Is there a difference between a lead sled sight in and normal sand bags.

[Wild Bill G]

What I am wondering is does our point of impact change if use a lead sled. Compared to if we sight in using a rear sand bag stock against our shoulder and some form of front rest.
I have shot my rifles both ways but never on the same days and usualy a year apart during sight in. How do most of you sight in your rifles a lead sled or sand bags. To me the sand bags would give a more natural recoil effect for the rifle. Where as the lead sled is almost a solid wall. Don't get me wrong some guns are alot more fun to shoot from the lead sled than the sand bags. Just wondering if there is any feedback out there about this topic.

 

[zimmer2]

My experince was lead sled and bipod/sandbags were not even close. Could not get under 1 moa @ 100 yards with lead sled and poi was different. Must mess up barrel harmonics.

 

[Schnyd112]

Watch videos of guys shooting with a lead sled. You will never use one again after seeing how violently the rifle bends and twists every shot.

Load development is more than finding what your rifle shoots well. It gives you intimate time with the gun to get used to the feel, trigger, recoil and followthrough. You develop a closer bond (and probably tighter group) after 50 rounds of paper punching at short range with the butt against your than 1000 rounds of shooting from a lead sled.

 

[dok7mm]

Unless you hunt off the lead sled, the sandbags would be my choice of the two. I prefer to use a bipod and a light rear bag for hunting, so that is how I practice. Because POI often changes with different setups, try to zero with something similar to your hunting situation. The longer the shot, the more critical this is.

 

[bullfrog]

POI changes a great deal between lead sled and bags. The larger the recoil the larger the difference.

 

[Wild Bill G]

I had never thought of how much tourque was put on the rifle with the lead sled. It had crossed my mind and I had heard they were hard on action screws.
Another question just came to me after reading about bipods. Do shooting sticks act more like the free sliding bag rests. I have never carried a rear bag in the field nad can see how it would aid in accuracy.
Looks like I will leave my lead sled to my recoil shy friends who deny they flinch. Sadly that statement is not a joke. I have one friend I know that has to have a horrible flinch. One year shooting at 30 yards at a deer's chest he got a head shot. He thought it was great the deer dropped in its tracks. This has happened several times and he shrugs it off. A couple years back while sighting in I loaded a empty into his gun. He had to see if the gun was loaded and saw what I had done and was furious at me. Some day I will find a way to catch him and prove he has a flinch.
I realize practice is our best friend and I try as much as possible too. Years ago I learned what a difference it makes. From now on it will be without my lead sled.

 

[Gord0]

As others have said it's going to be a pretty big change going from a lead sled.
If you want to got your friend that denies the flinch just load up a dummy round for him.

 

[Wild Bill G]

I actualy prefer shooting off of my normal bags so no real change. As for my friend I have thought of the dummy round approach. The trouble is he doesn't believe in practicing with his rifles that is just for archery. You see shooting billets at paper or other targets is a waste of money. If I sneek a dummy round into his shells it may end up in the field with him and that would reflect on my reloading skills. That took me long enough to covince him he could save money reloading and create more accurate loads. Don't get me wrong he is a good guy just has some funny ideas. Strangely he always gets a deer even if he misses his point of aim by 15 inches. I guess he lives by the old saying I'd rather be lucky then good.

 

[Rhunter2]

I have both a lead sled and shooting bags. I don't have large calibers with the largest being a 7mm mag. I can't say that I see a difference in the two. For years I only used the sled and my rifles were right on shooting over a bag or sticks. Heavy recoil rifles may be different. I do agree that shooting off bags or sticks will make you a much better shot.

 

[tbrice23]

I'd rather be lucky then good.

I guess I'm the odd one. I'd rather be good than lucky.

 

[Wild Bill G]

I hear you on that sooner or later your luck runs out.
Another thing I would like to know which do most of you prefer holding the forend or just the grip and squeee the trigger. When I was benchrest shooting the rule was as little contact with the gun as pooible. With my varmint rifles I still try to do that but usethe hand around the pitol grip on my bigger guns. The biggest fear being they could end up on the ground breaking something.