“Over bore” mount bipods are designed so that the attachment point is effectively above the barrel of the rifle rather than being below the barrel, which is the more common design used by Harris, Atlas, the MDT Ckye-Pod, etc. An example of the over bore mount is the Leapers offering.

There are many different types of over bore bipods, some of which have been around for a long time, but they don’t seem to be very popular, at least not in this country. They seem to be more common in Europe and elsewhere. Although I’m not thinking of purchasing one myself (I have several other very highly-regarded—and expensive—types already), I am curious what people with actual experience think of them.

The primary advantage of the over bore type seems to be that they allow the rifle to “hang” more naturally rather than being perched at the top of a triangle with the instability that implies. On the other hand, they do require a Picatinny rail section on top of a handguard or something similar to attach to. Most of the over bore bipods would therefore not be usable with many rifles. In addition, with most scopes and mounts the bipod mounting location would be much more constrained. With Arca-Swiss and Picatinny systems and bottom of the forend attachment, a bipod could be attached throughout a range of positions. And it seems that most over bore bipods are wider and therefore more bulky than bipods designed to attach below the barrel. As a reviewer of one model pointed out, it wouldn’t be possible to fit a rifle with the bipod attached into most carrying cases.

There are a number of Internet reviews of over bore mount bipods, but most deal primarily with their construction, design, and features, and without much discussion of their use in practice.

Comments/observations?

I don't have experience with the Leaper. It's been some years ago that I tried a LRA bipod on my 28" 7SAUM. I really couldn't tell the difference between the LRA and an Atlas traditionally mounted. Shooting at around 600yds to see how far the reticle moved during after recoil. Shot it a w/o a brake to get the full affect! My conclusion then and now is the rifle balance plays a larger role. For me having the balance point 2-3" in front of the magwell is about right. Ended up putting lead shot in the butt stock to balance it out. Easier to get the rifle to come straight back, prior the muzzle would hop.

On a somewhat related drift!! My buddies and I are more so focus on how our rifles recoil off of a tripod and barricade, topic of conversation as of late. No big deal controlling a 6 or 6.5mm prone. The introduction of the Accuracy Internationals AT-X rifle and them talking up the low bore axis thing has played a part in that recent focus. I've compared my old school AI AICS Legacy chassis, AI AX rifle, MPA chassis rifle, XLR Evolution chassis rifle off of tripod. The AX rifle was the worst of the bunch. MPA and XLR very good. Getting the bipod attachment point closer to the bore line makes a BIG difference in how the rifle recoils. Look forward to shooting the AT-X rifle or a R700 clone in a AT-X AICS chassis. Will be interesting to see what agencies adopt the AT-X rifle in the future.

Thanks as always, offgrid.
I can’t really tell from the photos of the two rifles I’ve found, but I assume that the bore axis of the AI AX is higher than that of the AX-T—?

The point about balance is very interesting and not something I have ever seen raised before. It prompted me to check the two rifles I shoot the most these days, Tikka TAC A1 in 6.5 Creedmoor and 308 Winchester. Both are fairly heavy rifles (for me) as currently configured. To balance the 308 with its 20" barrel just in front of the magazine well required about 3 pounds of lead shot placed about where M-LOK slot weights would be located near the front of the handguard. The 6.5 with 24" barrel would require somewhat less.

I assume that the rifles are butt-heavy even with the metal handguards and Arca rails because of the hefty scopes and mounts plus the folding metal stocks.

With the custom stuff it's somewhat easy to control the balance simply with the barrel contour and length. Based on my own experience with different set ups and being around so many different rifles. Chassis's like the XLR, MPA, MDT, AI AT-X.... offer weight kits to balance things out. Shooting a rifle offhand that is rear heavy like you described with yours is actually harder for me to shoot compared to a heavier rifle that is balanced well.



26" Heavy Palma/suppressor balances very well in the AICS folder. Note the rifle is just resting/balanced on the ARCA clamp. If I were to put a 20-22" barrel on it, a M24 or MTU contour would probably balance nicely.



26" MTU (very heavy barrel) balances very well in the XLR chassis. It has a mercury recoil plug in the rear stock tube that weighs a bit.

A good friend has a single shot 338LM Ackley, 30" MTU contour, it's a beast. He added about 4lbs of lead to the rear stock to balance things out. Made a big difference in how it recoils. Still a handful burning 100+ grains of powder/300 Berger at 3050.

