CV Life Bipod Review

  

Author Justin Keeney 

Normally I'm skeptical about when folks from lesser known, budget part companies offer us items to test out and review. So when I was approached by the folks from CV Life, I was a little hesitant as they were really amped up about looking for folks to field test their products. However my reluctance is usually warranted by the normal "knockoff brands", since they don't usually offer the same quality as the larger known brands of products. Whether it be shooting equipment and accessories, camping equipment, etc. I decided to give these guys from CV Life a chance, and looking back, I'm glad I did. 

    After just under a week of wait time, I received a package from CV Life, and didn't know what to really expect as they weren't very clear in just what product exactly they were sending. They asked what we would like to test, and I responded simply with "AR-15 parts and accessories". I pretty much left the door wide open, so I didn't know what exactly to expect.

    

Original Packaging prior to opening

I was pleasantly surprised when my package did arrive a few days later via UPS, and the packaging looked like it was taken care of and not just thrown together. You can learn a lot about a business just in how they ship product. No damage to the packaging, prompt shipment, and packaged well. So far, so good. When I opened the package, their name was the first thing I seen on the box and had a very professional appearance and was surprisingly light for the size of the box. I'm not going to lie, I was a little disappointed when I noticed on the side of the box read "Made in China", however, being a budget product company, I shouldn't have been surprised at all. Then I flipped the box over, and noticed what the text was on the label below the bar code. "CVLIFE 9-13 M...er Rifle Bipod".  Seemed like large box for that size of a bipod. Much to my surprise though, this was actually the full sized bipod, that was 9" and extended out to 18"!

All components removed from packaging. Bipod, Allen wrench tool, and M-Lok adapter

Seeing how this would be my first time adding an M-Lok accessory on to my AR-15 .300 Blackout, I went ahead and took the handguard off my rifle. Which come to find out AFTER I had removed it, was completely unnecessary to do, but it did make installation of the adapter MUCH easier, as I wasn't fighting the whole weapon while adding the adapter kit to my hand rail. 

M-Lok adapter on handguard shown after installation.

Installation was SUPER easy, as once I set the adapter on the rail where it felt most comfortable, and set the adapter nuts through the rail where the adapter sat flush. I used the allen key to twist the nuts where they needed to set, and then pulled back on the allen key to set, and tightened the adapter into place firmly, to where it wouldn't move once the bipod itself was attached. 

Attachment of the bipod itself was simple and attached like any other bipod would to a basic rifle sling mount. Once mounted, I was surprised at how light the bipod actually felt on the weapon itself, as it did change my center of balance forward some to the base of the handguard at the front of the magazine well on the lower receiver. With a simple adjustment of my stock length, shifting the center of balance rearward as it had been before. 

Bipod fully installed on AR-15

Did I neglect to mention how light this setup is? Before adding the bipod kit onto my AR-15, this weapon only weighed in at 6 pounds 4 ounces. Not the lightest of an AR-15 with an 16.5" barrel, but nothing to complain about either while carrying it through the thick brush of the Oregon coast range, or up a steep Ochoco Mountains hillside either. I placed this weapon on the scale after installing the bipod, and the scale registered 6 pounds 12 ounces! I was simply blown away! 

Light, solidly mounted, well balanced, ready for the range. Only thing left to do is head out for the range for field day, to really put this bipod to the test.

Out on the range, this bipod holds up extremely well and stays very solid. I also really enjoyed the ability to have the 1/2 inch increments on the legs for setting up on uneven surfaces and the sorts. The negatives of this bipod on the range are few and far between. One is having to reset the set screw keeping the bipod itself mounted to the mount on the handguard. The other is the glue holding the rubber pads to the under side of the bipod had a tendency to not stick very well, and had to fix it with a couple dabs of hot glue to keep in place. After that, solid as can be.  

Overall, a great accessory to add to your AR/AK platform. With plenty of ups and qualities of the higher end brands, and with little downs at a great price, generally just under $30 on Amazon, I would for sure recommend this piece for your build. 

For more information, go to:  https://www.cvlife.com/collections/bipod

Author's custom built AR-15 in .300 Blackout with CVLife bipod ready for the range.

KET Kinetic Energy Tools

Hello BV Nation!!!

it has been a while since my last blog, and I apologize. We have had so much going on. from local events like the Fully Loaded 4X4 event out at Threat Dynamics to more recently Triggrcon 2019 up in the Tacoma/Seattle area.

Todays blog is gonna be a product review of KET (Kinetic Energy Tools) Brass Deflector. so while we were at Triggrcon the guys over at KET got in touch with Justin and I, and asked us if we would like to product test their brass deflectors. For obvious reasons we said yes (testing Awesome shooting accessories how can you say no?). long story short KET sent 2 of their brass deflectors out to us, and Jesse the co-owner of Eric's Armory and I spent a day shooting lots of rounds and putting the brass deflectors through their paces.

