Shooting with bipod. Accuracy questions

In my case, .308, moderately heavy rifle, front on bipod, rear supported by my arms resting on a carpeted wood box, my torso braced against the side of a fixed concrete benchtop, my butt on a fixed concrete seat, my legs both well braced on a concrete floor.

I can get pretty stable there & don't know what else I could have done to shoot any better.

Tried loading in & tried loading back, with bipod facing in both directions.
No claims to being world-class, but not new to shooting for accuracy, either. :)

Professional-grade rifle, excellent glass, great trigger.
With scope, my head rides a little higher when scrunched up on the bench than when using irons, so the rifle was comfortable to get behind.
Much more so than the Mosin that out-shot that rifle. :)

Comparing scoped to scoped, a Ruger American in .308 with a Weaver mounted shot tighter at the same range & distance, in the same caliber, but when fired off one of the carpeted boxes instead of a bipod.

I shoot routinely for accuracy & have a fairly decent handle on technique. :)
Denis
 
Bear in mind that the sling stud that most bipods are mounted to isn't always designed to withstand heavy recoil. I have read on several occasions of stocks breaking.
 
I find that I get better accuracy with a bipod. I have a Caldwell 6"-9" that I use for load development at the range and sight in. With the pretty big recoil of my 257 weatherby mag I still find it to shoot incredibly accurate. Maybe I'm an anomaly
 
For shooting a heavier rifle i also find that i get better accuracy from a good bipod then something like a sandbag. Just always buy decent branded stuff and not cheap -CENSORED--CENSORED--CENSORED--CENSORED- from china.
 
I tend to agree with MarkCO - that it's not a given that a bipod will hurt your accuracy (I haven't found that it hurts mine). Use a quality bipod, a secure mount, and set it up so you're not having to contort yourself to get a good position behind the rifle & scope (when shooting from a bench, I put a towel between the bench and the bipod). Then relax & execute the fundamentals well.

I'm no expert, but I'm currently agnostic about "pre-loading" the bipod - it's easy to do when shooting prone (and seems to help stability), but difficult to do on a standard bench, so I don't do it then, yet my results are the same.
 
I can really only see any difference in bi-pod loading vs. not loading when I get out to 600 yards and further. I tend to be sloppier with my building a proper position when I am shooting under 600...not good. So I have really focused on building the proper position for all shots that I possibly can and I think it is paying off in terms of repeatability. My kids laughed at me during Pronghorn this year because I focused on building a perfect position for a 400 yard shot.

Even though I typically shoot bullets that are going 2900 to 3100 fps in matches and while hunting, I developed a load that is 2400 fps for both my .223 and .243 match rifles. They tend to illustrate the errors better out at 400-700 yards. I guess same theory as using a .22rf trainer, but I don't have to plunk down the cash for a trainer rifle. Anyway, those are the loads where I can see on target differences in positions and support. My goal is to develop sitting, barricade, prone and bench technique that result in the least amount of shift in POI on target out at 600 yards. It can be revealing. :)
 
TXAZ said:
High speed video would disagree with you
Click to expand...

Basic physics (Newton's Third Law) says "no, it doesn't". So does Dan Lilja...


From BARREL LENGTHS & VELOCITIES FOR THE 50 BMG, By Daniel Lilja:
There are a few drawbacks to choosing an extra long barrel, however. In the #1, 1994 issue of VERY HIGH POWER we looked at how barrel stiffness decreases with length, and as a result potential accuracy possibly degrades too. Also, the amount the rifle recoils while the bullet is still in the barrel increases. This can lead to poorer accuracy, because it becomes more difficult to consistently shoot the rifle with greater recoil movement.
Click to expand...
 
After questioning the comment:

"The bullet is out of the barrel before you notice the weapon moving."

Mr. Borland incorrectly stated:
Basic physics (Newton's Third Law) says "no, it doesn't".
Click to expand...
Here's one of several high speed videos of the bullet exiting a barrel before the recoil is noticed (much less occurs). The video correlates with the original comment: The bullet is out of the barrel before you notice the weapon moving.

Since nerve impulses are transmitted at about 60-120 meters/ second, the event triggering a nerve impulse arrives at the brain 10 milliseconds or more after it is felt, well after the bullet is free of the gun.
This is because the time from hammer strike to bullet out of the barrel is 1 millisecond or less in a handgun, and humans can't sense / notice the recoil until well after the bullet exits the barrel.

Here's a video showing the vast majority of the recoil occurs after the bullet has left the barrel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um9Eos9bJDk
 
Just to offer my experience on the original question:

I haven't done a lot of bipod work, but I have fired most of my bolt action rifles and at least 80% of my semi-autos from various bipods.

With the exception of one AR-15 that was nearly impossible to mount properly (to my body, not the bipod), all of the rifles shot just as well off the bipod as off a bag or soft rest. And they vary from fully-free-floated, to partially-free-floated, to pressure-bedded barrels; and from cheap, flimsy synthetic stocks, to walnut stocks, to laminates. There's no common factor in barrel/stock interaction.

One rifle, my first Marlin XL7, actually does better off a bipod or hard rest (wooden post, cooler, truck bed, etc.) than it does off bags or soft rests. But, even at its 'worst' it's still more than adequate for my needs, so I've never taken the time to figure out what variable causes that change.
 
I pretty much use a bi-pod for all my shooting. Never had a problem with accuracy. I almost never shoot from a bench. I have no luck trying to load a bi-pod on a bench. The good old ground provides a pretty solid base. I use a bag under the rear of the stock and it just works very well for me.
 
I can pre-load a bipod on the bench, by my use of a 1 foot square x 1 inch thick, heavy {20lbs?} steel column bolt mounting plate, put just forward of the bipod --- With me getting just enough forward push on the bipod, without the plate sliding off the table.
 
If you truly don't believe that a rifle moves while the bullet is still in the barrel, shoot a significantly recoiling rifle with and w/o using a front support hand providing down force on the fore end.
 
I use bipods on all of my rifles...and have done so for a while now. Yes, bounce can be a problem, when shooting off a hard surface.

I simply use a piece of carpet, stretched out under the bipod legs. That, or something similar, is all it takes.
 
I don't get accuracy issues from a Harris bipod. I've gotten crappy accuracy from a Grip Pod so I dumped it.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top