What's everyone's thoughts on sighting in, shooting , using a lead shed vs using sand bags?

I like my sandbags.....if the recoil bothers me a lot I put one of them between my shoulder and the butt stock.....but that's usually with my .375 H&H and I don't shoot that much anymore.

Sandbags. Under the forearm and under the buttstock. Settle it in and it doesn't move. Squeeze the one under the buttstock as needed to move it up or down a bit.

I like my lead sled for sighting in. The gun is steadier than I can hold it on sandbags and makes it a lot easier to dial it in.

Lots of talk that a lead sled breaks stocks, but I've never found this so, even with the recoil of 12 gauge slugguns. However I never use weight on the sled. The sled weighs 17 pounds without any other weight added. I always have the sled on a flat smooth surface so it can slide and I put the sled to my shoulder on the table. This literally adds 17 pounds to the weight to the rifle/sluggun and while it pushes back on your shoulder a little, you can shoot 12 gauge slugs all day in a tshirt. Never had any issues with a stock breaking using the sled in this manner.

One of the ranches I hunt on sights in with lead sleds (they have no sandbags) . I can’t get it out of my feeble mind that it seems to cause my rifle to intentionally shoot a tad higher.

I’ll sight in at home 2” high....sight in out there and I’m 7-8” high...a little more than expected. Makes me glad I have a McMillian stock on my #1 rifle, as I definitely feel they could bust a walnut stock on a “kicker” easily.

Give me sand bags.

A guy on the bench next to me had the wrist snap on his Weatherby Mark V using a lead sled. Don't know if this was cause & effect but have never seen a stock broken off bags.

It will change POI between sled and bags but so will sitting style with bags alone. I only use bags and sit as upright as possible so that my upper body is almost the same position as when standing.

Lead sled= Hell no. Sand bag= hell yes.... Nuff said.. If you value your rifle, you won't use a lead sled. If you need a lead sled, you don't need to be shooting.

A good friend ( a now retired gunsmith) bought a Lead Sled about fifteen years ago and intended to use it for testing / sighting in heavy-recoiling customer rifles. It was on top of a tall gun safe the first time I saw it. I looked at that contraption and couldn't imagine using something like that in place of a good solid heavy rest and bags. I'm pretty sure the gunsmith had the same thought. I don't believe the Lead Sled was ever moved from its position atop the safe; likely still there today.

Lead Sled for accuracy testing, working up loads. Not too much weight in the carrier, and only if recoil would bother me. Maybe something like an unbraked .338 or .375 with a wood stock.

Zero over soft-filled bags. If using hard sandbags will place a hand (or anything that buffers) between rifle and bags. More important with light rifles, tho.

Sand bags.

I use a Caldwell Rock front rest, and 2 sandbags for the rear.

Graeme Wright used a sled for a long time while messing around with loads to check the effects on double rifle regulation but these were the big kickers like the 500NE and the like. I don't think he busted any stocks. Then again he's also got a frame that holds the sandbags and you use it standing up.

I use sled with no weight to get close if it’s a new rifle. I use bags after I get it close or to check from year to year.

Never busted a stock, had sled for 20 yrs.

I was there to see a buddy crack the stock on his A-Bolt slug gun.
Until then, he too thought the lead sled (with weight on it) was the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Corn bags

I only tried a Lead Sled once. I felt like a damn contortionist trying to get lined up behind it. I prefer rabbit ears or a bull bag.

Read a lot on them. Seems if you tie the gun down and use extra weight it could be an issue.

I have one in AK. I use it testing ammo in the 458 win mag. I'm not as tough as I used to be, even back then I would put a bag of lead shot between heavy recoiling guns and my shoulder.

I won't tie the guns down. I don't add weight. I"ve never had an issue with a lead sled or other things that supposedly are bad.

No big deal working around the gun to use the sled, really easy once you get used to it.

That said I use a front rest and rear bunny? bag. Easy enough to use too if I'm using a rest to check loads or zero in.

