Innovative New Eliseo HD Bipod for Tube Guns
Gary Eliseo of Competition Shooting Stuff (CSS) is about to release his new Heavy-Duty (HD) bipod for his CSS tubegun chassis systems. In development for over a year, this unit is very innovative. To place the bipod’s rotational (swivel) axis as close as possible to the bore axis, the bipod actually attaches with a cylindrical bushing fitted to the front tube (handguard). This keeps the center of gravity low and significantly reduces perceived torque, particularly with .308 and larger calibers.
You’ll also notice the large half-spherical leg bases. These have been called “golf-ball” feet or, alternatively, “mushroom heads”. Extensive testing showed that this design works really well, particularly for shooting off an uneven or inclined surface. Because the half-spheres contact the ground in just one point, you can easily adjust your rifle’s angle to the target. By contrast, some of the popular sled-type and ski-type bipod feet will dig one end into the ground if the rifle is angled up or down significantly relative to the ground plane. With the golf-ball feet you can shoot on a steep down-angle hill with no problems.
Gary also found that the spherical “mushroom head”-style feet work real well on a shooting mat, sliding back smoothly on recoil without hopping too much. This is good for those guys who like to allow their rifle to slide back a bit to smooth out the recoil and follow-through. If you prefer to hold hard and brace firmly against the backward push of the rifle, you can screw down pointed spikes from the bottom of the ball feet. These spikes can be planted in the ground to anchor the gun against rearward movement. So, the spherical bases offer a choice of two shooting styles.
Gary explains: “The new CSS HD Bipod is designed specifically for my chassis systems. As you can see, the bipod mounts in the end of the hand guard so the rifle rotates on its central axis. Our testing shows that this mounting system works really well at controlling torque effects. The spherical feet are made of delrin so they slide easy if you want to let the recoil move back on recoil. But the round leg bases are drilled and tapped to accept track shoe spikes so you pre-load the bipod and hold hard if you prefer.”
Both bipod legs are individually adjustable for height with an inner rod sliding in an outer tube on each side. Adjustment is continuous, with height fixed by way of a tensioning knob. It’s fast and easy to adjust height. One or both legs can also be retracted upwards in an arc, so they can be stowed parallel to the barrel (with tips facing either to the front or to the rear). The new Eliseo HD Bipod weighs 1 pound, 10 ounces — reasonably light considering how sturdy these units are. Pricing has not yet been set, but Gary says they should retail for under $200.00. For info, visit CompetitionShootingStuff.com.
While you’re shopping Optics Planet, check out the Steiner Military Marine 8×30 Binoculars ($249.00) and 7×50 Marine Binoculars ($324.99). This Editor has used these binoculars on hunts and hikes, and they offer excellent performance for the price. Steiner binoculars, with their wide porro-prism design, may seem old-fashioned, but don’t let that put you off. At SHOT Show an executive of a competing optics maker told us: “The porro-prism offers great field of view and depth of field at 7-8X power. You can produce a better optic at a lower price with this porro-prism design. However, we don’t use the porro-prism in our binoculars because we think consumers prefer the narrow styling of roof prism [straight lens body] designs.”
