Got in deeper than I wanted to today with my new 40-X bi-pod

Bill Calfee

Gun Fool
Got in deeper than I wanted to today with my new 40-X bi-pod


CYA friends:


Man, 65 degrees today, so I wanted to shoot my 40-X pistol cause it's turning colder tomorrow, and next week.


But I got into more than I bargained for in building my new bi-pod.



I wanted the legs to be pointed so to engage the Eley ammo trays easily.....instead of the rubber feet I normally use.



But like anything else, the job entailed much more than I anticipated when I went to bed last evening dreaming about it.




But I got it done.......and I'm wore out....



CYA friends, by the time I finished it was almost dark, and the temp going down, and the wind picking up...


So there was no way I could shoot this evening....



CYA friends, it's still mid winter, even though it was very mild today.


____________________________



I have everything ready as soon as we get another break in the weather...



I'm well pleased with what I did accomplish today with this pointed foot bi-pod.



And man I wish I could have shot it today.



Your friend, Bill Calfee


__________________________________


I wound up making up all new aluminum hardware for this bi-pod....


Even though the legs aren't adjustable now, should this pointed foot bi-pod work successfully, I can make them adjustable.




DSC09968%20-%20Copy.jpg




I was going to just press the legs into the aluminum hardware, but I decided to take my time and bolt them in properly....



DSC09975.jpg
 
More than I anticipated, so I had no time left to shoot it.

More than I anticipated, so I had no time left to shoot it.


CYA friends:


Man, it's like 30 years ago for me today; that was back when I was developing a RFBR pistol to begin the first pistol revolution.



I've got a 15 year-old's mind in a worn out, old man's body, so my mind gets all cited about projects and spearments that the old body just can't keep up with.


Like yesterday for instance...




I thought I could cob up a bi-pod with pointed feet and still have time to shoot it.......man it was a pretty day.


But when I got into making the new bi-pod, I just couldn't do a cob job.......even if it meant me waiting till another day to shoot it.



________________________



I used an existing rail I had, but the hole spacing was a half bolt width longer than the rail on my 40-X pistol...


I started to use just the front bolt to hold the rail on, which would have worked OK long enough for me to test it...


But I simply could not stand it, so I spend extra time elongating the rear hole and making it right, and nice looking to boot.


DSC09973%20-%20Copy_1.jpg


______________________________




When I pointed the leg, I made the very tip round, and polished, so it will act like a ball on the end of the leg.


I did this because I'm going to test this bi-pod on a piece of hard polished material, without the Eley ammo trays.


I believe it's a marble bathroom floor tile.


DSC09968%20-%20Copy%20-%20Copy.jpg




___________________________________



CYA friends, it's going to be fascinating to see what folks come up with in the way of resting the bi-pod on the bench.


Jeff Patterson told me he's going to try Delrin balls on the end of the legs of his bi-pod, for instance.




______________________________________



Now, having said all of the above, and spending all day yesterday on this pointed feet bi-pod for my 40-X pistol, my gut is telling me it isn't going to do what I want.



And I haven't even tested it yet......


Maybe it will work......as I envisioned?



See.....................


We want the pistol to move on the bench with velvet fluid smoothness.......


But, when we place the cross hairs on a bull, we want the pistol to stay there, be planted in place.


We don't want the bi-pod feet so free on the bench, that the pistol is acting like marbles on plate glass.



Marfarkle, Mark Meadows, came up with the idea of putting the bi-pod feet on Eley ammo trays....


And it works.......


A pistol so equipped simply glides across the bench, just like waxed velvet, but, when you light on a bull the pistol sticks in place.


So some combination of bi-pod foot material, and the Eley ammo trays, or something similar, most like will be the best method of shooting a Class A, RFBR pistol.



And right now, without me having shot it, my gut tells me my pointed feet spearment isn't going to do exactly what I'm after.



Man I'm cited...


Your friend, Bill Calfee
 
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More than I anticipated, so I had no time left to shoot it.


CYA friends:


Man, it's like 30 years ago for me today; that was back when I was developing a RFBR pistol to begin the first pistol revolution.



I've got a 15 year-old's mind in a worn out, old man's body, so my mind gets all cited about projects and spearments that the old body just can't keep up with.


Like yesterday for instance...




I thought I could cob up a bi-pod with pointed feet and still have time to shoot it.......man it was a pretty day.


But when I got into making the new bi-pod, I just couldn't do a cob job.......even if it meant me waiting till another day to shoot it.



________________________



I used an existing rail I had, but the hole spacing was a half bolt width longer than the rail on my 40-X pistol...


I started to use just the front bolt to hold the rail on, which would have worked OK long enough for me to test it...


But I simply could not stand it, so I spend extra time elongating the rear hole and making it right, and nice looking to boot.


DSC09973%20-%20Copy_1.jpg


______________________________




When I pointed the leg, I made the very tip round, and polished, so it will act like a ball on the end of the leg.


I did this because I'm going to test this bi-pod on a piece of hard polished material, without the Eley ammo trays.


I believe it's a marble bathroom floor tile.


DSC09968%20-%20Copy%20-%20Copy.jpg




___________________________________



CYA friends, it's going to be fascinating to see what folks come up with in the way of resting the bi-pod on the bench.


Jeff Patterson told me he's going to try Delrin balls on the end of the legs of his bi-pod, for instance.




______________________________________



Now, having said all of the above, and spending all day yesterday on this pointed feet bi-pod for my 40-X pistol, my gut is telling me it isn't going to do what I want.



And I haven't even tested it yet......


Maybe it will work......as I envisioned?



See.....................


We want the pistol to move on the bench with velvet fluid smoothness.......


But, when we place the cross hairs on a bull, we want the pistol to stay there, be planted in place.


