TARKKA-AMPUJAKILTA

How do you like to hold a 30+ cal rifle when shooting with bipod and no rear bag?

I did some testing in fading daylight tonite at the 100yds range and experienced what I felt were unexplained misses.

I then tried pulling the rifle to my shoulder with the right arm tight versus not pulling.

   Loose on the shoulder:   Avg dispersion about 3/4 MOA
   Tight on the shoulder:   Avg dispersion about 1/3 MOA or a bit less

Where do you keep your left hand when shooting like this?  I keep it at my Rt shoulder, holding the butt stock.

I only had time for a few shots before it got dark.  In the target picture I numbered the shots and labeled L or T for loose or tight on the shoulder.

With the tight hold, the sight picture was shakier, but I felt like I could call the impacts more accurately.  With loose holds I felt the misses were puzzling.

I went out to the 100yds range again this morning.

This was my 1st 5 shots.  Held tight on the shoulder.  The impacts are low, but consistent.  I worked on turrets the night before.




I adjusted the scope:  3/4MOA up and 1/4MOA left.

These are the next 10 shots.  Hold was getting shaky in the last 5.  I was able to pretty accurately call all misses.

Well, not sure anyone is reading, but I do feel I made some progress today. 

Even with tighter hold I felt I had unexplained fliers.  I examined my $25 bipod and saw that in the shortest length position, the legs were not rigid, but were springy.  The rifle was not on a solid footing but on springs.  With the gun on the bipod, the slightest pressure would compress the springs in the legs and allow the rifle to move down and sideways.  The springiness in the legs was about 1/8" or about 2-3mm.

This is the way the bipod legs looked like when the legs were on springs.  Note the gap above the rubber footing.  The spring is extending the leg.


These are the springs:


This is how the bipod legs look, loaded after I removed the springs.  Note that there is no gap above the rubber footing.


After removing the springs I shot two sighters and then these 15 shots, one at each dot:


I feel like this was about as good as my hold was without a rear bag.  The shots went where I called them. 

Has anyone here had a similar experience?

With a notched leg Harris model one just pushes the leg to the shortest length where it locks. With that Harris model it is inpossible to have the rifle floating on top of springs.

It is good to test how the rifle behaves with different holds. For example my Sig716 needs to be shot with a very rigid hold. Free recoiling it wiĺl double the group sizes. My AR-15 is so heavy that free recoiling does not worsen then groups. FRee recoiliing is easier to keep constant but my Sig716 needs to be hold very tight. SIG716 is difficult to shoot accurately and so are most AR-10s.

hello

I´ve noticed that different technics work for different people.
-Got friends who keep rifle very softly and getting good accuracy. But just touching the shoulder and hands holding the rifle to keep it steady. No pushing nor pulling.

Me
-With Bench rest support with light recoil gun I prefer free recoil stance.
-When shooting gun with bipod or from barricade
 Using light/medium hold I get smaller groups, but the group placing to aim differs a lot depending shooting position; prone, sitting, kneeling and standing low or high.
 While tightly holding the gun against my shoulder I lose a little bit on group sizes, but I hit what I aim independent of the shooting position.
I do not like to Load bipod forward, it affects the hit placement.
-Prone with bipod with/without rear bag usually causes shot placement to differ from aim. With rear bag people usually push more heavily on cheek rest compared without rear bag. This causes different gun recoil behavior and therefore different shot placement in target
 

Lainaus käyttäjältä: HJu - huhtikuu 30, 2026, 06:41With a notched leg Harris model one just pushes the leg to the shortest length where it locks. With that Harris model it is inpossible to have the rifle floating on top of springs.

It is good to test how the rifle behaves with different holds. For example my Sig716 needs to be shot with a very rigid hold. Free recoiling it wiĺl double the group sizes. My AR-15 is so heavy that free recoiling does not worsen then groups. FRee recoiliing is easier to keep constant but my Sig716 needs to be hold very tight. SIG716 is difficult to shoot accurately and so are most AR-10s.

Thanks for the replies.  By the way, replying in Finnish would be fine.  I am fluent in Finnish but somehow writing feel easier in english and I'm lazy.

HJu, does the Harris bipod have the same springs?  In this cheap $25 copy of mine, the length adjustment notches in the leg are about 5mm wide, square, but the clip that retains the leg is only 2mm wide.  Thus the 2-3mm slack or play.  And the springs were just strong enough to support the front of the rifle.

Lainaus käyttäjältä: jtlassila99 - eilen kello 20:20

Lainaus käyttäjältä: HJu - huhtikuu 30, 2026, 06:41With a notched leg Harris model one just pushes the leg to the shortest length where it locks. With that Harris model it is inpossible to have the rifle floating on top of springs.

It is good to test how the rifle behaves with different holds. For example my Sig716 needs to be shot with a very rigid hold. Free recoiling it wiĺl double the group sizes. My AR-15 is so heavy that free recoiling does not worsen then groups. FRee recoiliing is easier to keep constant but my Sig716 needs to be hold very tight. SIG716 is difficult to shoot accurately and so are most AR-10s.

Thanks for the replies.  By the way, replying in Finnish would be fine.  I am fluent in Finnish but somehow writing feel easier in english and I'm lazy.

HJu, does the Harris bipod have the same springs?  In this cheap $25 copy of mine, the length adjustment notches in the leg are about 5mm wide, square, but the clip that retains the leg is only 2mm wide.  Thus the 2-3mm slack or play.  And the springs were just strong enough to support the front of the rifle.

First of all, ditch the cheap copy, if it is an "Harris"-model. I had problems with getting a tight group with one of my 308's, using a Harris-copy. It looked ok, and felt somewhat ok, but just didn't work. So I threw a genuine Harris on it, and it was a gamechanger, the groups came together.
Now I don't know the reason for this, but obviously there was some variable that fckd things up.

And for me, it depends on the weapon, what kind of hold I need to have. My 300 win mag shoots better with a firm hold, not loose, nor tight, but firm. And my CTR in 308 likes a little more tight hold. Wich feel kinda odd, because the 300wm barrel is fairly longer than the CTR.