Over the last couple years occasionally someone will post about getting a Tikka rifle. Always suggest the simple plastic stock rifle. Toss the stock and drop the barreled action in a MPA or XLR chassis for about the same price as Tikka's TAC

my only experience with that kind of bipod is with the set i have from vltor. they are not "over bore". but mount and the 3 and 6 o'clock positions
vltor modpod

i have them mounted on a VEPRII in 308. main advantage i found for them is they clear the bottom of the rifle for storage etc, and are easy to take on and off. i haven't noticed any major advantage when shooting from a bench. shooting prone i did notice it being much more comfortable. i dont have nearly the experience other target shooters on here have. just my 2 cents owning those for maybe a decade.

the downside for them is the height adjustment (if used). and the overly aggressive feet that dont help all the time.

The VLTOR bipod and one or two similar models are interesting and attracted my attention at first. I don’t believe I’d like them, though, because they don’t permit left/right tilting. I realize that the tilt can be changed to a degree by adjusting the length of the individual legs, but that’s not as fast and convenient as just rotating the gun to the desired orientation.

Regarding balance, your photos reminded me that I should try things with suppressor and bipod mounted. The extra weight and longer lever arm obviously made a difference, and almost completely corrected the imbalance of the 308.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
The VLTOR bipod and one or two similar models are interesting and attracted my attention at first. I don’t believe I’d like them, though, because they don’t permit left/right tilting. I realize that the tilt can be changed to a degree by adjusting the length of the individual legs, but that’s not as fast and convenient as just rotating the gun to the desired orientation.

Regarding balance, your photos reminded me that I should try things with suppressor and bipod mounted. The extra weight and longer lever arm obviously made a difference, and almost completely corrected the imbalance of the 308.

Looked at the Vltor years ago, yep the lack of tilt kept me away.

Guarantee all the rifles in this video are well balanced, some with weights, some with out. The Black/Red one is as from the factory. My understanding the 24" 6.5CM barrel is a M24 contour. No doubt that contour/length was chosen for balance. Going to run up to MH this week and handle their demo AT-X's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7qG35OzCIE

quote:

Originally posted by alteon180e:
my only experience with that kind of bipod is with the set i have from vltor. they are not "over bore". but mount and the 3 and 6 o'clock positions
vltor modpod

i have them mounted on a VEPRII in 308. main advantage i found for them is they clear the bottom of the rifle for storage etc, and are easy to take on and off. i haven't noticed any major advantage when shooting from a bench. shooting prone i did notice it being much more comfortable. i dont have nearly the experience other target shooters on here have. just my 2 cents owning those for maybe a decade.

the downside for them is the height adjustment (if used). and the overly aggressive feet that dont help all the time.

I have the same bipod on my AR-10 except that I attached mine at the 3 and 9 o'clock position on the rifle. I also do not like the lack of tilt control and the only reason I'm using it now is that it's light and fairly sturdy. I've seen some "over bore" ones, or hangers, as I call them. I'm not fond of them. The ones I think are the most effective are what I call the cradle types, but those are few and far between, so far. They are not as easy to move and I've not seen any folding ones. I don't spend much time looking at "tactical" bipods; I've been using the Joy pod for many years now though it is a "pedestal" type.

quote:

Originally posted by offgrid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7qG35OzCIE

An informative video, so thanks.
A comment, however. The video states that the distance of the support surface of the AX-T to the centerline of the bore is 1.25 inches. Out of curiosity I measured that distance of my 308 TAC A1. With the added Arca rail it measures about 1.1 inch, and without the rail it’s about 0.9 inch. Evidently just one more reason to like the Tikka.

And thanks, NikonUser, for your observations.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:


An informative video, so thanks.
A comment, however. The video states that the distance of the support surface of the AX-T to the centerline of the bore is 1.25 inches. Out of curiosity I measured that distance of my 308 TAC A1. With the added Arca rail it measures about 1.1 inch, and without the rail it’s about 0.9 inch. Evidently just one more reason to like the Tikka.

Hope you don't mind all the drifting!

I believe they are referring to 1.25 centerline of bore going all the way to the mag well. There's rifles with similar but stop well before the magwell as pictured and the reference to the AX in the video. Going all the way to the magwell should make it easier to balance, on a tripod, barricade.... Similar thing dropping a Tikka in a XLR or MPA

As I posted earlier will be interesting to see if agencies adopt this rifle. I don't see why not, well maybe not in Red!

quote:

Originally posted by offgrid:
I believe they are referring to 1.25 centerline of bore going all the way to the mag well.

Hmm .... Perhaps.
EuroOptic has them listed, and even priced less than I expected. Mile High does too, but only with a $500 down payment, not selling price.

And drift is fine with me. I didn’t really expect much discussion of the original topic, and wasn’t disappointed because I knew it was another of those questions/topics that few people would be interested in—as I’ve been accused of posting.