We don't want the bi-pod feet so free on the bench, that the pistol is acting like marbles on plate glass.



Marfarkle, Mark Meadows, came up with the idea of putting the bi-pod feet on Eley ammo trays....


And it works.......


A pistol so equipped simply glides across the bench, just like waxed velvet, but, when you light on a bull the pistol sticks in place.


So some combination of bi-pod foot material, and the Eley ammo trays, or something similar, most like will be the best method of shooting a Class A, RFBR pistol.



And right now, without me having shot it, my gut tells me my pointed feet spearment isn't going to do exactly what I'm after.



Man I'm cited...


Your friend, Bill Calfee



Howdy Bill,
What would happen if you drilled and tapped a couple of steel ball bearings, and threaded the bipod legs, and fit them together?

Or, if you happen to have a couple of bolt handles that were threaded with a ball knob on the end, could you thread the bipod legs to make them fit the bolt handles? If you could do that then you could put a nut on there to make the height adjustable.

I have a couple of other ideas that, along with these, I had wanted to try on a rifle stock, but they are probably sorta silly. Or not.

Ponder it and see what you think.

Take care,

Greg
 
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Friend 404tbang

Howdy Bill,
What would happen if you drilled and tapped a couple of steel ball bearings, and threaded the bipod legs, and fit them together?

Or, if you happen to have a couple of bolt handles that were threaded with a ball knob on the end, could you thread the bipod legs to make them fit the bolt handles? If you could do that then you could put a nut on there to make the height adjustable.

I have a couple of other ideas that, along with these, I had wanted to try on a rifle stock, but they are probably sorta silly. Or not.

Ponder it and see what you think.

Take care,

Greg


____________________________


Friend 404tbang:


Greg, I hope the ole back is getting along.


It's going to be fascinating to see what creative shooters come up with for the bi-pod arrangement for these Class A pistols.




My pointed feet bi-pod, since I rounded and polished the tips, will act like a ball bearing when I use them without the Eley ammo trays.



DSC09968%20-%20Copy%20-%20Copy.jpg



_____________________



Here's where I'm at in dealing with my 40-X pistol's bi-pods, both of them.



The feet on my first bi-pod are hard plastic......and they do not work well with the Eley ammo trays.


Throughout the years I used rubber feet that were about the consistency of one of those giant pencil erasers we used as kids in school.


These rubber feet stuck to the Eley ammo trays well.



I don't believe my pointed feet are going to be the answer, since the Eley ammo trays will tend to swivel all over the place when moved around on the board.


The same thing happens, to some extent, with the hard plastic feet on my first bi-pod.



The rubber vacuum plugs for auto engines, that someone suggested, may be the answer.


Or, I wish I could find the kind of rubber feet I used to use.


______________________________



Greg, as simplistic as the Eley ammo tray idea of Marfarkles is, it works better than anything I've ever tried, with the right kind of bi-pod feet.


And there's reasons why I believe Mark's idea of using the Eley ammo trays works so well, which we'll discuss later.



Your friend, BC


__________________


PS:


As you can see, the "girl with a pistol" uses the Eley ammo trays, and the feet on her bi-pod are the good rubber kind, in her case they are white to match her white Corvette.



Mary%20at%20Livonia.jpg
 
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The tray and vaccum cap combo is going to hard to beat. The dampening effect of the vaccum caps and the ease of movement of the trays. The angle of the legs makes using any type of roller difficult.
Todd
 
Friend TE

The tray and vaccum cap combo is going to hard to beat. The dampening effect of the vaccum caps and the ease of movement of the trays. The angle of the legs makes using any type of roller difficult.
Todd

______________________


Friend TE:



The next time I'm at NAPA I'm going to look into the vacuum line caps/plugs.



I got a pleasant surprise last evening.


The pointed feet worked really well.



I ground the points so they go about 2/3rds the way into the holes in the Eley tray.



These pistols tend to want to pick the right leg up when fired, so I wanted to make sure the points stayed in the holes I put them in.


And they did.


Here's a weight for the right leg that I spearmented with some years ago......Steve Turner wound up using it for a while right before he retired from RFBR shooting.

Was it an advantage?


No, I really don't believe so.



CalfeePistolSporter-2.jpg




The sliding ammo trays work most excellent.


The only unanswered question, at least for me is, what is the best configuration for the bi-pod feet to use with them?




DSC09978.jpg




Man that was fun getting to shoot again, even with it so cold.


What I would have given to have had this pistol back when I was competing...........



DSC09980.jpg




And now that I actually own this double neat, and very stout, 40-X pistol, I can't seem to get myself too cited about it, cause I know there's greener grass just over the next rise.

Although it is still killer fun to shoot.....man!


Your friend, BC
 
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Rubber vacuum caps.

I had mentioned that I found the rubber “feet” at O’Reilly’s auto Stores...NAPA site shows that they are “available"..also found them in eBay...look under rubber vacuum caps. They are available in several sizes. Also, if the dealer has to order, make sure he gets rubber ones...they have both rubber and vinyl caps.
 
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Friend Bn1

I had mentioned that I found the rubber “feet” at O’Reilly’s auto Stores...NAPA site shows that they are “available"..also found them in eBay...look under rubber vacuum caps. They are available in several sizes. Also, if the dealer has to order, make sure he gets rubber ones...they have both rubber and vinyl caps.


_______________________________


Friend Bn1:


Thank you for the info.



Here's a picture from the first pistol revolution.


This was taken at Big Dog's annual wintertime RFBR pistol match.


CalfeeXPsatMikes-1.jpg



Here's another picture from Big Dog's yearly pistol matches at his cabin....



100_1698.jpg










Friend Bn1, the second RFBR pistol revolution is coming..........



Your friend, Bill Calfee
 
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