I was well aware of the make of bipod he was using but had never really looked at them so I asked for the existing bipod head only (Keeps shipping down) and tested it on one of my AI’s. Yup it moved all over the place and was a faff to attach so off to the Shed I headed.
AI’s have three potential bipod pick-up’s, the front spigot which is great for tactical type bipods such as the original Parker Hale type or the Versa Pod, next is the Harris stud fixing and I must admit to having shot with a Harris on AI’s for a while, the only down side is I have to put my reading glasses on to see what I am doing when I fit it. Stop sniggering at the back, you will be old one day…. Final option is the very robust AI T slot rail in the bottom of the chassis with the silly circular hole that is used to engage anything into the slot. Silly maybe but a good robust place to pick up the F/TR bipod from. The obvious issue would still remain in that the bipod could still potentially swivel when in use.
My solution was to add a lip to the edge of the block to keep everything straight. Add a circular T Nut let into a slot so it is always orientated correctly and finally a decent hand wheel underneath, so here it is:
6082 T6 and some very high quality stainless that had cost me a cutter a few weeks before but was an ideal size, here is another view.
Yes I know my pictures have not improved..
All in all I am rather pleased with this, a simple solution to a well known problem. Now at this point I could say everything went smoothly however, the ‘T Nut’ is the second one, the first one escaped whilst I was polishing it, a significant pingdrat moment that saw me on my hands and knees with a torch searching the darkest most corners of the Shed to no avail. Luckily I had just enough of the stainless left to build another, the alternative being machine it out of a lump of 35mm OD 316 which I really was not up for..
