Prevent bipod bounce on concrete bench?

[Alex Wheeler]

I did a lot of testing with long range hunting rifles from a concrete bench. That style rifle will actually shoot smaller from a bipod than a front rest. They are light, shoot heavy bullets, and torque bad. The bipod does a better job controlling that then a rest, even with a plate on the bottom of the stock. I managed to shoot groups approaching BR level with every rifle I tested with this method. I found that I could not load a bipod and achieve the same level of accuracy either. I do not ever load bipods. The setup up is simple, get a piece of regular household carpet. The feet will grab the carpet and the carpet will slide with the recoil. You wont get any bounce and your poi will be the same prone too. Use a rear bunny ear style bag and just squeeze the ears to aim. I shoot almost free recoil. Never muscle the gun, it should always have a natural point of aim every shot. I grew a preference for the Atlas bipods because they have some for and aft play. I would push to rifle forward to take up the play then back off the rifle. That little bit of play allowed some recoil before the feet would drag. From a 7 pound 300 mag to a 18 pound 338 lapua imp, they all shot tiny groups this way. And yes, if the field they were shot in the same way. Even if I had to balance the rifle on some sage brush, light hold with natural point of aim and they never miss.

 

[Bill Norris]

These free small carpet samples works good on my EGW Mystic Pod feet with my Rem M-7 on the bench. I fastened them to the feet with small zip-ties.

 

[jds holler]

I had never tried shooting groups from a bipod on the bench until I got this AR. I had a short Harris laying around, and gave it a try. I'm pretty much sold on it. I'm getting 1 inch groups with it, which is so far about as good as that rifle shoots.

Now I'm gonna try it with my squirrel rifle, and I'll know if I'm giving up anything compared to the bags. jd

 

[DLT]

We have been putting various bipods to the acid test shooting 22 50 yard matches off concrete bench--we have found through a lot of testing that a piece of thin yoga mat is best--it beat out bare concrete, towel, carpet ( two kinds) and it beat the tool box drawer liner all by a lot. We let the groups do the talking. We have also found that the Mystic Mpod bipod from EGW and the Sinclair f Class bipod are by far the best we have tested--both do not require the "loading" for our weight rifles using the yoga mat--it has taken the front of the rifle out of the equation and made our lives Much better--
I think you can shoot in a casual way from a cheapo Harris copy and do Ok for playing but if it is serious groups you are after I highly recommend the Mystic which is USA made --we used video to watch how all the different bipods reacted on the bench during recoil--one layer of the very thin yoga mat was superior and produced the best groups time after time.
The T slot mount of the Mystic also eliminates a common source of slop--it is solid as an anvil.
We were very surprised at how much slop there was in so many brands of bipods--Even the mighty Atlas shoots way better if you take the rubber feet off--and just put a furniture leg rubber cap on--the feet had some amount of slop in them
Buy your own yoga mat I found out the hard way when I cut a piece off the wifes for testing

I cut up my brides yoga mat to try out, Sitting here dry firing on the table in the dining room it sure feels awfully grippy Is that what we want using Harris bipods ? We also have some used up place mats for your plates so sit on while eating they are slick and slide real good

 

[RabbitSlayer]

I did a lot of testing with long range hunting rifles from a concrete bench. That style rifle will actually shoot smaller from a bipod than a front rest. They are light, shoot heavy bullets, and torque bad. The bipod does a better job controlling that then a rest, even with a plate on the bottom of the stock. I managed to shoot groups approaching BR level with every rifle I tested with this method. I found that I could not load a bipod and achieve the same level of accuracy either. I do not ever load bipods. The setup up is simple, get a piece of regular household carpet. The feet will grab the carpet and the carpet will slide with the recoil. You wont get any bounce and your poi will be the same prone too. Use a rear bunny ear style bag and just squeeze the ears to aim. I shoot almost free recoil. Never muscle the gun, it should always have a natural point of aim every shot. I grew a preference for the Atlas bipods because they have some for and aft play. I would push to rifle forward to take up the play then back off the rifle. That little bit of play allowed some recoil before the feet would drag. From a 7 pound 300 mag to a 18 pound 338 lapua imp, they all shot tiny groups this way. And yes, if the field they were shot in the same way. Even if I had to balance the rifle on some sage brush, light hold with natural point of aim and they never miss.

Did you try ski feet during your testing? It seems that would be similar to allowing the carpet to slide.

 

[Alex Wheeler]

No because I wanted to use the kind of bipod that I would hunt with. Im sure that would work well too, but Id still want it on a piece of carpet.

