Bipodification - An exercise in (f)utility...

Matt.Cross

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Quite some time ago, I found a GG&G LCB-3 Bipod for sale on the interwebz and decided that I needed it for the MA TEN. At $125 it was a great deal because it was unused and came from a very reputable bipod manufacturer. However, I soon found it came with significant limitations. It doesn't pan or cant.

Now panning isn't a terribly important function in terms of the type of shooting that I do, I'm accustomed to setting up natural point of aim for each shot I take, so resetting the bipod isn't a big deal. Cant (tilt) function however, has proven to be a real deficit though for this bipod, as I found out in my first PRS match.

Considering what it is and was designed to be, it's not a bad bipod by any stretch, it just doesn't do what I need it to. So this thread is all about the project to change that.
 
What it is:





Primarily it's designed for larger heavier caliber guns. It's straightforward and sturdy, and not meant for the type of application I've used it for, so I'm acknowledging that right away.

So I'll include other pics here to further show what we're dealing with...





The heart of this bipod is a Y-shaped aluminum wishbone that joins the leg assemblies to the picatinny adapter, via 8-32 Torx socket-head screws and 1/4" nuts. Herein lies our first problem, a 1/4" nut with 8-32 threads isn't a standard size, and one of these little criminals was lost.

I called GG&G to see about replacing it, and it turns out they don't sell replacement parts, you have to ship your items in for repair. This seems a bit extreme, so I decided a project was in order.
 
So first up, I ordered 1' of 1/4" hex stock from McMaster-Carr and drilled and tapped it for 8-32 threads. Cut it off in 1/8" length nuts and voila!, brand new replacement nuts without having to ship my bipod.

 
So with the impossible nut problem out of the way, it's time to address the missing cant function.







The top picture is the aforementioned upside-down "wishbone" that attaches to the rail adapter via the Torx cap screws not the hex heads shown in the lower pic, which were loc-tited in, by the way. None of the screws that need loc-tite have it, all the screws that don't need it have it. It's crazy.

The relationship between the adapter and the wishbone are why this bipod doesn't cant, if you check out the other bipods from GG&G, you'll see that their design in this area different. My project is to add inline tilt function to the existing hardware.
 
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So I disassembled the wishbone and adapter...





Those are 10-32 Torx cap screws, spaced 25/64 apart. I determined this by re-installing the cap screws in the wishbone once it was disassembled, measuring across the outside of the bolt threads, and subtracting the thread diameter of one bolt.

So now I know what my center-to-center bolt hole distance needs to be. With this in mind I started on the bipodification.
 
Bipodification numero uno didn't work out, due to poor planning and even worse execution. Still, I learned a lot from that failure and worked up new specifications for revision 1.

So, with another PRS match coming up at the end of next week, I decided to finish bipodification revision 1 this weekend. I decided on new dimensions and materials for revision one.

It's 1018 cold-rolled steel. Semi-Final dimensions are 7/8" tall, 1" long, and 0.600" thick per segment. I also upgraded the pivot shoulder bolt from 1/4" to 5/16".





A shot of the countersunk socket head cap screws....



And finally, a view of the segments attached to their respective bipod components....







Everything fits pretty well so far, I'm going to take a hard look at how much length and height I can reduce without a compromise of strength. All that's left beside that is to put the radii on the segments, bead blast it, and paint it flat black.
 
Wow heroic effort, sell the specs GG&G to recoup some sunk time

I've got less than 4 hours tied up in both attempts and all materials were either scrap or hardware already at hand.

GG&G actually has some really nice bipods that feature pan and cant, I just happened to buy their one model that doesn't.

This is just a coping mechanism for the fact that Magpul didn't ship their bipods in time for me to utilize theirs for the upcoming match.
 
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Nice work Matt!! Only thing I would change is the nuts to stainless....rust freaks me out around guns. Luv me some homebrew and good luck at the shoot!
Rooster
 
I would have thrown it in the trash and ordered another. I have no patience. Tip Top Bipod, can’t beat it.
 
I would have thrown it in the trash and ordered another. I have no patience. Tip Top Bipod, can’t beat it.

I'm not inclined to pitch $125 of investment into the trash, even though that might honestly be the best place for it. I can return it to it's original state and sell it to someone who wants a used one if I had to, but just chucking it isn't feasible.

Besides, I'm inclined to polish a turd from time to time.
 
I'm not inclined to pitch $125 of investment into the trash, even though that might honestly be the best place for it. I can return it to it's original state and sell it to someone who wants a used one if I had to, but just chucking it isn't feasible.

Besides, I'm inclined to polish a turd from time to time.
Nice work. You have the skill for it. Me, no itty bitty tolerance metal working knowledge. My Tip Top model selection was done with pan and cant as a requirement only because I thought I might get to shoot some groundhogs or coyotes. I quite enjoy shooting steel from the prone position. Lord knows my standing position is straight up horrible.

What type of gun and caliber you mounting the project on?
 
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Nice work. You have the skill for it. Me, no itty bitty tolerance metal working knowledge. My Tip Top model selection was done with pan and cant as a requirement only because I thought I might get to shoot some groundhogs or coyotes. I quite enjoy shooting steel from the prone position. Lord knows my standing position is straight up horrible.

What type of gun and caliber you mounting the project on?

It's a .308 AR built on a Mega Arms MTS-4400 frame. It's somewhere around 17 lbs of rifle.
 
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