Bipod Mod  1                                                03-2018

 

 

I've been into shooting ever sense I've been 12 years old and even bought my first gun when I was 13, which was a used Ruger 10/22. I never sold that .22 to this day and it still shoots great! Over the years I've bought and sold a few guns but mostly I've purchased them because having more than you need is something guys seem to do.

This update will be about modifying a shooting accessory that I've owned for a coupe of years now. And the piece that you see below is a bipod made by Harris Bipods and works great. The model is HBRS which has legs that extend from 6" to 9" plus it swivels to compensate for uneven terrain (hence the S at the end of the model). I've added the lever (that replaced a knob) that you see in the middle which is for tightening the swivel mechanism. The two springs allow it to fold up against the gun for rapid deployment and there are springs inside the legs that help them move downward.

Notice the rubber feet on the legs, they have roll pins to keep the feet in place and come this way from the factory. But some people would rather have a different kind of foot from time-to-time. However, changing them is very slow process and you can potentially damage the legs if not done correctly. What you need to do is drive out the roll pins with a punch and hammer, supporting the leg as you pound away. If you don't, you'll bend the legs as they're made out of aluminum tubing.
 

 

 

Here you can see another style of foot that I've put on, but like I said, it's very slow to do. These feet are made by Tactical Supply and are made out of aluminum and black anodized. They attach the same way as the rubber feet do, with the existing roll pin, but you shorten it so it looks right.

Now choosing which foot to have on your bipod depends on the type of shooting that you're doing. Say you're at the range, shooting off a bench rest, then the rubber would probably be best. But if you're laying prone in the dirt or soft sand, then the pointed ones might be better. Knowing this I wondered how I could change these feet without going through all the hassle of using a hammer and punch, and maybe even do it in the field.

What I'm going to do is make some custom fasteners so I can swap between feet quickly and easily. On the other hand, I'll be voiding my warranty by doing this because I'll have to modify my bipod.
 

 

 

What I plan to do is make some fasteners that have a small head on one end and some female threads on the other. By sliding the fastener through the hole in the feet and leg, I can use a screw to keep them in place on the other side. Here I'm using a 1/8" diameter pin inserted into the existing roll pin hole to make sure the hole is aligned before drilling it.
 

 

 

Here is a close-up of the alignment pin and leg. Once the pin can slide through the hole without binding, I'll use that location for my X and Y zero, or starting point.
 

 

 

I removed the pin and now it's time to open the hole in the leg to 3/16" diameter.
 

 

 

Here you can see the difference between the existing roll pin and my new hole diameter.
 

 

 

I'll need to do the same thing on both rubber and aluminum feet, so the same procedure was used for all of them.
 

 

 

New hole vs. the old one (voided the warranty on these too).
 

 

 

I made some custom fasteners out of aluminum that have 6-32 threads on one end and a slot on the other. The slot will be used with a straight blade screwdriver. There are two lengths of fasteners depending on which foot I'm using. To put the slot in the fasteners I used a .032" thick slitting saw on an arbor held in a v-block which was clamped in my milling machine vise. One pass and I the slot was done.
 

 

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