I'm looking to get a bipod for my HK 91. I've seen some on places like ebay, but I have no idea what to look for in terms of warning signs and so on. How can I tell a real HK from a POF from, well, whoever else does knock offs? Is there anything else I should look for, warning signs to steer clear of or anything like that? Thanks.

I will try.

I can tell you a few things from my own experience. Supposedly "authentic" (that is, HK OR contract light bipods like POF and so forth) will have steel feet, not plastic feet. As far as differentiating between say a POF and HK bipod, I believe I had heard it mentioned before somewhere (perhaps it was Mark Graham of Arizona Response Systems somewhere on his site? Don't quote me on this, because I could be mistaken.) that in general the welds or something about the construction of the POF bipods tended to be noticeably more crude than an HK....I bought from Gunbroker what was claimed to be an actual NOS HK light bipod a couple years ago. Perhaps it was, perhaps it was not, it wasn't in German labeled packaging or anything. I had a POF bipod bought from Robert of robertrtgparts and to the very best of my recollection, I could not tell visually a difference between the two of them.

Here's something kind of ironic...the very first light bipod that I bought which had plastic feet (the plastic feet being seen by many as evidence of being a "knock-off" or non HK contract bipod) actually had the tightest, most perfect fit on the bipod cut wide green handguard on my Enfield proofed G3 kit gun. Both the other bipods I had (with metal feet) actually fit pretty loosely on the handguard, and had a tendency to want to "swivel" from side to side (even while folded––kind of annoying). I don't know if that is "normal" or if I just got 2 slightly out of spec light bipods, but the "knock off" bipod never wobbled or swiveled side to side like the other two.I wouldn't be surprised if you bought an actual HK or contract bipod and it had a somewhat loose fit on your wide handguard also.

I wish I had more to relate to you on the subject, but surprisingly even one of the most comprehensive books on G3s/HK33s, etc. "Full Circle" fails to give much information at all about the light bipod accessory,

Hopefully this has been somewhat helpful.

I use bipods on all my shooters but don't think much of the stock military units due to the lack of adjust-ability. This week I decided to make an adapter so I can use a Harris style on my 33.

Parkerized steel feels a little coarse, is usually grey and non-reflective.

Painted steel is usually black, shiny and smooth.