.
Just finished these up with the same process for the feet holders and heat shrink tube. Same as the wood dowels, the aluminum tool a little sanding to make them fit inside of the Atlas legs, but nothing major. Can't wait to get these out in the field to test out.
So a few weeks back, I was browsing Facebook and saw B&T industries (Atlas) posted a link to their leg extensions, which look very nice...but they also mentioned that the inside diameter of their bipod leg is .5" (with the feet removed) and a wood dowel makes a perfect DIY leg extension. Wow, what a great idea...so credit goes to B&T industries for this project.
This past weekend, I ran to Lowes to get a few home improvement items, and the wood dowel leg extension project popped back into my head. So I took a detour to the lumber section and grabbed two oak 1/2" diameter dowels.
After getting home and measuring, I figured that a 20" extension would be ideal to allow me to shoot comfortably while seated. A few quick minutes of work with a hand saw, I had the dowels cut to length. They took a bit of sanding to make them fit inside of the Atlas legs, but nothing major.
after I got them finished, I wanted to dress them up a bit. After rummaging around in my garage, I dug out a few pieces of 1/2" heat shrink tube I had leftover from the service change I did on my house last year. Perfect fit, and it looked damn good once installed and shrunk over the dowels.
Well, I wasn't happy leaving them that way...I wanted a way to run the factory bipod feet. Simple and cheap fix was two 1/2" coupler nuts from Home Depot. I drilled the threads out with a 1/2" bit, and did a little more light sanding on the dowels to make them fit nice and snugly. There was just enough thread left inside of the nuts to grab the detent on the factory feet, so they hold in place perfectly...takes a few pounds of pressure to pull them out. And to cover up that shiny metal, a few inch piece of 3/4" heat shrink tube did the trick.
Im very happy with how these turned out, after doing a little testing...they seem like they'll be perfect. Total cost for this project, under $10 and about an hour of my time.
I didn't mention it, but while at Home Depot grabbing those coupler nuts, I saw 1/2"x36" aluminum rods ($7.xx).Perfect, no worries about snapping the legs like the possibility with the oak (although that's very unlikely in itself, the oak ones are very strong). I ended up cutting the aluminum legs to 17", that way I could get 2 legs from one piece of stock and I could use some of the factory extension on the atlas bipods without making them too tall for me to use comfortably.
Just finished these up with the same process for the feet holders and heat shrink tube. Same as the wood dowels, the aluminum tool a little sanding to make them fit inside of the Atlas legs, but nothing major. Can't wait to get these out in the field to test out.
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