Advanced Marksmanship gripping bipod

223man

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Oct 2, 2009
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Marysville WA
I tried searching for this and I found the thread from a while back where a lot of people had good ideas for stopping the bipod from sliding. I was massing around with a few ideas while dry firing and came up with the notion to just reach up with my support hand and grab the bipod by the leg. I tried this while prone and some alternate positions and it felt really stable and everything. So I wanted to see if any of you do this same thing or not, is it a bad idea or what? Looking forward to your responses.



Thanks,
John
 
Re: gripping bipod

My guess is that you would probably wind up with an unstable shooting position, as your support arm would be too far forward to provide your body with good solid support.

I would suggest trying different bipod feet. For example I found the harris bipod feet worked well in the dirt or on a mat, but on concrete they tended to spin around a bit and push forward. The Atlas V8 bipod round fixed rubber feet did a much better job of staying put.

There are also some shooting mats that have a channel in them to lock in the bipod feet, but a nice military surplus wool blanket normally works pretty well to give bipod feet a bit of extra grip instead of concrete.
 
Re: gripping bipod

The atlas bipod feet do much better than the standard harris on the concrete. They don't slide when preloading as bad. If you push hard enough they will.

That said, I use a small rubberish mat under my bipod when shooting off the concrete, just enough to make the surface a little softer. I try to simulate the surface that I will be shooting off of in the field. For me it would mostly be hunting conditions i.e. dirt, grass, gravel. I don't know if it makes that much of a difference, but I "think" I get a little bit of vertical dispersion when I don't use the matt under the feet. I haven't done any formal testing but the few times I shot without the matt it seemed like I had some more vertical in my groups. Probably just incidental, so take that for what it's worth.

If you're holding the bipod, I don't think you'd be able to control the rear bag and support the buttstock very well.

my.02
 
Re: gripping bipod

Thanks guys for your opinions. I will be ordering an atlas eventually. How ever with the suggestions on shooting mats and rubber pads and the like, I don't want to ad to my kit(trying to keep it simple). I am not looking to do this so much from prone, sorry if that seemed like my intent. But looking for little tips and tricks for shooting alternate positions. And as far as not supporting the stock. When I was trying this method it really pushed the stock into my shoulder, almost like a really aggressive load on the bipod that seemed very solid and stable. But then again like I said I had only tried it during dry fire practice and not live.
 
Re: gripping bipod

I'm able to attatch a piece of 550 cord from my shooting mat about two feet from the bipod.i then tie a loop in the en and slip the legs in it.You can sew or use the existing loop on the mat if you have one. By doing this you can load the bipod when your enviroment does not suit this task.

However normally shoot off of a mat that is long enough for the pod to sit on which is enough friction for me to load the pod without the 550 cord.