I am getting a Harris bi-pod for my new Savage 16 Trophy Hunter but I don't know if I should get one that swivels or not. I will not be using it for hunting, just bench and prone shooting. Can anyone suggest one over the other?
I will be buying one soon also. I haven't done any research on performance with or without but I am going with swivel. I want to have the option if ever needed despite not needing the option now.
Are you ever going to be shooting on the ground? If so then get the swivel. I made the mistake of buying the non swivel version because I thought the ground I was going to shoot off was relatively flat, and it is. But the bipod still sits slightly uneven, just enough to throw off the cross hair but not enough to need adjusting to a seperate notch in the legs. So I have to torque the bipod to get my cross hairs level. If I could go back I would spend the extra 20 bucks and get the swivel. And when you do shoot off the bench you can tighten down the swivel as far as itll go to lock it up tight.
I vote swivel. It is a rarity that I will be shooting prone on completely level ground and it is much easier and more precise to cant the gun via swivel to compensate for surface incongruities in the ground than it is to try to extend one leg of the bipod longer than the other in order to level out. At closer ranges it probably won’t make much of a difference but at longer ranges it would be more advantageous.
I've got both types and for bench I use non swivel exclusively. For anything else I use the swivel though I seldom if ever lock it down. It's darn handy using the hood of the Jeep or truck as a rest in the fields.