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Advanced Marksmanship Proper bipod heigth for prone

Cz455guru

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Minuteman
Oct 13, 2017
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In one of the podcast, Frank makes a comment about lifting the bipods up. (I think I heard right, if not that's what I thought I heard lol) I was struggling to get a friend's 6.5 Creed Weatherby mark 5 to shoot with my normal prone position, which is as low as I can get, so I was like screw it, I'll lift my bipod and get a bigger rear bag so I have to lift my upper body off the ground Abit more. What do you know it went from shooting about 1 moa to .5 moa with this adjustment. Can anybody comment on the mechanics of proper form when shooting from a bipod in relation to heigth. Maybe I've had it wrong all my life trying to get everything low to the ground.
 
I’m tired, so I’ll just put in a brief comment.

Only your bottom rib should touch the ground in the prone. The rest of your chest should be off the ground. An erect head and elevated chest make for a better position; no strain on the head, and minimizeimg movement from your lungs moving.

I’m sure others will pipe in...
 
I normally just get comfy and raise the bipod until the gun is in line with the rest of my body in prone. So that puts me at 1-2 clicks up for a CAL and 0-1 click up for a Ckye.
 
So far my evening has been spent researching this and some interesting videos I came up with to generate discussion and maybe support a more scientific approach to the reason for this.







The video that Philip done probably explains the shooting fundamental that lifting my bipod forced me to do. The other videos show how that increased my results on target. The affects of this really seems to show its self when I'm shooting calibers that recoil more then my .223 and 6 dasher or light weight guns. I also tried this with my .223 this evening and it was a exceptional group for that gun. I'm interested in more thoughts or what works for you.
 
So far my evening has been spent researching this and some interesting videos I came up with to generate discussion and maybe support a more scientific approach to the reason for this.







The video that Philip done probably explains the shooting fundamental that lifting my bipod forced me to do. The other videos show how that increased my results on target. The affects of this really seems to show its self when I'm shooting calibers that recoil more then my .223 and 6 dasher or light weight guns. I also tried this with my .223 this evening and it was a exceptional group for that gun. I'm interested in more thoughts or what works for you.

Never heard about the second and third videos you posted but I guess I know what I’m watching while I have my morning coffee.
 
You want to be high enough to have your head erect and your chest off the ground as stated above. It helps with all manners of things, consistent cheek pressure included.

I always used to shoot as low as possible and did okay. After I heard Frank say to raise up, it significantly reduced my fliers. Replacing a shit bipod with a CAL also reduced my avg. group size by 50% or so. It used to be a bitch to shoot sub half moa consistently. Now I have a lot of groups that are 4 in one hole with one .3 out because I still suck at breathing correctly and sympathetic squeeze when I squeeze the trigger.

One thing I will caution, don't get so high on your elbows that your shoulders are shrugged. Your shoulder should be very relaxed with the gun being held tight to it using the bicep to hold it there. Having tension in the shoulder, or not enough pressure back will cause the gun to sort of bounce off. It makes the recoils impulse much more visually violent and makes it harder to see what is happening down range.
 
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) I was struggling to get a friend's 6.5 Creed Weatherby mark 5 to shoot with my normal prone position, which is as low as I can get, so I was like screw it, I'll lift my bipod and get a bigger rear bag so I have to lift my upper body off the ground Abit more. What do you know it went from shooting about 1 moa to .5 moa with this adjustment.
Did you not see a cause/effect relationship between a more relaxed, less forced position and better results on target?

If you did, what else do you need?
 
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Let your body be the baseline for your bipod. I think a lot of guys are either too propped up on elbows or just laying on top of the rifle with it on target; too high vs too low. IMO prone should start with your back muscles lifting you up from being face in the dirt/dead on the ground. Lifting with your back presses your top ribs into the ground and glues you down. Wherever your shoulder is when you can comfortably raise up without propping up and without straining is your baseline for where you should set everything else up. Doing this connects YOU to the ground so you can connect the rifle to you. Guys want to connect the rifle to the ground through the bag which works with little or no recoil but you’ve got to have it connected to the ground through you to control any amount of recoil.