I've never been much in favor of vertical foregrips on my AR's but I'm considering mounting one that is also a bi-pod for use during hunting and/or certain types of competitive events.
What say you? Good idea or not? If you have one, would you recommend the brand that you have? What brand is it?
Most of the ones I've seen (and I own a Grip-Pod) are _very_ short. As such, for hunting in Nebraska, it might work (as a bipod it isn't bad) if the grass isn't too tall. Depends on if your normal hunting style allows for low prone shooting, mostly. If not, then the bipod really won't make any difference.
For competition shooting, if in an action sport, any sort of bipod use will put you in Open division. and unless you have the rest of the gear for Open, you Don't Want That.
For rifle-only competitions (whether carbine or longer-range) I dunno....it adds forward weight, *I* personally find them annoying, and while bipods are handy, it really depends on how often you have to move a long distance to a shooting position, can take a prone position for a shot, need more accuracy on that shot than using the magazine as a monopod would give you, and aren't going to bash the bipod around too much (they just aren't as sturdy as a standard bipod).
The "move a long distance" part is based on the fact that if you need a bipod, there are some light dedicated bipods out there of similar sizes, so the only real difference is that a VFG version is a little lighter plus the cool factor.
(That fact that it retracts out of the way is nice, I'll agree.)
One of the reasons I find them annoying is because they are so long. (They have to be, unless you want a bipod that is 2" tall.) So you have a big clunky thing hanging off the front of your barrel. Like I said, I find it annoying.
...that being said, I have a couple, one of which is one a anti-pest AR that I set up for my dad. He can grab the rifle and a mag, step outside, pop the bipod, pop the pest, clear the gun, stick the bipod back in the grip, and step back inside.
While it really isn't that much different from having a real bipod on the front, it was much cheaper, and easy to put on.
...but I don't use the ones I own for anything. You shoot longer ranges than I do, though.
