Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Bipod position impact on POI

Based on a recent personal experience, I'm wondering if the way you hold bipod while shooting could impact point of impact? More specifically, I was shooting my rifle out of a shooting house (doe, 147 yards) and my shot was about a foot to the right. The rifle was dead on, was not dropped or bumped to my knowledge, and I was holding the left leg of the 6" Harris bipod. I practice a lot with this rifle shooting with the bipods deployed and accuracy is good and have never pulled either direction. I used the bipod as the window sill was too low for me but was narrow so I held the left leg firmly so it would not come off the sill during recoil. I was calm at the shot, had watched her for a bit and had already filled my buck tag so I can't imagine I pulled the shot so much (possible but not probable). I got the doe and she dropped on the spot but hit her in the neck, not where I was aiming. I'll get to the range and sort things out but this has been on my mind. Could the rearward free recoil been impacted by the tight hold on the left leg causing the rifle to shift right, if only slightly? If not, my scope is skunked (easy to fix) or it's me (harder to fix).

A bi-pod is not going to affect POI unless it is making the stock contact the barrel and screwing with the harmonics. Or your rifle is not properly glass bedded. You could be causing your whole barreled action to shift in the stock, if that is the case. One of the reasons I always glass bed my rifles. Things like this should be sorted out at the range long before you ever take a pop shot at a critter. 1 foot off is a huge discrimination in POI shift. Also, you say your rifle was "dead on". I hope that is not like some of the targets I see here, as none of them are ever dead on. Or I should say, very few. Dead on sighted in on a rock??

1. If you were holding the front leg of bipod and the rifle butt was positioned in the shoulder pocket there is no free recoil.

Free recoil is a vernacular term or jargon for recoil energy of a firearm not supported from behind.

My guess is it was shooter induced.

The basic principle in play is anything that affects the movement of the rifle before the bullet leaves the muzzle will affect where the bullet goes.

Good idea to hold the tripod with the support hand like Shifty52, says.

This!

My 6.5 Swede will change a little POI with the tripod on the bench vs no tripod on the bench and the rifle on sand bags. Have not seen any change in the field though using the tripod as the deer and pornghorn were hit where I aimed.

The only time my rifle shot that far off was after my nephew had crawled across the rifle to steal my sandwiches. I hunt a lot and do a little competitive shooting.

Most of my rifles are unbedded, and are in factory synthetic stocks. They have ALL had the barrel channels opened to the point that no mater what shooting position the barrel CANNOT touch the stock . All hold zero and shoot very small groups, much smaller than need to kill coyotes out to 300 yards. I used to bed actions and found that for me the improvement and reliability was marginal, not enough to bother with the effort and then swapping stocks became more difficult.

Latest build Rem 700, Timney trigger, Criterion light sporter, unbedded LVSF stock(14oz) Athlon2-12 scope, 20P, 32gr Nosler HP


Changed scope to lighten it a little


It works


Like others said, either the barrel channel or bipod bolt is hitting the barrel or just shooter error, I have that last one happen more than occasionally.

I could just about guarantee that holding onto a bipod leg, as the OP stated, while firing would cause a change in POI unless
he held onto a bipod leg when he sighted the rifle in

257Bob: I have been using Harris type bipods for many decades on countless Rifles (well in excess of 150) now and have NEVER held onto a leg (at the range or afield!) while shooting those many Rifles.
And I have only have had ONE Rifle that shot poorly when shooting off of a Harris bi-pod but shot fine off of sand bags/bench rest!
And by coincidence that Rifle was an early semi-heavy barrel Ruger Model 77 in 257 Roberts - this Rifle was all factory stock and would shoot 3.5" 5 shot groups at 100 yards from the Harris bi-pod and just at 1.00" groups off of my Hart bench rest.
I tried various things to remedy the Rifles quirk but NO luck.
The Rifle was for use by my eldest VarmintSon and after a couple years I traded it off for a 30/06 for him as he was getting older (larger) and was gonna be Hunting Elk and such.
Yes shooting from a Harris bi-pod can affect some Rifles - I know I seen it.
But your 12" deviation from norm at that relatively close range, I would be surprised if the Harris hold would be responsible for that large a shift.
Be sure and let us know what you find out at the range.
Enjoy the venison though.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

When shooting off a concrete bench at a local conservation area, I get a large "kick" or movement of the rifle to one side when using a bipod. I started using a piece of carpet with a slick backing and all weird movement went away. I suspect as others have said that you holding of the bipod changed things.

Holding one leg was likely the culprit.

That wouldn't alloy the rifle to recoil normally.

To answer your question, Yes. A foot seems excessive at that range, but possible.

I appreciate the feedback, I have no clue but I will get to the range this weekend, hopefully. I sighted the rifle with the bipod with my left hand supporting the rear back (no contact with bipod). As mentioned, I was holding the left leg firmly from the sill of the shooting house as it was narrow and didn't want the rifle to fall after the shot. The scope could be off (doubtful), it could be the hold position or it could be me. I'll know more soon!

I would say the way you held the bipod could cause a thrown shot.

^^^ This. You're probably correct in assuming that holding the bipod in a different way had an effect on where the bullet hit.

Try it at the range and see how big your POI shift is.

Paragraphs would help.

Short answer is yes.

On something of an average the rifle travels 1/8" before the bullet leaves the barrel.

Better make sure that 1/8" moves EXACTLY the same from all positions.

It's not the SCOPE.

My vote is that the bipod hold is the culprit. I had a similar experience on an antelope, shooting way to one side. The animal had moved and instead of resetting the rifle/bipod I just twisted the rifle a wee bit more to regain the animal in the scope. Result was a dead critter but the point of impact was 1 foot + from point of aim. I am sure the twist I placed on the rifle resulted in contact/pressure on one side of the barrel with the stock. What made it even worse was a good friend was along and watched the whole episode - rather embarrassing to pooch a simple shot like that. I won't make that mistake again.

I`ve held the leg of mine many times for a various reasons, with no problems. What I have noticed tho, when doing this, is my NPA needs to be exact, or the rifle will twist, and throw a shot.
Might check that out.

Well, I made it to the range yesterday and 1) the rifle is dead-on, no POI shift from travel and 2) replicated shooting position/hold with bipod and no shift of POI so it comes down to shooter error. The thing that gets me most is that I was very deliberate in my shooting, took my time. The rifle is one I recently built, DIY Tenacity/Proof pre-fit/McMillan and it's a good shooter. Until recently, I used a Win 70 7mm RM and can't remember ever missing with that rifle. The conclusion is that I need to practice more under field shooting conditions.