Using A Bi-Pod

B

BPowderkeg

Moderator
you folks who use a bi-pod on a quad rail for shooting off a bench or prone or any position.., do you clamp it down near the front, or closer to the mag well ?

i have been clamping mine near the front, as i was told is the best placement, i can not get the accuracy i desire..., which is less than 2 1/2 inches @ 100 yds., but on the other hand i have some "mild" nerve damage resulting from neck surgery four years ago (C2-C6) my hands/fingers are numb and tingly, picking up a single primer off the bench is almost impossible.

considering my condition, can placement of the bi-pod improve my accuracy ? i also use only 5.56mm/.223 Rem. reloads and have tried five different powders, four different bullet weights and CCI 400 primers, still, my best groups are 2 1/2" off a very sturdy bench, off hand standing sitting or prone the groups are in the 12" smallest, to gawd awful 20".
 
Tell us a little about the rifle.

Are you shooting iron sights?

I normally do not use a bi-pod although I have one for my AR that attaches by the front sling swivel.

If you are going to use a bi-pod as opposed to just shooting off bags, you will probably get better accuracy by "loading" the bi-pod.

By that, I mean not just flopping the stand down and going at it.

Depending on how you have yours mounted, there is probably some slop fore and aft when the gun is on the bi-pod.

Push the gun forward or pull it toward you so the recoil is the same from shot to shot.

If you are going to use your rifle for groups, a bi-pod might not be the way to go.

If you are shooting for prairie dogs and they are not too far away ( 300 yds or less ) it probably won't make a lot of difference.

Just remember that most guns don't shoot the same off bags as they do off a bi-pod.

Just an aside, if you are getting those kinds of groups with a bi-pod and iron sights, you are not doing too bad at all.

Geetarman:D
 
Towards the barrel away from the magwell.

381207_2434662467693_1285620147_31975944_689372016_n.jpg
 
Ok.

So it looks like your bi-pod feet fold toward the front.

When you put the gun down on the bench, you should be loading by pushing forward.

Also, the shorter you can keep the leg extension, the more solid the set up.

Looks like a pretty nice scope. Please tell me a little about that.
What kind of groups do you get off the bags without the bi-pod?

Geetarman:D
 
You state you have used multiple powders and loads but do not give the twist rate of your barrel. My .223 has a barrel twist rate of 1:7 and the 55grain bullets and lighter are all over the target for me. When I use the 62 grain and 65 grain bullets I re-load I start getting .5 inch patterns at 100 yards.
 
Another factor to consider, is the barrel loaded by the bi-pod?
With a typically stocked rifle with a floating barrel, the location of the bi-pod will not effect barrel loading. With ARs it's a different story -- in typical Mil configuration, anchoring the bi-pod to the sling swivel will load the barrel (like resting it on sandbags). But, if you've got a free floating handguard, then you won't load the barrel with a bi-pod. Without a floating barrel, the farther forward the bi-pod is mounted the more it will load the barrel (consider a fat kid on a teeter-trotter).
 
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Good info above, that's SOP...
But sometimes SOP doesn't work for someone- so it pays to experiment.

I'm assuming you're shooting irons, because with a scope it's relatively easy to discern movement of the crosshairs on the target if the hold isn't steady?
 
Don't be afraid to try a different location for the bi-pod.

This ZFK felt strange at first but the rearward mount is very accurate.

k3155full3.jpg


Military variations on bi-pod mounting.
bipod01.jpg
 
(1) Mount the bipod so that it folds backwards toward the shooter.

(2) When shooting, push the gun forward so the bipods come off "lock" and the legs have begun to rotate
slightly (maybe 10-15° max) off full extension to 'roughly' vertical.

(3) When firing, the bipod now has room to absorb initial recoil by rotating straight back over a stable
pivot point instead of "jumping" vertically.

(try it) ;)
 
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Thank You All

thank you all for your suggestions and advice,
sorry guys, actually i am shooting two different AR's one is a LWRCI M6 piston with 1-7 twist, the other is LWD MOD-1 piston with 1-9 twist, both are free float barrels, the LWRCI has a Weaver 4-20 x 50 Side Focus Mil Dot, the LWD MOD-1 has a Nightforce 3.5-15X50 NXS, both have GG&G bi-pods mounted as far forward as possible on the quad rail, i have shot 55 Gr. with various powders, the best groups i get are with BLC-2 and Ramshot TAC, then there is the 62 Gr. bullets, two different, one with steel core the other, lead core, the lead core seems more accurate with Win. 748, the other bullet loads are the Sierra .224 dia. 77 gr. HPBT MatchKing and the Hornady .223, 75 gr BTHP Match in both rifles, these bullets give me the best accuracy, in 5 shot groups i can sometimes get the groups down to about 1.75", a good friend of mine has fired both rifles and he can get .375" to .550" groups, so i know the rifles.., actually, carbines with 16.5'' barrels are capable of great accuracy, but for general paper punching i use them very sparingly, all shots fired @ 100 yd. range.

i am pretty convinced the accuracy problem is ME !! not the guns
 
Most of the time a rifle is capable of grouping, its up to the shooter to ensure that it groups. Between the rifle/optic, ammunition, and shooter. The shooter is the weakest link most of the time.
 
Since you're using high-power optics, and not irons, your stability (or lack thereof) is apparent in the crosshairs, at least on a target with some definition.

I know when I'm having a bad day, and I don't need to pull the trigger to find that out. Just a couple of weeks ago, I was commenting to my younger son that was with me that I just couldn't keep the crosshairs still. Muscle control, breathing, something was off, and it was obvious to me. I could plainly tell that I couldn't keep the crosshairs perfectly still before breaking the shot. Many shooters (my older son is scary at this) can spot their shots right after it breaks, without even looking at the target. He'll tell me "high right" before I even look through the spotting scope because he knows exactly where the crosshairs were when the trigger broke.

I guess I'm stating the obvious here, but move the position of the bipod, load it as stated above, and you can plainly tell if it helps- or hinders- your stabilization of the rifle.
 
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