Lead Sled Issues

[Wind Gypsy]

Question for those using sandbags. Where does the front sandbag contact the stock? About where the front hand would grasp the stock, closer toward the foreend, or closer to the action where the recoil lug is?

Can be anywhere. In general, the further apart front and rear supports are the more stable.

 

[Bonasababy]

I pitched mine in the scrap pile. Hard on the gun, and groups were not what I had when I shot off a bipod and rear bag. I hunt with a bipod so why stay with something that doesn’t have the same POI and is hard on my equipment.

One of the first times I saw somebody with one I was shooting next to them wondering what the heck type of cannon they were shooting as it was LOUD...turned out it was some unnecessary ultra shooting times screamer 300 caliber. And not long after he got a nice scope eye cut even with the sled, and broke something--rings or mount I think but not sure. The range was at a gunsmith's place so I got the story from the Smith later.

 

[Bonasababy]

I just had a tikka rifle throwing crazy groups. Found the action screws were very loose. On large caliber rounds from my understanding loosening can happen

Shooting from a lead sled will cause those things to happen!

 

[Bonasababy]

Can be anywhere. In general, the further apart front and rear supports are the more stable.

I was taught at the front of the stock but NOT touching the barrel. And that's for most guns. Lever guns can be a different beast entirely. I have lots of brass for when I eventually start reloading for my 356 for that reason.... Also taught to check the temp of the barrel with that gun. Really different when hot and it gets hot in a hurry.

Best answer is probably checking to make sure point of contact is pretty similar shooting without bags as with. Won't be as accurate, but if without is consistently inches higher or lower or to one side you may need to think about where bags are located and how you are using them at the shot.

 

[GlockZ]

Honestly, as a few others have posted, the lead sled doesn't allow the rifle to be itself, it really does play with the natural harmonics.

 

[Cornbread]

The bolded is not true.

Did you have the same issue with other scopes?

That statement is what Leupold told me, a couple of times, not just once.

 

[Cornbread]

I am so tickled I discovered the problem with LS. And more importantly, it didn't ruin any of my scopes. I was also amazed that I was getting great groups (less than 1") out of that .338 Browning BAR Safari. That will be a great rifle for elk. A little on the heavy side, with a strap and scope but no bouwetts in it it weighs 12.5 lbs. I actually think because it is heavy, it is easier to shoot than the Browning BAR Mark3 in .300 Win Mag. What a POS that LS is. I bought it on a whim so I take the fault. Duh. Will do a tall target test on all of them once I get them all sighted in. I also have to shoot 90 grain Winchester ammo out of the M77. That ammo, previously had a few awesome groups prior to using the Lead Sled.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

That statement is what Leupold told me, a couple of times, not just once.

Maybe they are what leupold feels is most robust of their offerings for a given base interface but they are by no means the only rings that can handle 338 WM recoil. I doubt they are any better than their mark 4 rings but those are for a picatinny interface.

 

[JoltnJoe]

I’ll be the outlier here. I love my sled, especially with my 50 caliber muzzy(no scope) with a 450 grain lead bullet. The main reason being, I can’t lean into the gun on the bench without significant pain after a shot or two. After that, the fear flinch is very real. I get the Willy-nillys just thinking about shooting that on the bench without the sled!

 

[Wind Gypsy]

I was taught at the front of the stock but NOT touching the barrel. And that's for most guns. Lever guns can be a different beast entirely. I have lots of brass for when I eventually start reloading for my 356 for that reason.... Also taught to check the temp of the barrel with that gun. Really different when hot and it gets hot in a hurry.

Best answer is probably checking to make sure point of contact is pretty similar shooting without bags as with. Won't be as accurate, but if without is consistently inches higher or lower or to one side you may need to think about where bags are located and how you are using them at the shot.

Yes, I figured not resting it on the barrel was known but good clarification.

The other assumption with the my comment was that it wasn’t in a platform that is sensitive to where on the stock (fore/aft) the rifle is support from below. I don’t use rifles where this isn’t the case so I have a bit of a blind spot in regards to that.

 

[Steiny77]

Interesting how many people dislike lead sleds.
I came to the same conclusion and gave mine away a long time ago.

Biggest things I disliked was all that crap between me and the gun and how high off the bench it required the rifle to be.

These days I just bench shoot with a couple big sand bags under the fore stock and a small one under the rear. Hard to learn how to shoot accurately if depending on a device to hold the firearm. Of equal importance is the shooter needs to learn how to hold the rifle steady and squeeze off the shot. You won't have that lead sled or bags in the field.