So I'm gonna guess I dont' need to be shooting at least with 458, and to be honest since the sled was out I used it on the 284 too. very nice. Guess I'll sell all my stuff now.

So much of EVERYTHING these days needs to be used with common sense, but thats not very common anymore.

Neither! I fear that with a heavy recoil, fast impulse (fast recoil speed) rifle ....would impart additional stress on the scope. Probably unwarranted worry! memtb

I have seen two stocks broke due to using a lead sled, BUT that was because the same person was using it both times and had the sled loaded down so that the gun took all the recoil. Both times tried to tell him that was not the way it is suppose to be used. I learned from him that my info was incorrect until he broke the second stock then I became a genius.

"Bags!" said the Queen. "Otherwise you'd be King!"

Watch a friends T/C encore muzzleloader snap at the wrist using one.

I got a Lead Sled back when it was the thing. I don't use it.

I like my Wichita rest, Protektor leather pads. I like for the gun to recoil freely, hopefully the same every time. To me, you get better groups.

Big boomers are shot using a standing bench, like Elmer showed us in his books. Ole Elmer was right on. You can take a lot more recoil standing vs. hunkered down on a bench.

The photo is a bench I made for my Z-71, long enough to accommodate my free standing Magnetospeed Chrono. The stool is a Gibraltar drum throne. To me it's tough and easily adjustable, about the best bench rest stool I've ever used. Not cheap, but it should last two or three lifetimes.

DF

I remember you posting that pic a few weeks ago and saying your buddy uses it left handed. Does he just shoot from the other end of the bench? Have been wanting to build one since you posted but my kids are backward handed so wanted to figure that out first. Anything you’d change in hindsight to make it more lefty friendly?

Buddy bellied up to the extension from the wrong side to shoot left handed. I sure didn't design it for a lefty, he just found a way...

DF

Thank you df.

I use lead sled.

I have something similar to the lead sled. It's a Shooter's Ridge Deluxe Rifle Rest. Stock photo below. I've had it for years and still haven't assembled it. I use a standard Caldwell combo front bag and rear rabbit ears. I think there are better rear bags out there, but the front bag is fine to me. I can see how having an adjustable front rest is superior though. I've read the concerns on splitting stocks, but I thought the greater concern was the more abrupt toll taken by the scope and mount setup if the sled is weighed down too heavily.

I guess I just don't understand these rests. Especially since I can't actually interface with the rifle. The cheek wels If a rifle recoils too much for effective use off a bench, I guess I would simply look for alternate methods versus these. 'Course, I only shoot up to a 300 WM or muzzle loaders as far as recoil goes.

I have had a Lead Sled for about four years. I use it for working up loads and with the chronograph and do not put weights on it. I think it has the potential to damage stocks and I had a scope move in my Talley QD rings once and wonder if repeated use might damage a scopes internals.

I much prefer bags and/or the Caldwell Rock BR over the Lead Sled and can never get comfortable with a Lead Sled and shoot better groups with bags.

My 8 lb. custom .338 and a customized 7 lb. Marlin 1895 in 45-70 are my worst kickers with their heavy hunting loads. But, since I have had loads for them for many years I should just sell the Lead Sled.

No sled.

If ya gotta use one, let it slide with recoil, don't weight it down.

IMO.

DF

I've thought about selling my Shooter's Ridge Deluxe Rest, but looking at it, I could take a hacksaw just past the rear leveling screw and have a pretty nice adjustable front rest. Not sure if the rear leg extension would be in the way at that length, but it might work. If I cut it further forward, I'd lose the existing hole and bottom welded nut for the rear level adjuster. But that isn't insurmountable.

Have experienced more than one point-of-impact change with Lead Sleds compared to other rests, especially with lighter-weight rifles--even sleds with no weight added. Usually it's not vast, but have seen it be enough that I prefer using a conventional rest.

When shooting really hard-kickers, I use a bag between my shoulder and the rifle, usually a 25-pound shot bag filled with lighter material like cat-box litter. It spreads the recoil over a wider area of the shoulder, without changing point of impact

Using a really heavy bag, such as an actual 25-pound bag of shot, can change POI considerably, though that depends om the shooter, position, and rifle/cartridge.