 

[RabbitSlayer]

No because I wanted to use the kind of bipod that I would hunt with. Im sure that would work well too, but Id still want it on a piece of carpet.

Nice. I think i will give ski feet a go with my atlas.

 

[Kracken McGraw]

I cut up my brides yoga mat to try out, Sitting here dry firing on the table in the dining room it sure feels awfully grippy Is that what we want using Harris bipods ? We also have some used up place mats for your plates so sit on while eating they are slick and slide real good

I would just take Alex’s advice above on the carpet. Free advice like that is pure gold.

 

[RabbitSlayer]

I would just take Alex’s advice above on the carpet. Free advice like that is pure gold.

Seriously, I'm now going to re-test everything this winter based on Alex's advice.

Mark from mark and sam after work also does not load the bipod, although they shoot prone in the dirt.

I mean, hard to argue with someone who consistently hits at 3k+ yards and one of the top gunsmiths in the country!

 

[pdhntr]

Remove your fingers (from the glove) before cutting.

Jim

 

[DLT]

I would just take Alex’s advice above on the carpet. Free advice like that is pure gold.

That’s true, before he posted I read yoga mats was a big hit and it’s what I had on hand first

 

[Kracken McGraw]

That’s true, before he posted I read yoga mats was a big hit and it’s what I had on hand first

If Alex is still reading this, I wonder what the preferred size would be on the carpet piece?

 

[rockwind1]

Loading the bipod does not mean apply enough force to bend the legs.

All you have to do is to put enough forward pressure to remove any slop in the
bipod parts.

that is pretty much what i do.

 

[MGYSGT]

For those not so young shooters of F Class, we allow them to shoot from the bench. When we post scores anyone who shot prone is identified as such, same goes for Bench shooters. Obvious advantage to bench shooters. The tops of our concrete tables are covered in industrial carpet. The bipods slide rather than jump. We were loosing shooters and had to accommodate the old geezers (I am 73 so I can say that).

Tom

 

[james]

I place my bipod on a piece of carpet then place a 20 pound bag of shot to position the bipod feet against. More or less goes back to the same point of aim.

 

[Steve Donlon]

I use a 12"x12" piece of plywood on a horse blanket That way you can slide the plywood on the blanket around for the right position. The blanket absorbs the bounce.

 

[Todd308]

bit of a necro thread but one of the biggest reasons we see bounce on benches is the poor design of 99% of benches that do not allow the shooter to sit strait behind the rifle with square shoulders, Instead they force your shoulders at an angle. It's simple physics, you want the rifle to move rearward under recoil in a strait line, if you're not strait behind the rifle shoulders square that can't happen. It's like standing at an angle to a wall and throwing a tennis ball, the only way that ball is coming back to you is if you're square to it. It's the same reason most people's zero's shift from the bench to prone. The other issue often is guys are way too tense in their shoulder fighting the butt pad when the gun goes off. Bipod height is also an issue, a lot of folks I see run their bipods too low, both in prone and off the bench.

Yes there are things you can do to minimize it, super heavy rifle, you can preload the crap out of it against on object like a 2x4 clamped to the table etc.

 

[9146gt]

I find Bipods that have rubber feet that rotate are very hard to shoot off the bench and seem to bounce more that fixed legs.
Tom

 

[Mark W]

i really like this idea, but the more i think about it,, a rubber door matt is going to still kind of bounce,,wish i could find something similiar, like 1.5" thick but more unyeilding than a rubber matt yet with a sticky bottom so it doesn't slide on the concrete

In the past I have used two things for this issue. First was a sleeping bag pad that I picked up at a military surplus store. It worked well enough that I cut it to fit and glued it to the top of my portable shooting bench. The second was a cheap yoga mat that I picked up at Walmart. It was a little softer and seemed to work a little better. Both are only 1/2” thick, but two pieces can easily be glued

Edit: I obviously posted before reading the comments. There are lots of great suggestions, so I’m sure the OP’s issue should be resolved.

 

[J.d. Popkes]

If you’re bouncing, it’s recoil management. I went through this as well. In my opinion it’s part shooter and part chassis/stock design and adjustments.

Also I’m not a fan of bench shooting no matter what they’re made of.

But if you’re married to some bench, why not go all in and get the whole bench setup?

If you’re wanting the ability/option to shoot in a realistic practical environment, which is what the bipod indicates, where you are a larger part of the equation, then shoot like that all the time. Prone, bipod, bag.

Bipods on benches, in my opinion, are not ideal. If you master it, it’s doable. Train how you intend to shoot. I see hunters on sight in day shooting off benches and think it’s counterproductive.