How to shoot with a bipod?
- Thread starter 1911nut
- Start date
Warren Dean
Team Savage F-TR
Mike, it's not easy at all. There are just too many variables to include....body type, musculature, stock design, front-to-back balance of the rifle, recoil energy, whatever material the bipod is resting on, shooter's position, shooter head height above the mat.....there are probably a dozen more but just those would preclude any kind of "technological" answer to dealing with bipod recoil movement.
Managing it is part of the skill set needed in the sport. Technology can't fix everything.
As a noob, here's what worked for me with a Harris. Use whatever amount of pressure results in the most consistent shots. I seem to be most consistent with mild pressure, and I tried a lot of different loading methods before coming to that conclusion. Study the videos first, then see what you and your rifle like. You'd be amazed at what 300 rounds of good ammo can do for your consistency.
Modify a Harris to angle legs forward (like 45degs),, just opposite of the tragedy that bipod 'loading' represents. The legs in this configuration could be adjustably damped as well.
Change the feet to slides, and let the gun naturally recoil backward on this -during load development.
If the gun recoils so much as to require shouldering, then that hold force needs to be established as a standard which you found & used as best during load development. Put a load cell in the butt plate feeding an indicator of force, mounted with your gun level. With this, you can apply exactly the same shouldering force shot after shot.
Change the feet to slides, and let the gun naturally recoil backward on this -during load development.
If the gun recoils so much as to require shouldering, then that hold force needs to be established as a standard which you found & used as best during load development. Put a load cell in the butt plate feeding an indicator of force, mounted with your gun level. With this, you can apply exactly the same shouldering force shot after shot.
Warren Dean
Team Savage F-TR
Let us know how that works out.
memilanuk
Gold $$ Contributor
It'd be interesting to have someone take a 'fresh look' at things, though I have my doubts that you'd come up with something that a) dramatically improves on what the top shooters are doing now or b) works across multiple locations.
That last one is what bites a lot of people in the a$$ - they find something that works *really* well on their home range (or that their home range MD 'allows') - and then they go out into the big wide world and find that what works on a concrete firing line doesn't necessarily give the same results on a gravel firing line. Or what works on a grassy firing point doesn't fly on hard-packed clay... or sand. And that sometimes you get a nice flat firing point, and the next day at the same match, you might get squadded on a different firing point that either has a big ol' hole on one side, or is crowned front to back. Sometimes the targets are not on a level plane with the firing line, which does all sorts of interesting things to your recoil management.
There's a reason some of us that have been around the block more than once carry a variety of shims - both plates and sand bags to level things out. Even then sometimes it doesn't work the way you want - the rear bag on one side of the crest, angled up, and the bipod on the other side of the crest, with the ski feet angled down. Yes, sometimes it really is that bad. And no, you don't really have any recourse - someone else shot from there yesterday, and another someone will shoot from there tomorrow. Learn to adapt.
Shooting from a Harris bipod with a rear squeeze bag with a bit more 'hold' is an entirely different animal than shooting a ski style bipod with a heavy Edgewood or Protektor rear bag fitted to the stock to track just right. The latter is more 'precise' and repeatable under 'nominal' conditions, but can be a bear to work with when the firing points get ugly. The old Harris gets a lot of bad-mouthing, but they work pretty well across a wide variety of scenarios, which is probably why they're still around after all these years.
That last one is what bites a lot of people in the a$$ - they find something that works *really* well on their home range (or that their home range MD 'allows') - and then they go out into the big wide world and find that what works on a concrete firing line doesn't necessarily give the same results on a gravel firing line. Or what works on a grassy firing point doesn't fly on hard-packed clay... or sand. And that sometimes you get a nice flat firing point, and the next day at the same match, you might get squadded on a different firing point that either has a big ol' hole on one side, or is crowned front to back. Sometimes the targets are not on a level plane with the firing line, which does all sorts of interesting things to your recoil management.
There's a reason some of us that have been around the block more than once carry a variety of shims - both plates and sand bags to level things out. Even then sometimes it doesn't work the way you want - the rear bag on one side of the crest, angled up, and the bipod on the other side of the crest, with the ski feet angled down. Yes, sometimes it really is that bad. And no, you don't really have any recourse - someone else shot from there yesterday, and another someone will shoot from there tomorrow. Learn to adapt.
Shooting from a Harris bipod with a rear squeeze bag with a bit more 'hold' is an entirely different animal than shooting a ski style bipod with a heavy Edgewood or Protektor rear bag fitted to the stock to track just right. The latter is more 'precise' and repeatable under 'nominal' conditions, but can be a bear to work with when the firing points get ugly. The old Harris gets a lot of bad-mouthing, but they work pretty well across a wide variety of scenarios, which is probably why they're still around after all these years.
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