Look what happened when the Chinese stole Atlas Bi-Pods’ patent and made cheap junk! Beware Amazon knock-off gun accessories.
The Chinese have earned a well-deserved reputation for stealing and copying patent protected products, and they’re even crawling their way into the firearms industry.
Over the past few years I have noticed that the number of Chinese manufacturer booths seem to grow every time I go to the SHOT Show, and I’ve only missed a couple of the events over the past 32 years.
Like most people, I never paid much attention to the knock-off kings until I started hearing President Trump’s repeated bashing of the Chinese about stealing intellectual property. Recently, I got a first-hand look at the threat.
Over the past few months the amount of online shopping I do has increased owing to my efforts to stay as close to home as possible. I frequently buy gun parts from Ebay, since that’s a prime location to find obsolete, out-of-production items. Amazon Prime is another convenient place to shop. It’s interesting to note that these web giants track our shopping and search so they can push advertisements of products that may pique our interest.
Recently, an ad popped up on Amazon that showed an interesting rifle bipod with a $29 price tag and free shipping. It looked very familiar to an Atlas Bipod that I’ve used for several years, so I thought I’d check it out.
About 10 days later and package arrived in my mail box, and I threw it on the dash of my truck for a few more days. Finally, I opened the package. To my surprise, it closely matched the Atlas. It even had the words “ATLAS BIPOD,” in the same location as a real one. Holding them side by side, the word “PATENTED” looked kinda fishy, though. The first four letters were really faint because the Chinese knucklehead that made a mould from a real Atlas Bipod didn’t get a good impression and it resulted in a cheaply-made knockoff.
When I attached it to a rifle and tried to adjust the tension knob to allow it to tilt, it just flopped over to the side. I dissected the piece of junk and found that it lacked the precise engineering of an actual Atlas.
So, if you see an ad for what looks like an Atlas bipod, which typically sell for more than $300, and the price seems too good to be true, buyer beware. It’s not even worth the $29 price tag. Same thing goes for any other precision piece of equipment with a ridiculously low price tag that gets foisted on you via the Web. If you recall your Latin, Caveat Emptor. In plain speak, Let The Buyer Beware. One way to ensure you get the real Atlas Bipod is to get it at Brownells.