A bipod for Every Occasion
Walters recommendations for bipods as of Winter 2025
If you can't tell by now, Walter is a man of extremes. Extreme responses to simple transgressions during league play bowling nights. Extreme, healthcare-defying blood pressure. Extreme views about caliber and the limits at which hybrid brass can be pushed. Extreme beliefs about the failures of the DC brass to protect and secure our POWs during our protracted sojourn in Southeast Asia. Extreme coffee and oat soda intake, and, naturally, extreme views on bipods.
Walter believes that one of the failures of our current culture is an ever-diminishing appetite for compromise. People want to have the Pinterest barn-dome-diem with two TRD PROs in the driveway, but the Mrs. doesn't want to be more than 20 minutes from her workout class, so the paterfamilias goes into monumental debt, buys a 2-acre "farm" in the suburbs, and is saddled with financial responsibilities to the point where they can't do the things they hoped to do when moving to the country in the first place. That same paterfamilias is, in fact, a bowler and wants to shoot sub-1.8-second bill drills but doesn't have the time to practice because he is saddled with paying off the distressed barn siding kitchen remodel, so he buys a $5000 2011 that looks good on Instagram but runs like the Dude's 73 Gran Torino and is too heavy and cumbersome to carry daily, so he ends up leaving it as great floor loot in his 2025 TRD PRO when it gets broken into in front of the Cheesecake Factory in Meridian. Whatever happened to the courage of our convictions?
Oh well, Walter is rambling again. What the fuck does this have to do with bipods? Well, Walter's opinions on bipods go as follows. Walter either wants a bipod to be so sturdy and ergonomic that he has no excuse not to be stable as a tank turret at ranges exceeding 600 yards, or he wants a bipod to be so light and flush to the gun that it enables him to get deep into the mountains and sneak up on game to the point where he is so happy just to be there, aiming down his scope at a big animal that he could care less that his bipod doesn't have a quick detach ARCA mount or 14-inch legs.
After years of shooting in various positions, platforms, and humping with rifles both slung and packed, Walter has settled on the following two bipods for use when bowling. First is the venerable MDT Ckye Pod with the Arca Mount. No other bipod compares to this when it comes to quality, ease of use, and ability to manipulate into various shooting positions. Walter likes the two-pull variant because it gives enough leg to shoot prone across a canyon from an incline without the added cost or complexity of an additional set of legs. A bowler will pay for this bipod financially and with the weight, but as Walter has said before, nothing is free in Waterworld. If you want the best bipod for target shooting, hunting from a set position, or competing, look no further.
When Walter wants to keep things light and handy, he has grown to love the Q Kickstand and ran it all of the last hunting season. Weighing in at just over half a pound, the Kickstand folds up close to the rail, is easy to deploy, and doesn't have a litany of screws that get loose over time. For this application, Walter forgoes the 1913 or Arca and bolts the kickstand directly to the rail with Q-Sert or Mlok. It's a great, simple solution when prioritizing weight and maneuverability over absolute stability.
"But Walter, I have an X bipod, and I love it, plus some former SOF dude told me I'm a tard if I don't have this bipod that was designed in the 80s." Bipods like the Harris, Atlas, etc., always leave Walter wanting more, like a meal from a strip mall brewpub. 9/10 Walter wishes he would have just grabbed a burrito from a taco truck or braved the crowds and the questionable politics and gone to a real restaurant in a city. It's either/or with Walter, nothing in the middle.