(Mumbling from the Sock Closet
Friend Talquin:
I understand the desire and I understand the frustration. Just about the only readily-available commercial bipod is the Harris or one of its more expensive clones.... and they all require that you DRILL HOLES in your precious rifle in order to attach this abomination.
Personally, I used a BREN bipod with my FAL and a special adapter so that I didn't have to drill any holes. It worked, but it also put pressure on the forestock and thus changed the Point of Impact just a bit radically. Fine for rapid-fire events but useless for precision shooting.
Now here is a bit of an idea. Best height for a bipod for prone shooting is about 11 inches. So you PAD the top halves of a couple of 2-foot hardwood pieces, square-section Oak about 3/4-by-3/4, and pin them together to make an "X". You can start with a 4-foot piece of so-called 1x2 Oak trim from your hardware store and rip it full length: you have enough for 2 sets. Near the bottom of one leg of the X you screw a length of that nice $1.65-a-foot chain from the hardware store, the pretty stuff with the flat, twisty links. To the OTHER leg of your X you affix a screw or headed pin so that you can change the width of the bottom of the X. You now have an ADJUSTABLE PADDED BIPOD which won't mar your stock (not even on that beautiful Krop that I KNOW you want to make sit up and dance) but which will support the rifle, and at an adjustable height to which you can fit your own shooting position AND the woodwork of the rifle. For about $4 total investment and an hour of your time.
As to range supports, during my many years of shooting with the late Gavin Tait, we used sandbags a lot. The problem with sandbags is that the damned things are HEAVY. Gavin solved this problem with a pair of worn-out work pants, making the legs into bags.... and filling them with WHEAT, which is just as solid a support as sand..... and less than a third of the weight. For an "action" shoot, you can sew a couple of them together with a length of web strapping between and wear them around your neck, carry them to the firing-line like that. Takes 5 seconds of your set-up time to arrange them.
We also found, though a great deal of experimenting, that the best LOCATION for your support, whether it be sticks or sandbags, is JUST FORWARD of the Magazine (meaning the RECEIVER of the rifle if you are shooting a Kropatschek). Two bags under the stock in this position, one under the butt and you are ready to go. The butt bag is a rest for the butt when you aren't aiming: it just makes the rifle feel appreciated so that it wants to shoot for you. The FORWARD bags are important for aiming..... and they are FLEXIBLE to a degree. Rifle a bit too high or not solid in the mount? A mild karate-chop to the top bag will nestle it down very nicely. Rifle just a HAIR too low? PINCH the top bag and the rifle will rise.
Total investment: 25 cents for the wheat, plus an old pair of jeans and a bit of thread.
I always remember a point. My dear friend Gavin was a SCOT. When HE designed something, it was PRACTICAL and SIMPLE and it WORKED..... and it was NOT expensive. One of his proudest possessions was a simple photocopied certificate from the CFB Shilo Gun Club. You see, Gavin was on the First Place team at the Battle of the Bulge match; pretty good for a man well over 70 at the time and with a duff heart! After that, he stopped competing.... and just supplied the rifles and ammunition for a couple or six shoots that the RCMP and the AI factory team are still trying to forget.
But Gavin's solutions came out of an innate sense of practicality. He just added the Thrift because that was one of the lessons which Life had taught to him. So let his lessons work for you, too.
Hope this helps.
(Mumble, mumble........
from the Sock Closet!)
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