What kind of bipod do I want for bench shooting my Bergara HMR?

The OP listed a small budget hence all the wobbly crappy suggestions. Is the MPOD $200? He's saying that a Harris is the top of his budget. I agree that people skimping on a bipod and rear bag is silly but people buy what they think does the job
 
laker415 said:
The OP listed a small budget hence all the wobbly crappy suggestions. Is the MPOD $200? He's saying that a Harris is the top of his budget. I agree that people skimping on a bipod and rear bag is silly but people buy what they think does the job
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He could get a used Harris for that, honestly better than chinese knock offs. My MPOD was 264$ shipped on the boxing day sale.

I only have the Mpod on the Anschutz, I use a front rest for everything else.
 
I agree that a Harris is the base line. All these knockoff suggestions aren't good. Not to mention supporting garbage knockoffs of real products. I'm sure the MPOD is solid. I had a Harris that replaced a cheap Caldwell and now it's atlas and MDT only for me.
 
I'm gonna suggest a different direction - buy a B&T BT17 rail (GobigTactical has them, probably others), and use your Magpul bipod until your budget increases.
The BT17 mounts where your sling studs are, works swell on my 300 PRC HMR.
 
I use a short Harris with a Pod lok.
It’s good. The only thing I don’t like is when on concrete benches, the rubber feet roll if you preload.
 
Please don't support ripoff artists by buying a knock-off.

Look in the used market if you can't afford new. If you're only going to shoot from a bench, then look at bipods designed for that. If you need more versatility or to use in the field, then get bipods designed for that.
 
Interesting thread; I have a number of hunting-oriented bipods, including an old Harris sitting/kneeling model that is at least 46 years old and still going strong. I have often toyed with the idea of a more bench-style bipod for ease of use. I have my own ghetto-benchrest out in the back 40, and yes, I am getting old and lazy and sometimes don't feel like lugging sandbags out there with a rifle just for an hour of shooting.

I have a rifle I love shooting that is equipped with a UIT rail; a bunch of rifles with nothing more than swivel studs; and several more with pic rails and M-Lok holes. Nothing with an ARCA rail, but certainly happy to learn why I might want to try that. I don't compete, just like to go out alone or with my granddaughter and burn some powder in various rifles that are mostly but not entirely hunting oriented.

The M-Pod is intriguing, although I wish that Mystic Precision was a bit less mystic when it comes to pricing. Their website tells me how good their stuff is, but doesn't offer a clue as to pricing. The CKYE-POD is cool but way more than I intend to spend; the GRND-POD seems about the equivalent of the Harris in terms of being more of a hunting pod...or is it? Don't know anything about the various Atlas bipods, but might go that route if one were suitable...but which one?

Main question: is there a pod that offers fairly easy transitions between various mounting options...pic, UIT, VersaPod spigots (have several on various hunting rifles), M-Lok, maybe ARCA...just by switching around some hardware from one to the other?
 
PM or email if you want pricing... given that customers typically buy other stuff, I bundle discounts all the time.

Now if you want to pay full price.. I can do that too. I can't discuss pricing here
Jerry
 
The Arca rail is mostly used by young lads being competitively athletic with rifles, so taking a pass on that may well be appropriate as we reach the age of contemplation.

M-Lok is for fastening something on, and a bit of UIT rail can be that thing. A Pic clamp fastened to a bit of UIT rail makes a Pic-rifle-to-UIT-bipod adaptor. Then an MPOD with its UIT clamp should fit your benchrest needs.
 
Generally speaking, if you're shooting primarily prone, or from a bench, you may not get all the advantages of ARCA rail. The beauty in the system is the ability to move your bipod to just infront of the magazine/magazine well, all the way out to the end of the fore-end/stock.

I shot 3 seasons of Rimfire PRS with a standard Harris, and largely speaking wasn't held back. Only recently have I switched to an Atlas bipod, with an arca clamp. The ability to quickly swap the bipod between picatinny and ARCA with the throw of a lever is fantastic.

Given the various types of mounting systems out there - picatinny, arca, mlok etc., you probably can't go wrong with a good Harris bipod, and whatever adapter you would need to use it on your rifles. It can become a PITA to swap the Harris over to different rifles if they use a different mounting system, but nothing that 5-10 minutes wont change.

Given your budget, try and find either a new or used Harris (or, like others have said a knock-off, my personal experience with the knock-offs hasn't been great). Pick up whichever adapters you may need to use the Harris across your rifles, and you'll be set for a long while!
 
As others have mentioned, you may very well obtain better results shooting off of a bag on the bench rather than a bipod. I did a repeatable test under the direct supervision of a CAF Msster Sniper as part of a comprehensive long distance marksmanship training course that I took a couple of years ago. We fired groups for measurement both using a bag and a high-quality B+T Atlas bipod. The smallest groups were definitely obtained shooting off of a front and rear bag. We validated our findings repeatedly to remove all doubt. The bag was more accurate than the bipod every time. All bipods seem to exhibit some greater or lesser degree of "jump" upon the rifle firing, whereas the bag absorbed minor vibrations. Just my $.02 - YMMV...
 
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Why you will not find bipods with folding legs used in LR accuracy games like FTR. When you have to shoot inside a 1/2 MOA target at 1000yds and you must use a bipod, the bipods have to be designed to offer the same stability, tracking and repeatability as the best pedestal rest money can buy.

The MPOD has done very well in this competition

YMMV

Jerry

PS.. one of the few bipods that has been used to win an individual FTR World Championship Title.
 
Jahnj0584 said:
My buddies UTG Recon is very sturdy and well made.Theyre "cheap".
I still out shoot him though :p
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When you start adding features like tilt, pan etc in cheap bipods. You start to compound wobble. Legs on my UTG rock, the atlas clone I had to remove tilt and pan function as it never stayed tight

Versa pod wasn't a cheap bipod. But it had more play than a mpod or front rest.
 
Just use a front BAG already. They are relatively inexpensive for good quality, and they generate zero wobble or other unwanted movement. In fact, they dampen vibration....
 
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