Drop-In Rail and Bipod

[aaron_c]

In your experience, does shooting with a bipod mounted to a non-FF barrel really affect accuracy at all within 200 yards? A new FF rail, plus all the tools (or having someone install), plus a new flip-up front sight is a lot of expense to incur if it's not going to make more than a few thousandths difference even at my maximum ranges of shooting. What I'm thinking is that the same weight is resting on the bottom of the handguard, whether my hand is supporting it or a bipod is. The bipod would be primarily for bench shooting.

Thanks for any input!

 

[Redmanss]

Re: Drop-In Rail and Bipod

It can make a difference when you load the bipod, but the significance of the shift depends on just how accurate you're trying to be. Group shooting, yeah, you'll notice a bit of a shift but it will be marginal inside 200yds. Hits on silhouette targets, not so much.

If you're trying to keep the cost down then why not give it a try? Worst thing that can happen is you'll be out the cost for the cheap little rail on your handguard, right?

If you do decide to shift it over to free floated, then you might as well buy a new upper if you're looking for accuracy. A free floated chrome lined barrel is still less accurate than a quality SS barrel. Get a package built for your intended purposes.

 

[BOL556]

Re: Drop-In Rail and Bipod

Check out the yankee hill machine rails, can usually get them for about 130 bucks or so and put it on yourself. Wait a couple months or so and get the harris bipod with the rail adapt. If you are shooting with an optic then the back up sights can wait. It took me almost 3 years to build off the stock RRA the way I wanted it and instead of wasting money on things that might work I just waiting for what I knew would work the first time.

 

[scottishclanman2]

Re: Drop-In Rail and Bipod

We were using G22's with the germans and there was no issues shooting at 200 or 300. i would prefer to just shoot off a backpack any day of the week with a sand sox. once the natural point of aim is good ur solid. being overseas i also prefered to shoot off a bag.another thing just to get the gears rolling you never want to have a hard on hard contact such as concrete and the bipods....i know that situations will dictate what shooting method you will use but soft to hard is the best.

 

[aaron_c]

Re: Drop-In Rail and Bipod

Thanks for the info, guys. Yeah, there's no chance of me being able to afford a whole new upper, I'll be struggling to scrape the money together if I do go free-float. I have a Troy 9" drop-in right now and I like it a lot, other than not being free floating. Only problem I ran into when trying to go FF was the cost of either A) installation or B) tools to do the installation, running easily up near $100 total either way.

 

[Conrad101st]

Re: Drop-In Rail and Bipod

I think LRS is on the money. I rarely use one except for prairie dogs. Bipods are nice for convenience but it's a trade off for extra weight carried in your hands which impacts my offhand shooting.

My experience is that on a heavier weapon that's truly free floated it seems to have less effect on group size. However, on my lighter hunting rifles (even free floated) a sand bag front with bean bag rear got much tighter groups. It pops less off the bench when on bags.

Even with my 35 lbs 50 bmg bolt gun, I used three sand bags when I was load testing the AMAX loads if that tells you anything.

 

[Rovieairto]

Re: Drop-In Rail and Bipod

Keep the forces on the barrel the same, and their effect can be anticipated.

At Perry the AMU conducted a test where the instructor put his finger on the barrel of a shooter at 100 yards.
I don't know how hard he was pushing with his finger but he managed to move the group about 7" to the side.

There are some cheap free float tubes (w/o rails) out there for around $45 and they work as good as any.

The tools that you need to install a barrel are good tools to have around anyhow.