Thread: Poor Man's Versa-Pod Review

Being that it's a rainy day for a change down my neck of the woods, I thought I'd better do something more productive than watching red you tube, so here's a review of something everyone probably already knows about.

Back in my scarfie days at uni, when we spent more money on low quality alcohol each week than we did on food in a month, finances were tight, and I needed a new bipod. Unfortunately though, my budget didn't allow for the kind of outlay that would be required for a Harris or Versa-pod. My old one was a poor copy of a fixed harris bipod, which was both useless, and for completely unrelated reasons, misplaced somewhere up the Mcauley Valley. So the hunt began.
Luckily, a very knowledgable source on this forum told me that the website www.dealextreme.com sold some bipods. I was keen as mustard on this prospect, so got a credit card and ordered one.

2 weeks later, the bipod arrived in a cool package with flames and lightning on it. The first thing I did to it was take the annoyingly heavy attachment screw off and replaced it with a more streamlined bolt. With the aid of a dremel, I bored a hole in the back section of the attatchment block to allow the insertion of a bolt to hold a sling swivel as shown below.





Now, I have a light, streamlined versa-pod lookalike, with only a 1/5th or so of the outlay!

Things I like about this design:
- Articulation:
The lateral (sideways) and longitudinal (up and down) tilt are very handy for getting a good shooting position, as well as tracking a moving target. The movement range isn't excessive, so it doesn't flop around annoyingly.



-Leg adjustment:
The legs slide out by gravity, and length can be adjusted using the spring loaded catch on the 8 or so graduations. This is very fast, and I like it alot more than the spring loaded harris ones with a friction screw, although I believe the newer harris's have notched legs too.





-Feet:
The feet are of the sleigh type, and hold on the ground and rocks much better than you'd think for a flat surface.

-Quick Detach:
This is ideal, as I prefer to carry my bipod in my pack until a long shot presents itself. With a bita lube, it reattaches quickly, silently, and easily. With the modifications on the attachment screw that I made, the permanent fixture on the rifle is very light, and unobtrusive when carrying using a sling. The fixture also looks like it could be a good aid for offhand shooting if it floats your boat.


Sofar, I've only used it at the range twice, but have found it to be a great platform to shoot off from what I've experienced. It looks and feels pretty well made for its price, and with the exception of the coating being a bit heavy in some places and the lead sinker weight attatchment screw that came with it, I have no complaints. I see Norway uses a spindle for this type of bipod that has been epoxied into the end of the stock, which would be pretty handy if your stock has enough meat up the front.

The site I bought it from is as follows:
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/27cm-un...al-mount-26217

I dare someone to buy one of the scopes advertised on that site!

This my first "review", so go easy!

The spindle attachment that Norway uses is actually purpose made for Blasers and bolts into the hole left over when you remove the front sling stud. It utilizes the same mounting hardware as the sling stud.

They work brilliantly and I love my one.

There is no reason one couldn't be epoxied in place like you suggested if there is the required 'meat' in the fore arm.

Highly recomended.

This is the Spigot/spindle attatchment I assumed you guys must be using.
http://stores.homestead.com/Versapod...got/Detail.bok

That makes me want a Blaser even more.. might be a while considering I was too tight arse to buy a proper versa pod

So how long have you had it and what sort of work has it done?
Old Deal Extreme aye they have some cheap stuff on that site but sometimes it is just shit.
I brought a $30 remote chopper from them and shit it was a deal until i broke it.

I got my new ultra sonic cleaner from dealextreme yesterday, cleaned 10 cases, took about 7 mins, after that, it ceased to work again. I bought a decent one today from somewhere else, for $40 more....
I bought 3 LED lights, 1 headlamp, and 2 torches, both the torches failed with in an hour of use, the led came loose and failed, the headlamp (touchwood) is fine. I also bought this bipod (first purchase) it was floppier than a [insert dirty joke about a 90 year old man here] and used it once. You get what you pay for IMO. the Remington bipods are of for sub $70 imo.

Malhunting - As in my first post:
"Sofar, I've only used it at the range twice, but have found it to be a great platform to shoot off from what I've experienced."

I've been happy with how it has performed sofar, to be exact I have used it for shooting at 100 and 650m, and found it to be stable. It is definitely a lot better than my last bipod (Outers was the brand I think).

Reliability of the product seems to be the issue brought up here

Obviously I can't comment on this now, but I can't see any real weaknesses in it. Time will tell. There's probably a bit less that can go wrong with a bipod than the likes of a $30 helicopter or a high output led torch though.

Like any cheap copy of a genuine product, you can't expect the quality control of a genuine version, therefore, there should be less reliability. AN analogy to this could be the difference between the Stoeger M2000 and Benelli M2. To my knowledge they are basically the same, but the M2 will be engineered better, nicer to use, and should be more reliable due to better engineering methodology and quality control. Hence "you get what you pay for". At the end of the day though, they will still do the same job. Conversley, I've got a Stoeger thats had upwards of 2000 rounds through it, and it has never missed a beat. A friend of mine has had 3 shotguns, 2 of which were "good" brands, and all of them were unreliable. I guess I just got one of the good ones, and I hope the same is with this bipod. For $32 US, I personally don't mind taking that gamble!

Brennos:
I'm not too worried about it being floppy as a 90 year old's trouser snake, the idea was to only have it on the rifle when about to take a shot. While prone, I have no issues holding it plumb. To each his own I guess, I'll persevere with it and see how it holds up!

I've got this at the moment. I'm buying one for myself, I'm sick of my Harrises, they're just annoying to use


I need to come up with a true QD mechanism for it, but I'm working on that.

Originally Posted by Brennos

the Remington bipods are of for sub $70 imo.

the remington ones are a crap copy of a crap design to begin with, and fall apart

something on the same theme,Harris though

I know nothing about that particular piece of equipment but I thought your review was very good.

Thanks Kitto. Good write up. I think I might have to give one a go.

https://snipepod.ipower.com/index2.html

Originally Posted by Tim

https://snipepod.ipower.com/index2.html

The silliest name, the worst website


Have you used one? Does anyone sell them?

Since the review I have used this bipod on 3 or 4 hunting trips, and have taken a thar at 320m at a 40 deg uphill angle in difficult (read uncomfortable) terrain, and a red with a snap shot at 280m. I've also used it on the dirty south shoot that I had at our farm a few weeks back, and it's great. Only complaint I had was the skids being too slidey, so I put some grub screws through the feet to give them some bite. This works very well on a variety of surfaces, excluding car bonnets. Thanks for the encouraging replies!