front sling mount - does it move?

[Bob-WY]

Yesterday wife and I noticed her rifle, in the bipod, is "twisted", it's like the gun is leaning left. Her bipod does NOT swivel.

In playing around I noticed the sling mount is turned slightly, so the if you stand the gun on the butt, one side of the mount, the hole is lower than the other, as if someone twisted the sling mount in the gun. Looking at it, I can't tell if it turns or not and I am very hesitant to just grab it with pliers and try to straighten it without knowing if it should turn in the forearm of the stock.

The rifle was NOT like this before. It may help explain why on her antelope, her shot, while it dropped the buck with a neck show, it was off to the right of where she aimed (scope crosshairs and barrel are not in the same plane)

We are upgrading her bipod to a longer one that swivels, but still want to know if I should try to turn that sling mount

Rifle is a TC-Venture

 

[Deleted member 16014]

Every one I've ever seen is threaded yes, if you need it to not move I'd remove and then put it back in w/ epoxy or a dab of bedding compound.

 

[cahunter805]

+1 Snowy! You can easily epoxy it solid and straight in the stock.

 

[TN2shot07]

I had a similar experience with one of the Harris bipods that mounted on the swivel. I know it’s not for everybody but I swapped to one that mounts on a rail that is mounted to the stock with two screws, no more movement!

 

[winmag]

Possible the rifle was shipped like that, but more likely that the bipod got bumped/torqued and caused the swivel to become canted. It's a giant lever acting on that swivel stud after all.

Either way a swivel base bipod is vastly superior to a non-swivel base for hunting situations. Otherwise you have to sit there and fiddle with leg lengths when you should be shooting. So I think you're making the correct decision in getting a new one.

I'd mount the new swivel base bipod on there and see how it works before I bothered re-mounting the swivel stud, as long as it's solid in its currently canted state.