Never have seen the need for the sled, used bags all my life. Only rifle I ever saw break at the wrist was a guy using a lead sled.

Does anyone else think that if you need a lead sled to sight in your guns you have no business hunting with a rifle you are afraid of shooting?

I've found that the POI can vary enough to notice when a rifle is held differently. For example, between resting it on a standard benchrest as against holding it in both hands, with the back of the weak hand rested and the butt against my shoulder. When I'm sighting in for hunting I use the latter, so that the POI will match up to what I'll get with an improvised rest in the field. It will also align near enough to prone unsupported or sitting. Of course for competition shooting the zeroing is done from the shooting position, and refined with the sighters before shots to count.

Sometimes the zeroing is done from a bench, holding the rifle as described. Sometimes from a rest over a vehicle bonnet ("hood") or prone behind a backpack. With a rifle which boots a bit I prefer to be standing or kneeling behind the rest, rather than sitting on a chair hunched over it.

I've never had any use for Lead Sleds, both because of concern about what they'll do to the rifle and for the reason that the POI will not match what I'll get in the field, which makes the exercise a bit pointless.

Light weight guns are even worse.

DF

Front rest and rear bag here. Too much bad info on the sled and I shoot better off the other anyways

It was 2008. A friend asked me to tune some loads for his 340 Wea in a Mk V deluxe. Half a dozen powders, four different bullets, three different primers, various seating depths, and charge weights. Then start all over again after we determined the barrel was shot out and got a new Pac-Nor installed.

Oh, did I mention the torn rotator cuff in my right shoulder. Yes, sometimes there is a time and a place for the Lead Sled. I used it on a plywood table with no weight. And it made it possible for me to shoot the 340 at a time when it was extremely painful to shoot even the 260 with 120s.

But I have not had the sled on the bench since I healed from my shoulder repair. I have a Hoppes front rest with a small sandbag and a bunny ear bag for the rear as well as several home made canvas sand bags in various dimensions and weights.

Oh yeah, the MK V made 1/2 MOA with a Vortex PST 6-20 and a Hornady 225, or Nosler ballistic silver tip in 200 gr with the new Pac-Nor barrel.

Thanks Guys. I’ve never had/used a sled but have considered one a few Xs.
The main reason I’ve passed on them is too many have said (before this thread)
that stocks have broken in the wrist OR have cracked.

Now y’all have given me even more assurance in NOT getting one.
Besides at +/- 70 yo, I’ve already done more shooting than I will do in
the future.

Besides - 2x - what I’ve BEEN doing works, so if it ain’t broke.........!

I appreciate it guys.

Jerry

I like my Caldwell Tackdriver in concert with a squeeze bag under the butt.

I just don’t understand how shooting got so complicated.

+1



.

I inherited a very heavy, well made bench rest from my brother. Lately though, I've been using homemade bags filled with rubber landscaping mulch. I'm still "refining" the design, but it's working well, and is a heck of a lot easier to handle than that cast-iron monster, and doesn't leak sand, 'cause there ain't any.

The bags are re-purposed lawn-chair bags.

I have been using a lead sled for about 20 years.POI change is next to nothing and I have not broken any stocks or scopes.I use no weight on it.As far as those who think using a lead sled is less than manly,GFY.

IMO, use it w/o weights, let the unit move with the gun. Don’t think you’ll get as much, if any, stock damage that way

DF

Quality shooting rest &/or sand bags.

Ive seen Lead Sleds break stocks off at the wrist. Lead Sleds are stupid.

We’re they using weight in it?

Yes

Use them bare, without other weight, but to set a rock solid rest, and they work splendidly.

#2... Zero on the bench w/ bags, confirm at every opportunity off of pack, bag, sticks or what ever you actually use to hunt. I like to kill steel but only from the positions that I would use on critters. That is probably why I am self limited to about 500 yards on 8" diameter targets. A man has to know his limitations.


mike r