Hey Folks. I thought I would take a few minutes to do an in depth review of Blaine Neal's Horus FTR Bipod. I was one of the first to purchase and receive the Horus Bi-pod. I have had it for about a month or so but was not able to use it because my FTR rebuild wasn't complete.
Last year was my first season shooting FTR. I started out shooting with a Harris Bi-pod and moved to the Sinclair F-Class Bi-pod that had elevation adjustments. I did see quite a few Joy-Pods, Phoenix, etc. on the line. I wanted a joystick style bipod and was getting close to purchasing a Joypod when Blaine announced his.
Cost/Weight/Construction.
I feel his price is right. At $550, its a little more expensive than the Seb Joypod. I figured I'd give it a whirl. I asked Blaine a lot of questions before finally pulling the trigger.
The Horus is constructed from aluminum, steel and carbon fiber and coming in at an advertised weight of 23 oz's. I've not independently verified this. Its light, period. If you are using a Joy-Pod or another and you are close to the weight limit, you may need to be sure you can afford the bump in weight. Its not the lightest but its not the heaviest.
A couple of rods go from the base to the feet and the legs are surrounded by square carbon fiber tubes. The ski feet are made from aluminum and are thin and the pair rock freely from front to rear as designed. Although, when I first got mine, one side was stiff and didn't "flop" freely like the other side. After a weekend of shooting, both my feet "flop" freely.
Rough elevation adjustments are done with a turn buckle at the base of the bi-pod. Not much to this other than I think it is a nice feature and it works.
Here is the meat and taters; the joystick adjustment. You may notice a theme here. I'm comparing it to Seb's products. I've handled a joypod, although I've never shot with one but I hope to this season. My son shoots from a Neo and I've shot his rifle from his rest. I'm not a big fan of "up is up", "right is right". I used to fly RC Heli's and Planes. So to find out that the Horus bi-pod's adjustments being opposite was quite nice. Its very natural. Up is down and left is right.
Tension on the joystick is adjustable. You can make the adjustments as tight as you want or as loose. Its adjustable by 4 screws on the rear plate of the main body. There aren't any tick marks to make adjustments equally, so its a guess as the tension level of the 4 screws.
The stick itself, I believe is a weak link. The rod has some spring to it and the end piece that goes in your hand is sharp. Its a small hallowed out thimble and is made from aluminum. I actually put electrical tape on it to eliminate sore palms.
Another item that I'm not sure is a pro or a con is how the stick attaches to the bi-pod. It doesn't screw in, but is inserted directly into the coax adjuster. Once it's inserted, it stays put. The stick has bends in it but it easily rotates around and you do find yourself playing/fighting with it to get it to stay put while you are making adjustments. It is not a big deal to me. Just something to note. The stick is long enough that you aren't stretching out when shooting.
I used it yesterday and today for about 120 to 140 rounds at the range. I used the stick to make fine adjustments and there is a claimed 40 minutes of adjust-ability in all directions. There is a wide range but I didn't verify exactly how much adjustment there is. I tried several ways of using the stick. I went from using 3 fingers to using just my thumb to hold my shot placement. Its quite easy to use.
I used to use a wooden board with my Sinclair bi-pod and had issues with torque and bounce. I switched to a Pod-Pad with the Horus but I will try the board too. Tracking with the Horus is great. It tracks straight back and its easy to get back on target. Hop is minimal at 200 yards. I've had some long time shooters tell me, that if you keep it close to your target, you are doing pretty good. I think the Horus is going to do well at distance.
Another weak point I feel is the picatinny rail mount. Its minor but I still feel its a negative. I felt like there is to much left/right cant movement after its locked down. I do not have a way to measure how many degrees there is. I was able to refine the adjustment and correct how I go through my shooting process. I'm told the Joy-Pod has some movement there as well.
The Picatinny mount itself is all aluminum. You have to keep an eye on the lever and screw for the picatinny attachment. Today I had to much tension (and you don't need much) on the nut and I pulled threads in the nut. The rough cant adjustment has a plastic/polymer "pod lock", which you will find on a lot of bipods.
I believe the main bolt is steel with the pod lock. I had to use a wrench to put enough tension on it to keep the cant locked in. The bolt spins once you get to a point. I think a design change may be in order to fix this. I like to have my cant locked in which was a big complaint with my sinclair. After shooting a string or two, the torque would loosen it. Through 60 or so rounds today, the cant on the Horus never loosened. This could have been the difference between my old setup and this completely new setup. It did loosen yesterday but I didn't torque it down as much as I did today. I'm hoping that there won't be any negative side effects from the amount of torque I have on it.
Support from Mr. Neal is outstanding. I've talked to him directly via Facebook. When I first received the bi-pod I found a manufacturing mistake. After talking with him, he found his error in the thickness of the "tombstone". He made a new one and since I was the fist to get one, the next person got a new tombstone before he sent it out. I got my new tombstone in a couple of days. It didn't matter to me how long it took because I wasn't ready to start shooting anyhow. I was just glad I caught it and helped him out.
