Has anyone figured out a hunting bipod yet?

[Dco243]

I used the hatch this year for predator hunting in my home state here in SD. Hatch has its pros and cons for in field use and durability. Granted condition of use were moderate use in 50 degrees to -15 degrees.

Hatch outdoors bipod.

Pros:
American made
Legs deploy relatively quick.

Leg articulation fore and aft make it favorable up up or down hill shots.

Height range prone to kneeling/sitting make it quite versatile in the field.

Customer service excellent.

Cons:
Legs and washer locking mechanism. do not tolerate debris, migration of water from snow melt causing lockup to freeze or become inoperable in extended cold sets.

Pull pin for spanning legs out (prone) is finicky in field conditions. Two handed operation in the cold.

Lack Cant in prone position have to adjust legs height to level out.

Rubber feet pulled off. glue failure after 3days of use in cold.

Non spiked feet! It would definitely benefit from a raider or hawk talon style foot to aid in loading the bipod with hard surface contact and mitigate the post holding effect in the snow.
Friction lock failed at end of season leg would not lock. Hatch indicated issue with sourced material specs being out of tolerance. Which was promptly taken care of by Hatch.


This winter I had numerous occasions where the bipod would freeze up the leg locking mechanism and legs. found myself walking back to the pickup with fully deployed legs on more then one occasion to thaw them out. I feel this company Is making the right moves for a field/hunting use bipod that lends itself useable a variety positional situations. There is definite room for improvement.

 

[SDHNTR]

I used the hatch this year for predator hunting in my home state here in SD. Hatch has its pros and cons for in field use and durability. Granted condition of use were moderate use in 50 degrees to -15 degrees.

Hatch outdoors bipod.

Pros:
American made
Legs deploy relatively quick.

Leg articulation fore and aft make it favorable up up or down hill shots.

Height range prone to kneeling/sitting make it quite versatile in the field.

Customer service excellent.

Cons:
Legs and washer locking mechanism. do not tolerate debris, migration of water from snow melt causing lockup to freeze or become inoperable in extended cold sets.

Pull pin for spanning legs out (prone) is finicky in field conditions. Two handed operation in the cold.

Lack Cant in prone position have to adjust legs height to level out.

Rubber feet pulled off. glue failure after 3days of use in cold.

Non spiked feet! It would definitely benefit from a raider or hawk talon style foot to aid in loading the bipod with hard surface contact and mitigate the post holding effect in the snow.
Friction lock failed at end of season leg would not lock. Hatch indicated issue with sourced material specs being out of tolerance. Which was promptly taken care of by Hatch.


This winter I had numerous occasions where the bipod would freeze up the leg locking mechanism and legs. found myself walking back to the pickup with fully deployed legs on more then one occasion to thaw them out. I feel this company Is making the right moves for a field/hunting use bipod that lends itself useable a variety positional situations. There is definite room for improvement.

Good assessment

 

[JP100]

MTN Bipod has been good for me so far.

Pros-
Super light
adjustable through a huge ROM
one handed operation
not made by commies
quick on and off, but also solid to the rifle

Cons-
they are spendy
need a pic rail on your gun(not a big deal)
There is slight play in the legs, ive talked to the owner about this and he has made them like that so you can load them properly and the idea is the small amount of play helps under recoil.
Once you get used to it, its super solid
feet are aggressive! great for in the field, not good off the bonnet of the truck haha

MTNGear

MTNGear provides specialised high quality products and content for the average hard charging mountain hunter.

www.mtngear.us

 

[Slewwater]

I rock a Spartan Javelin Lite sized long. Very light. Magnet attachment works, but there's a little play from the factory - JB weld and shoe polish style bedding job takes care of that. The cant adjustment could be tighter, can torque the rifle out of level with your wrist. Even with those cons, I think its a good backcountry bipod. Planning to drill my carbon stock and bed Spartan's gunsmith adapter this spring for a very clean look.

 

[SDHNTR]

Bedding that adapter is a fantastic idea. Bravo! Dang, why didn’t I think of that!

 

[BjornF16]

I rock a Spartan Javelin Lite sized long. Very light. Magnet attachment works, but there's a little play from the factory - JB weld and shoe polish style bedding job takes care of that.

Bedding that adapter is a fantastic idea. Bravo! Dang, why didn’t I think of that!

So if I understand what you did…used shoe polish as a release agent and bedded around the adapter for a tight fit being careful not to cover the magnet?

JB Weld stays inside the adapter or on outside of male end?

 

[Slewwater]

I would think a guy could do it either way, but for ease of access, I choose to JB the male end and put the release agent (shoe polish) in the female end.

Qtiped some shoe polish in the female end covering the sides and magnet, took the male end and roughed it up with a little sandpaper, globbed some JB Quikweld on, and let it set. I didn't bed the swivel side of the bipod but that tightened up nicely all the same.

To finish, I watched the discarded glob and once that was more or less set, took some clean scrap wood and pealed off the excess JB from the around the seam, then took acetone to clean up the work and it feels like it should've felt from the factory.

 

[SDHNTR]

I would think a guy could do it either way, but for ease of access, I choose to JB the male end and put the release agent (shoe polish) in the female end.

Qtiped some shoe polish in the female end covering the sides and magnet, took the male end and roughed it up with a little sandpaper, globbed some JB Quikweld on, and let it set. I didn't bed the swivel side of the bipod but that tightened up nicely all the same.

To finish, I watched the discarded glob and once that was more or less set, took some clean scrap wood and pealed off the excess JB from the around the seam, then took acetone to clean up the work and it feels like it should've felt from the factory.

And the magnet pulls secure through the JB? Or did you grind it off the tip of the male end so there is still metal to magnet contact?

