Originally Posted by
miketodd58
Harris bipeds are horrible. Loud to deploy. Hard to get stable in uneven terrain. Can change impact of round from bench site in to bipod use.
Shooting sticks or a shooting pack are much better.
"Loud to deploy" is about user error. Plenty of guys have relied upon Harris bipods for many many years (I'm around 20yrs on my oldest Harris).
"Unstable on uneven terrain" is really a user error also.
"Can change impact of round from bench site in to bipod use," coupled with the follow up statement that "shooting sticks or a pack are better" is just flat lying. Any forend pressure against the barrel that is different from one shot to the next can change your POI, and it has nothing to do with what support you are using. Put your rifle weight on a set of shooting sticks and you have the same pressure on the stock - and potentially against the barrel of a non-free floated rifle - as you would when using a harris bipod.
If you've convinced yourself that you shoot worse off of a bipod, it's much more likely that you're failing to preload the pod in the field - again, a user error.