Overall I'm very pleased with the Horus. I would recommend it to anyone. At this time, I don't feel that there is a perfect F-Class bipod. The Horus has a lot of features, at the right price, at the right time for a good price.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.
Thanks and be safe out there.
Last year was my first season shooting FTR. I started out shooting with a Harris Bi-pod and moved to the Sinclair F-Class Bi-pod that had elevation adjustments. I did see quite a few Joy-Pods, Phoenix, etc. on the line. I wanted a joystick style bipod and was getting close to purchasing a Joypod when Blaine announced his.
Cost/Weight/Construction.
I feel his price is right. At $550, its a little more expensive than the Seb Joypod. I figured I'd give it a whirl. I asked Blaine a lot of questions before finally pulling the trigger.
The Horus is constructed from aluminum, steel and carbon fiber and coming in at an advertised weight of 23 oz's. I've not independently verified this. Its light, period. If you are using a Joy-Pod or another and you are close to the weight limit, you may need to be sure you can afford the bump in weight. Its not the lightest but its not the heaviest.
A couple of rods go from the base to the feet and the legs are surrounded by square carbon fiber tubes. The ski feet are made from aluminum and are thin and the pair rock freely from front to rear as designed. Although, when I first got mine, one side was stiff and didn't "flop" freely like the other side. After a weekend of shooting, both my feet "flop" freely.
Rough elevation adjustments are done with a turn buckle at the base of the bi-pod. Not much to this other than I think it is a nice feature and it works.
Here is the meat and taters; the joystick adjustment. You may notice a theme here. I'm comparing it to Seb's products. I've handled a joypod, although I've never shot with one but I hope to this season. My son shoots from a Neo and I've shot his rifle from his rest. I'm not a big fan of "up is up", "right is right". I used to fly RC Heli's and Planes. So to find out that the Horus bi-pod's adjustments being opposite was quite nice. Its very natural. Up is down and left is right.
Tension on the joystick is adjustable. You can make the adjustments as tight as you want or as loose. Its adjustable by 4 screws on the rear plate of the main body. There aren't any tick marks to make adjustments equally, so its a guess as the tension level of the 4 screws.
The stick itself, I believe is a weak link. The rod has some spring to it and the end piece that goes in your hand is sharp. Its a small hallowed out thimble and is made from aluminum. I actually put electrical tape on it to eliminate sore palms.
Another item that I'm not sure is a pro or a con is how the stick attaches to the bi-pod. It doesn't screw in, but is inserted directly into the coax adjuster. Once it's inserted, it stays put. The stick has bends in it but it easily rotates around and you do find yourself playing/fighting with it to get it to stay put while you are making adjustments. It is not a big deal to me. Just something to note. The stick is long enough that you aren't stretching out when shooting.
I used it yesterday and today for about 120 to 140 rounds at the range. I used the stick to make fine adjustments and there is a claimed 40 minutes of adjust-ability in all directions. There is a wide range but I didn't verify exactly how much adjustment there is. I tried several ways of using the stick. I went from using 3 fingers to using just my thumb to hold my shot placement. Its quite easy to use.
I used to use a wooden board with my Sinclair bi-pod and had issues with torque and bounce. I switched to a Pod-Pad with the Horus but I will try the board too. Tracking with the Horus is great. It tracks straight back and its easy to get back on target. Hop is minimal at 200 yards. I've had some long time shooters tell me, that if you keep it close to your target, you are doing pretty good. I think the Horus is going to do well at distance.
Another weak point I feel is the picatinny rail mount. Its minor but I still feel its a negative. I felt like there is to much left/right cant movement after its locked down. I do not have a way to measure how many degrees there is. I was able to refine the adjustment and correct how I go through my shooting process. I'm told the Joy-Pod has some movement there as well.
The Picatinny mount itself is all aluminum. You have to keep an eye on the lever and screw for the picatinny attachment. Today I had to much tension (and you don't need much) on the nut and I pulled threads in the nut. The rough cant adjustment has a plastic/polymer "pod lock", which you will find on a lot of bipods.
I believe the main bolt is steel with the pod lock. I had to use a wrench to put enough tension on it to keep the cant locked in. The bolt spins once you get to a point. I think a design change may be in order to fix this. I like to have my cant locked in which was a big complaint with my sinclair. After shooting a string or two, the torque would loosen it. Through 60 or so rounds today, the cant on the Horus never loosened. This could have been the difference between my old setup and this completely new setup. It did loosen yesterday but I didn't torque it down as much as I did today. I'm hoping that there won't be any negative side effects from the amount of torque I have on it.
Support from Mr. Neal is outstanding. I've talked to him directly via Facebook. When I first received the bi-pod I found a manufacturing mistake. After talking with him, he found his error in the thickness of the "tombstone". He made a new one and since I was the fist to get one, the next person got a new tombstone before he sent it out. I got my new tombstone in a couple of days. It didn't matter to me how long it took because I wasn't ready to start shooting anyhow. I was just glad I caught it and helped him out.
Overall I'm very pleased with the Horus. I would recommend it to anyone. At this time, I don't feel that there is a perfect F-Class bipod. The Horus has a lot of features, at the right price, at the right time for a good price.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.
Thanks and be safe out there.
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