Re: Accuracy International Pics
Those of you who use the Parker-Hale bipod know it flops around:
The Parker-Hale adjusts for cant, but there's no way to adjust tension on the cant mechanism. So the weapon is always flopping to one side or another. It's bad enough that photos like this are hard to take:
The weapon always wants to fall over. Even in that pic above, you can see the weapon is leaning to the port side. If my slip weren't there to block the fall, the weapon would have fallen over.
I have tried coke can shims, rubber bands, and O-rings, all to no avail. They helped a little but they still sucked.
I pulled the bipod block from the forend:
When I saw the slit at the rear of the block, it occurred to me that the the slit could go all the way through the block and screws used to clamp the block around the bipod spigot. So I visited Randall at AR15 Barrels with some sketches in hand and he milled the slit all the way through the block:
Randall also milled the holes for the screws:
My idea was to use M3 screws, but Randall thought the screws were too small and could pull through the aluminum threads. I was thinking of M3 screws because of the small heads. There's only so much room on the bipod block for the screw heads:
But Randall used larger screws (I can't recall the size right now) and turned down the heads on his lathe:
This was a very nice solution. I now have much larger screws with coarse threads but the heads are still small enough that they won't protrude from the outer dimensions of the bipod block.
Here's the block with the screws installed:
Note how the forward screw head is recessed sufficiently to clear the front sling swivel.
The machining marks would not show with the bipod block installed, but I touched up the block with a black Sharpie anyway.