Caldwell Shooting Sled

[MistWolf]

Tom, with all due respect, you're speaking Greek to me. My bench rest experiences are limited to using sandbags and I don't know what I don't know. A friend asked me about using the Caldwell Sled DFT to shoot his AR from at the bench. If the Sled doesn't work, it doesn't work, but I don't know why. If a machine rest is better, it's better but I still don't know why. I know prone, sitting, find kneeling too unstable to be worth the trouble, off hand and throw a backpack on a rock. I don't speak very good technical bench rest. Hell, I've never even shot a rifle off of a bipod

[tom12.7]

Fair enough, If you would like to continue this conversation further, let me know.

[MistWolf]

Yes. I'm always open to learning something new and I don't want to pass on bad advice to my friend

[AndyLate]

Tom, you said "*I would highly recommend using a good front and rear rest (not cheap) with a FF rail and butt stock that rides the bags well enough for the purpose."

Could you point us to one or more decent (but portable) front and rear rests?

I always thought the lead sled was used more for recoil mitigation than precision shooting, for what it's worth.

Thank you
Andy

[tom12.7]

This is probably a good time to look at what the user requirements actually are and what techniques can be used for suitable equipment for that requirement. You can easily over spend or under spend, some different techniques can be a great aid, for some other issues take more priority than others, like ease to rebuild position, etc..
One thing to keep in mind though is that precision rests are not likely to be there for field use. If the possible requirement excludes those, then we need to insure that there is a capability to make hits count for the use.

[bamashooter]

A friend of mine asked me about the Caldwell Shooting Sled. Will it work with an AR?

Hey OP. My Solo works just fine with my ARs (.223/5.56). With or without weight. I find it to be well made, simple, effective.

[City Rat]

Had the same problem when using my lead sled. I borrowed a 10 round mag for sighting in purposes and it worked fine.

[bfoosh006]

Deleted

[scottryan]

Tom, with all due respect, you're speaking Greek to me. My bench rest experiences are limited to using sandbags and I don't know what I don't know. A friend asked me about using the Caldwell Sled DFT to shoot his AR from at the bench. If the Sled doesn't work, it doesn't work, but I don't know why. If a machine rest is better, it's better but I still don't know why. I know prone, sitting, find kneeling too unstable to be worth the trouble, off hand and throw a backpack on a rock. I don't speak very good technical bench rest. Hell, I've never even shot a rifle off of a bipod

Using a lead sled often changes zero or doesn't give an accurate representation of what group size the gun is capable of. Using a rest that is an unyielding surface negatively affects zero.

Additionally, it doesn't allow the gun to recoil softly and correctly, especially with magnum, heavy magnum, and dangerous game rifles. It puts too much stress on the bedding interfaces between a gun stock and receiver. It stresses the wrist of the stock too much.

You need to zero the gun in its field configuration on a sandbag.

Lead sleds are for morons and pussies that can't handle recoil.

[scottryan]

The dog gone good bag are nice for zeroing.