 

[Slewwater]

And the magnet pulls secure through the JB? Or did you grind it off the tip of the male end so there is still metal to magnet contact?

I put the release agent (shoe polish) on the top of the male end as well the entire female end; then put the JB on only the sides of the male end; my goal was to just get rid of the little bit of play, which it did. I also used acetone on a q-tip right around the opening edge to take away some of the JB and bring it back to stock - the idea being that a more open end will make the bipod easier to deploy in the heat of the moment.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I might put a thin felt sticker on top of the male end to muffle that little "click" when the two magnets connect.

 

[SDHNTR]

I gotcha. Thanks.

 

[Lando]

Anyone have experience with the Rugged Ridge Bipods?

 

[Justin Crossley]

Anyone have experience with the Rugged Ridge Bipods?

I've used a couple of them. They are good quality, but overall, I don't like them.

 

[WRO]

Anyone have experience with the Rugged Ridge Bipods?

I ran one for a year, good bipod, that being said twist lock legs were prone to slipping and it’s not easy to switch up and out like the Modular evolution.


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[Hurley88]

Finally got my Hatch in, went out this past weekend to try it out. I’m a fan.
I was testing a few different bipods as well as a couple tripod setups to see what I liked.

I see what’s being said about the washer and it causing movement, but I was able to load into it just fine. Interestingly I came away from the whole series of tests not really wanting to load into anything very hard. I get it for recoil and keeping the shot from flying high, but to load into a rest hard enough to steady the shot was counter productive bc you’re leaning into the thing you’re shooting. I had much better results loading myself into my pack frame then letting the gun do its thing, like at a bench rest. When prone same concept, preloading the bipods helped but really loading into them didn’t. So the washer thing wasn’t an issue for me. Also I’ll likely not be a shooter who wants spiked feet. To each their own.

It was only my first hurrah with these setups but we were there for eight hours so got a pretty good bit of practice. I see the versatility of a tripod but setup time isn’t very good. Even with practice, all the guys there preferred the Hatch leg adjustment and propping the pack into your chest to a tripod. Same effect, about a third of the time needed to execute a shot.

To clarify regarding the pack: you sit on your butt, pack sits upright on ground in front of you, the part of the pack that normally goes against your back is facing you. Feet go over the hip belt wings and your heels can slide the pack towards you if needed. Your chest goes into the pack frame (held in place with your heels against the ground). Your elbows rest on the pack and your chest into the frame; basically a benchrest setup. With other bipods it wasn’t much different than a tripod bc of the leg adjustment, and that’s where the Hatch really shined. You could get the front of the gun where you wanted it while in position. We were ringing steel out to 800 like that. Granted the pack idea works with any rest, but the Hatch legs greatly reduced setup time.

Every bipod has quirks that leave something to be desired, but overall I see the Hatch as the best do-it-all bipod. Can be your 6-9”, your 9-12”, and your 12-27”, then the leg adjustment really puts it ahead of the others for field positions. YMMV, but I was very pleasantly surprised.

 

[DRUSS]

I do not think that 1 Bipod will fit for all applications. I've tried a few and like each for certain applications. So it's known, I currently have 2 Harris, short and mid length Javelin 1st and 2nd gen, last version of Rugged Ridge and extensions, short and medium Modular Evolution with extensions. My latest is the rok stedi 634. Still haven't had enough time with the rok stedi for a good evaluation.
Harris and Modular Evolution- I prefer for my heavier rifles.
Rugged ridge- not bad but just like tripods I don't like twist lock type clamps. Tough to tighten or get set well for temp swings. I usually set mine after leaving them in my 15° freezer
Javelin- I like these the best for most of my hunting situations. I always have them with me. Quick to deploy. Steady enough for a lot of shooting situations as long as you have practiced with them.
Rokstedi has been great for sitting and prone so far. I feel this could be a great predator calling setup. Only few hundred rounds so far though.

Most of my taller setups I use my trekking poles with wiser precision adapters.

I would like to try a MDT double. But haven't got that far yet

 

[Hurley88]

I agree with the above.

To clarify my previous post for anyone in the market, the Hatch is the best field bipod so far with respect to the sitting position. Yes it can be a one-and-done (anything that goes from 6-27” can), but it’s definitely finicky to use in the prone position compared to any other standard style bipod bc you have to set it to the wide stance and one of the legs is a lot more difficult to reach in order to adjust. So if you’re primarily a prone shooter who can use other methods to get higher, I can see the argument against it.

For example, after our testing us guys have been discussing it a bit. I could see the tripod or Wiser Precision adapter on trekking poles being used for midrange shots, then a simple bipod for the longer pokes. Then there‘s an argument for the same thing but packing something like the Hatch, and only bringing it out for the longer shots but having versatility…we’re doing another round soon and we’ll probably focus on those two approaches.

So yeah there’s no such thing as a bipod that’s best for all shooting positions. Each one will shine somewhere and work well enough in other cases.

 

[rratzlaff1490]

Does any one know if the clamp on the Mtn gear bipod will fit on the rail of the XLR chassis?

 

[Travis Bertrand]

Does any one know if the clamp on the Mtn gear bipod will fit on the rail of the XLR chassis?

No it will not unless they have changed it. It is designed for pic rail

With that said, you can easily put a pic rail on the XLR as it has mlok on bottom.


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[NW Hunt€r]

I spoke with the owner of Hatch the other day and he's working on a prototype currently that addresses some of the complaints. I didn't get many details but I talked to him about getting me one to test prior to release. I need to reach back out to him to see what he decided.

Hi Justin,
Any news on an updated bipod yet?

 

[Justin Crossley]

Hi Justin,
Any news on an updated bipod yet?

Nothing yet. Last I talked to him they were still working on it.