Most of my varmint hunting has been of the close range plinking variety. Have the opportunity to do some long range hunting for PDs and coyotes. What works best as a stable comfortable platform to shoot from?

Funny you should ask that. I really like my Varmint Master's BR PIVOT. Makes the rifle and rest operate like an artillery piece .



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[ 08-22-2003, 19:03: Message edited by: DMCI* ]

For coyotes, you're going to have to be portable and likely concealed. Lots of people like the bipods that attach to your front sling swivel. I personally wouldn't use one, mainly for aesthetic reasons, but moreso because they are likely to play hell with your point of impact (and do so erraticly depending on how they are set up and how much pressure they are placing on the forearm and in what vector). If you are calling or sniping at coyotes, I would find a good hiding place with a tree limb or other natural object to brace against in preference to a bipod. I know others will vehemently disagree, but bipods are still ugly, unwieldy, add weight, and are generally unappealing contraptions.

Prairie dogs are a different matter. Any kind of table will work as a makeshift bench, but of course one like pictured above works much more handily. I have used a simple wooden picnic table in the back of a pickup to provide both helpful elevation and a steady platform.

Of course the classic, but not best, rest is a sandbag across the hood of a vehicle.

Good luck and have fun!

Well, I guess I will be the odd ball here, but I still like my Harris bipods.

I have done a fair amount of prairie dog shooting in several states and keep coming back to lying on my belly on the ground and using a Harris bipod and maybe sneaking a sand bag under the butt of the gun. My buddy and I have tried a couple of different benches and they are great once you get them set up. But, they are a pain to transport and set up and if the ground is uneven they are not always as stable as you would like. The darned ground does not move! I know, I am down there with the snakes and such, and I do get in the cactus sometimes, but it is steady!!

In regard to predator hunting, I like the Harris bipods for that as well. They are not that heavy and I have carried them for miles. In reasonably open country they are just the trick for busting a coyote or whatever. If in thicker brushier areas I just leave them folded up. If you spend as much time shooting with them on the gun as I do you may just find the extra weight out there helps stabilize the gun on offhand shots.

Just my opinion, and by the way, spend the extra bucks on the swivel models.

R F

Harris bi-pod. stable, mobile. If you don't like the sandspurs and crawlies, roll up a 8'x6' piece of ground cloth and carry it with you to set up on. It does make things neat. I have never found there to be a change in POI with or without the bipod attached. This would be on Remington rifles. The bi-pod attaches to the front swivel and if the barrel is free floated, I don't see how it could affect the rifle???????

Here is the reason to stay off the ground in PD country.

<<< Shooting on the Belknap, July 2002

A posting I made on another site, FYI:

quote:

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Originally posted by DMCI *:

Fleas over there have BUBONIC PLAGUE(AKA: Black Death!) Best to stay off the ground.



When PD bites it, fleas notice that things are not working out for them and they jump to first available host. You definitely don't want to get too close to TU PDs.

They can be hazardous to your well being. One or two cases a year of that disease. We are warned that if after returning we observe flu like symptoms, to visit family physician post haste.

Nothing to fool with. The above picture was taken on the Belnap Indian Reservation. (See quote below. We were there about 9 months after the outbreak three years ago. PDs were back in force.)

quote:

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The Associated Press

F O R T B E L K N A P, Mont., Sept. 5,2000 � An outbreak of bubonic plague is turning prairie dog towns into ghost towns on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation.

�Right now, it�s a serious wildlife health issue and it�s something the public should be aware of,� said John Grentsen, a wildlife biologist for the federal Bureau of Land Management.

Since the presence of the bacteria that causes the plague was confirmed on the reservation and in southern Phillips County last fall, about 3,600 acres of healthy prairie dog towns have died off, and more are being decimated each month.

Weeks ago, a 500-acre prairie dog town on the reservation was alive with thousands of barking, scurrying rodents. Now, there is hardly any sound or movement.

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Source Article

quote:

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At Curecanti, the prairie dog population presents a special concern. The prairie dog carries fleas that sometime harbor a plague bacteria (Yersinia pestiis) known to cause bubonic plague in humans.

Studies indicate that the plague usually appears when there is a stress in the prairie dog population. A major cause of stress is overpopulation. Most of the prairie dog�s natural predators have been reduced, and others, like the rattlesnake and black-footed ferret, do not exist at Curecanti. As prairie dog populations increase they are more susceptible to disease. In 1981, the entire colony at North Willow Creek on Blue Mesa Reservoir was killed by plague. When prairie dog colonies die, their predators, such as the golden eagle, must find other food sources or leave the area.

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This summer when I was shooting the Golden Eagles and owls would land on the field, and when we shot a PD they would drag it into cover and proceed to tear it apart! Don't call them RAPTORS for nothing!

When I was scanning with my range finder, the eagles were the same color as the PDs and would trip me up every time. Stupid owls were very cool, just sit there within range and wait till the PDs would drop. They seemed to love the idea that we were doing the work for them.

D.

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And people want make pets out of those things? Sometimes a wild creature is just a wild creature!

[ 08-27-2003, 11:31: Message edited by: DMCI* ]