In tandem with field testing ‘Captain Feathersaw‘, one of our ultralight featherweight builds, the team started using the impressive MTN Gear NZ ‘Mountain’ bipod. This was meant to be an initial impressions writeup but… life. So now this brief review is getting published after 2 years of use in 2 countries, on multiple rifles and its is finally available locally from the good people at R&N Blades.

MTN Gear mountain bipod main positives

The bipod is exceptionally light, we’ve tried a lot of carbon bipods over the years from Neopods to Spartans and while the MTN Gear mountain bipod isn’t the lightest out there, its certainly a lot lighter than the wonderful Atlas PSR. The MTN Gear bipod has similar versatility to the Atlas PSR with more niche attributes to justify it when in the mountains. The MTN Gear Mountain bipod has a cunning system to adjust leg angles in addition to leg length giving a vastly greater range of rifle elevation without having to adjust leg lengths. It is incredibly compact and low profile when folded down, plus its simple and effective picatinny rail mount system is excellent. The range of pan and tilt is also excellent and with the various leg angle positions it can make make even the most awkward rocks and tussocks into a stable shooting position.

The less-good (none of it is ‘bad’)

Some play in the legs, so for some shooters, it does require some preloading to ‘lock up’ (unlike, for instance, an Atlas PSR which is rock solid). -Bourney’s notes; I have found with practice that I don’t need to preload the MTN Gear bipod however it does require practice to be consistent and without regular practice prior to a hunt, limiting range may be required

The leg angle adjustment and leg length adjustment feel passive but are no less effective than others. The twist lock system always has a higher cleanliness requirement, however, the truth is the leg angle positioning dominate height adjustments in the field.  On the rare occasions the legs are actually extended in field use, they are clean anyway thanks to their general lack of use.

Its an expensive bipod, no way around this considering the materials and craftmanship, but a worthwhile investment for those looking to keep things light and capable of true precision.

 

First impressions

As mentioned we’ve tried our share of bipods and so far we’ve reviewed the ones that we’d be happy to recommend to people. You’ll note that some of the more widely available ultralight bipods are missing from our reviews… 

We’d resigned ourselves to our respective corners on bipods: Brooky to the hunting oriented, light but solid Tier One and Bourney to the ultimately versatile and super solid Atlas. Then, along came a couple of new offerings from the land of the long white cloud. 

It’s fair to say we haven’t spent heaps of time with the Backlanz, but Bourney has a gen1 and its found a home on a featherweight stocked 22LR (Note, due to the time taken to publish this article, a new generation of Backlanz is now available which we haven’t tried). It has some great features, especially for those wanting to keep a traditional sling stud type attachment point on their rifle. It’s very light and more solid/stable than the other ultralight options we’d tried when we got one – it was good in the hunting scenarios we used it in and we’ve shot some great groups off it at the range. It does however seem to have a need for preload to take the internal spring pressure. It also as noted runs off sling studs which Bourney especially despises on hunting rifles, enter the MTN Gear Mountain bipod.

We already liked MTN Gear’s work, having used their ridiculously light bolt handles on some Tikkas. The pre-release specs on their bipods were sparse but Matt was great to talk to and we were convinced enough that as soon as they were released, we got one of each (the lighter, simpler ‘Backcountry’ and the slightly larger, heavier (relatively) and more versatile ‘Mountain’) to look over. The Mountain immediately got our attention and we’ve since used it on numerous hunts and at the range.

Regardless of numbers on websites the truth is that the first impressions when you pull one out is that it is ridiculously light and really compact. It is totally unobtrusive on the rifle and equally at home in the top pocket of your pack if you’re hunting in and out of the bushline. Ours weighed in at 144g on the PDI scales. A big tick is the simple and effective picatinny rail mount – our absolute preference for a bipod, fast, low profile and secure.

The MTN Gear Mountain bipod leg angle adjustment feature is unique and cunning. It has multiple benefits:

1. You can get really low (good for steep downhill positions)
2. You can very quickly adjust height at the press of a button by changing leg angle – more often than not, there’s no need to fiddle with leg lengths
3. You can optimise your spread/stability for your terrain and could even be spread wide to create a shooting platform across scrub if necessary.

It has a great height range – effectively 8 – 42cm (3 – 17 in) meaning it’s handy in longer grass/tussock. We’ve now used it in multiple downhill sitting shooting scenarios with legs fully extended – sometimes on top of a pack. These are shots we’d previously have had to use a tripod for. 

Finally, the range and resistance on the pan and tilt is really nice (both are firm enough to hold the rifle without user intervention once it’s on target as long as the tension bolt is tightened).

All up, in our personal opinions, this might just be the best truly lightweight hunting bipod on the market currently

After 2 years of hunting

The initial impressions from Brooky’s mountain bipod were positive enough that Bourney got one too. They’ve now been on a variety of hunts in both Australia and New Zealand over more than 2 years. The hunts have ranged from rabbits to tahr, from minutes to 6 night epic mountain adventures and daytime maximums from 1C on a frigid 2023 roar hunt, through to over 40C in the Australian summer sun. Its possibly the first carbon bipod that Bourney hasn’t made the argument about its lack of merits over simply shooting off a pack (Bourney’s criteria for a hunting bipod is if the answer is “yes” to the age old question – is it any better than shooting off a pack?). 

Admittedly, one of the units did have an issue with some glue becoming brittle and giving up after use … but this was tahr hunting in sub-zero conditions, heavily pre-loaded on an awkward shot, dealing with recoil from a lightweight magnum rifle. The fix was easy and Matt at MTN was really helpful to chat with. He has since changed the glue he uses and ours haven’t had any further issues. These things happen to any product at some point.

Other than that, both units have taken a pounding, with the only maintenance being the occasional tightening of the bolts that set the pan and tilt tension, as they gradually free up over extended use. The bipods have proven to be stiff enough to perform on targets at 600m+, and remain so after a couple years of abuse. While we still use the Atlas PSR it’s fair to say that for actual mountain hunting, the MTN Gear Mountain bipods live up to their name and are our first choice as a specialised hunting bipod. Both Bourney and Brooky have taken their best Red stags to date off MTN Gear Mountain bipods, Bourney’s was taken with a downhill 400m shot and Brooky managed a tricky uphill 480m shot on his – that story begins here