There are a couple of pictures of me with the gadget at www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=8&f=11&t=171205

I fashioned two assemblies from steel bar stock, which connect to the T-slot on the bottom of the AR-50 fore and aft of the main stock attaching screw and mate with the front and rear mounts on the tripod's gun cradle.  It took me about 20 hours of planning and machining.  (I'm a computer guy, not a machinist.)

The spring shock absorbing system works very well.  Tripod weighs about 45 pounds.  The rifle moves about an inch under recoil.  The tripod barely moves.  With the tripod sitting on loose gravel the rifle returns very close to your aim point.  On solid ground and sandbagged it would be as good as a machine benchrest.  The tripod deals with all of the recoil, so you could shoot this all day and never get sore.  The T&E mechanism works great for aiming.  It's very solid and smooth.

I haven't hooked up the remote trigger actuater, so that gets in the way of right-handed shooters.  I've always shot long guns left-handed due to an eye condition, so this setup works for me.  The other thing I want to do is utilize the very fine optical periscope sight that came with the tripod.  It is about 4x magnification, nice wide field of view, and illuminated bullet drop compensator reticle (for a totally different caliber of course).

That DBS (Desert Buffet Shoot) event on June 28 was a lot of fun.  Anyone within striking distance of Las Vegas should watch the Nevada hometown board for announcements for the next one.  I'm told they hold them monthly.  Lots of nice folks armed to the teeth, in a place where you're allowed to blow things up.

Cal Kid

Saw your pics from the Vegas shoot - how cool - I'd like to attend some day.

Where'd you get your bipod and how much trouble was it to adapt to your AR50?

I have the Ferret which I'll be shooting today for the first time...

I got the tripod from Sportsman's Guide.  Total cost was (almost unbelievably) $279 delivered to my door.  They ran out of them about two days after announcing them.  Luckily I read about them in the Tripods forum on 1919a4.com and jumped on it.

The adapter system is not really a difficult project but does require a milling machine, set of drills, taps, and the ability to locate holes accurately.

The rear mount adapter I made is pretty simple - block of metal with two protruding bolts that mate with hooks on the tripod.  Front mount adapter is more involved, sort of a mortise and tenon joint with a provision for a spring-loaded tongue on the back edge.

Once those two adapter pieces are fastened firmly on the AR-50s T-slot and the buttstock removed, it takes about 5 seconds to snap the rifle onto the tripod.  I'm just leaving them on even when firing the rifle normally (i.e. with the buttstock on).

Have fun with the Ferret!