Thread: Is leaning into your bipod a myth?

Always looking to stir the pot, i put this idea out there. I believe leaning into your bipod is counter productive. Here's the evidence.
A - Leaning slightly into it as certain shooting dvds say you should.

B - Just letting the bipod sit vertical


What say you? Anybody else had similar results

A lot of this will be relative to
Rifle especially bedding , floated barrel and caliber
bipod brand / style
Surface the bipod is on eg concrete, grass etc
Shooter if they can lean in the same amount everytime

Ive had some rifles they didn't like any pressure and others that shot much better with it loaded and others that shot the same regardless

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When testing at the range - find what works best

When hunting do EXACTLY the same thing that worked best

I don't recommend "leaning into it" so much as prefer a bipod that has some "play" forward/back in the legs that can be lightly pushed forward, then has some freedom to move backward through recoil without legs jumping, meaning you can keep position and self-spot more easily or shoot again, with a strong position behind the rifle. There's no reason there would be an accuracy advantage (presuming everything is done equally consistently)

In certain applications I think it is more effective. For example a few weeks ago when applying the technique I use for my hunting rifles (everything is neutral) I could not get on target at 1300m with the suppressed 338. When I loaded the bipod and absorbed the recoil better I was able to get on target.

I don’t find it necessary for my hunting rifles at those shorter distances though. Too one dimensional, what if I have to shoot off a rock or a tree etc? Instead I use a neutral style where the bipod is not loaded and just recoils into my shoulder the same way it would over a pack, off a tree, standing etc.

Use my bipod only on paddock surface and resting on my backpack when sighting in, will try the bipod on the concrete bench next time on the range to test the theory. ( talking 22 rimfire here)

I use a styrene block to support the fore end on the 222 and 7.62x39, don’t hold the rifle tight when sighting in. (But that’s got nowt to do with the topic!)

I was trained in the military to lean in on a bipod but have had way better results with my rifles with free recoil since.
Just personal preference. However I seem to get the same poi on any surface.


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Originally Posted by R93

I was trained in the military to lean in on a bipod but have had way better results with my rifles with free recoil since.
Just personal preference. However I seem to get the same poi on any surface.


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this ^^^^^^^ I find no POI shift between loaded or un loaded but I find shooting loaded up slightly more comfortable for my shooting style but I am confident shooting it un loaded too if needed depending on the situation
270 WSM carbon fiber ultra light rifle with a muzzle brake fitted

A lot of (especially cheaper) rifles seem to have too much flex in the stock for consistency if you lean into a bipod, especially on rough surfaces where you can easily end up with a different amount of force on each leg.

Both my target rifles (an Omark 223 and a Lithgow LA102 308) like to be loaded on the Harris bipod, but as others have mentioned consistency is the key. If I had a specialized "F Class" bipod I'd shoot them free.

As a range officer one thing I see a lot is folks using the "lie at an angle" body position whereas most current trainers seem to prefer "straight behind the line of sight" position, and I've certainly shot better this way since I "retrained" myself. You can test this easily - does the rifle fall back to point of aim after the shot, with you being able to see the "trace" if atmospherics render it visible.

On the hill with hunting rifles, all bets are off. I've just been away with some folks shooting wallabies, in terrain where about only one in ten shots might have allowed the use of a bipod - so if you haven't practised your sitting, crooked uphill prone, etc etc you're going to have misses - we all did!!.

It really depends on the stock & how much clearance around the barrel it has, combined with recoil

Some really like having a little bit of pre-load & some really really don't

It is quite surprising how much fore-end flex some "proper" imported carbon stocks have

Interesting thread

For all my hunting and gong rifles I tend to load the bipod. Not heavy pressure, just enough to slightly rock it forward.

Depends a lot on how rigid the stock is etc. A lot of it also is caliber and specifically projectile weight dependant. With FTR rifles (much heavier than avg hunting rig), we found 185gr was about the limit. Around 200gr and up in a 308, recoil management gets VERY hard.

For what it's worth there was a really good long range shooter that came to my nzda and his method of shooting with a bipod was to load it up so that you didn't need to support the butt or grip with a hand. Enough pressure to keep it on your shoulder.

Seemed to work out for him.

For medium range pest goat & deer shooting (6.5, out to 600m+) I will alter the setup to achieve the same outcome, so more or less pressure. I usually hold the forend, but sometimes don’t, and it also depends on what rifle I am shooting. The end result is what counts, which for me is an easily controllable, dead steady reticle that I can comfortably adjust for windage hold. Mostly I try and concentrate on how I am lying, and the angle of my head / neck / torso w.r.t. the rifle.

20+ years ago got to know a guy with a 338 win mag. He had a bunch of different firearms (all different sizes-wasn't just a magnum nut), got a lot of deer and was a pretty good shot on the clays too.
Anyway he used to shoot the 338 prone on a bipod but went through 2 stocks. they were splitting up the front. Went to a synthetic and problem solved but ultimately Could've got away with a wooden one in the end as he got his missus to video him shooting it. He did the slow-mo thing and you could sees wicked ripple going through his back. Didn't do prone shooting after that unless he had too