Initial impressions of the brass deflectors from both Jesse and my self were good. In the packaging came the deflector, a patch, instructions, and a number of different attaching options.

The deflector itself is made of durable water and mildew resistant nylon that have 3 hook and loop panels sewn into it (one is for the mounting bracket) the other 2 are for whatever swag patches you want to throw on.

The mounting options are very user friendly and very effective. KET has very thoughtfully and carefully designed this shell deflector to work with all optic and rail variants on a long gun platform to include a traditional bolt gun. there are 3 mounting brackets to choose from a 30mm scope bracket, a 1in scope bracket and a 1913 pic rail bracket. all three mounting options simply just nap into place and the shooter positions the deflector over the bolt on a bolt gun, or over the ejection port on an AR platform

and you are ready to shoot.

Once Jesse and I were ready to shoot we did discuss some things we were initially concerned about such as field of view being obstructed and it felt kinda flimsy. I can tell you now that both of those concerns were immediately squashed after the first magazines were fired.

Both Jesse and I feel that the flexible almost flimsy feeling nature of deflector is what makes this deflector superior to the other shell deflectors on the market. The KET Brass Deflector absorbs the rounds as they are ejected, a common problem that both Jesse and I have seen with other deflectors is that they are bulky and too rigid....the over rigidity causes ejected brass to rebound back toward the operating receiver and cause a malfunction known as a double feed. there is no issues like this with KET's product it flexes and absorbs the energy of the ejected shell, and it subsequently drops right down to your feet. Jesse's 9mm AR platform with out the deflector in place was ejecting hot brass over 60ft from where he was shooting! with the deflector in place all of the brass was in an easy to pick up pile in one spot less than 6in away.

my biggest concern was due to how the deflector mounts to the pic rail that it would obstruct my field of view. This was defiantly not the case once I got to shooting I did not even notice that the deflector was even attached to my weapon. the pile of brass at my feet however I did notice, this shell deflector performs exactly how it is supposed to with out obstructing the shooter.

you can find this company on the web at www.ket-us.com you can also follow them on Instagram. if you are wondering where you can find one of these awesome deflectors there is a link on their web page that will take you to Amazon where you can order the KET Brass-Deflector which retails for $27.99

Jesse and I are both in agreement that this product is a game changer as far as shell deflectors go, its versatility and number of different mounting options and light weight durability make this one of the most effective Brass deflating devices out there in our mind, personally this would be awesome to see at public ranges as a courtesy to other shooters, I know I don't like getting pelted by hot brass.

in summery yes both Jesse and I would highly recommend this product.

if you have any questions feel free to reach out and send me an e-mail jtoll@backwoodsvets.com

RCF Rifle Build

Greetings to all of our wonderful followers to there!

On this edition of the Outdoor Blog I will be talking GUNS!!! more specifically the RCF Rifle, along with the build and testing process that has been going on.

If you have not heard of the RCF rifle you and are a regular follower of the show, you must have been living under a rock for the last couple of months.....so now for a quick recap on the history of this rifle and how it came into being:

Back on April 1st the founder of Backwoods Veterans (Justin) and I did a content interview with our good friends and now sponsors of BV Outdoors Erics Armory. During the follow-on social session between us and the crew at Eric's armory at the end of the filming/interview session, Eric's Armory Decided to donate a one of a kind custom built AR-15 to us to be raffled off at our first big benefit event

(Guitars For Stars) benefitting Red Circle Foundation on May 25th at the Beavercreek Saloon. Check out our event flyers on FB and here on the web page.

The rifle is a custom 5.56mm Areo Precision Build with Trinity Force upper hand guard, Trinity Force optics and back-up iron sights, Areo Precision bolt carrier, ambi safety and many more parts and finished in a battle worn burnt bronze Cerakote. The rifle also bears the Backwoods Veterans logo, Eric's Armory logo and the Red Circle Foundation logo.

This Rifle is Awesome!!! on Saturday the 27th of April both of our Crews got to take the RCF Rifle out and test/proof fire the rifle and shoot a whole bunch of other awesome weapons, im telling you now this rifle is amazing! It is by far the lightest AR-15 platform I have ever fired the action is smooth and the recoil impulse is light and very easy to handle and is very accurate (it drives nails).

all in all it is an amazing rifle and it comes with an optic! and the best part is one of you lucky supporters is going to go home with this awesome rifle. All you have to do is come to our event Guitars For Stars at the Beavercreek Saloon, in Beavercreek Oregon. Check out our event flyer on the main page, on our Facebook page, or you can click the link below the gallery.

Also for more info about Eric's Armory there is a icon link of the main page that will take you directly to their web page.