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I've been having a little trouble with the bipod. On the two of the bipods I have, when they are deployed and the retaining tabs face rearward the bipod will allow the gun to flop forward but not rearward. I took a picture to show the gun is not flopping backwards with the retaining tabs to the rear.



When the bipod is turned around and the retaining tabs face forward, the gun has what seems to be a much more preferential forward limit and no limit on the rearward movement and allows for charging the MG, loading, etc while on the shoulder. The way I see it, the two bipods I have in their "default" deployed state seem to be in the less preferential orientation of the two.

I went and researched pictures of MG42 gunners and videos from WW2 and after and noted the orientation. Most of them seem to use it with the tabs rearward, and of many of them demonstrably have the bipod limiter mechanism reversed. H.Dv. 241 1944 has illustrations showing the bipod with tabs facing rearward and the MG sitting against its forward bipod limit, which is the opposite of mine.

So my problem is that I'm thinking my bipod mechanism is backwards on both my bipods and that I should change them, but it seems strange to me that both of them are like that.

Shooter preference rules. There were lots of acceptable variables with carrying MGs. Even carrying on the march was usually gunner preference, except that the muzzle couldn't be toward the front if on the shoulder.

My old MG-42 bipod would fold in one direction and lock about 25 degrees from vertical in the other. When firing, I would orient the bipod such that it would lock when the muzzle is pushe forward. The legs would be angled slightly rearward. Why? Because you could wedge the gun lightly between the locked bipod and your shoulder. This made the gun very stable and controllable. All the bursts would go exactly where you wanted them to. If the gun move rearward at all due to recoil, the bipod would assume a vertical position, and the muzzle would move upward slightly. If the gun were to move rearward more than 7", the bipod would collapse toward the muzzle, and the front of the muzzle would hit the dirt, so you have to remember this when climbing to your feet while picking up the gun when you were moving to another position in the field.

This bipod usage technique is in my opinion better than rotating the bipod 180 degrees such that it locks up with rearward motion of the gun. The recoil effect on the bipod locked in this position puts a great amount of stress on the bipod, which isn't free to move forward as the gun recoils rearward. I was always afraid of bending something in the bipod if used this way.