Caldwell Shooting Sled

[City Rat]

Dude, seriously, "morons and pussies". Ok everyone is entitled to not just their opinion but to do things their own way, as long as it doesn't cause a safety issue for others. As such please enjoy zeroing your rifle while laying among rocks, downed tree limbs, cut crop field or whatever works for you. There are legitimate uses for bench rests, zeroing rifles is one, there are others. Again zero your rifles anyway that you like, no need to call anyone else names because they choose a different method. For example if the task was to dig a ditch I might elect to use an excavator, you might feel that a stick on the ground is the only proper tool for ditch digging.. I wouldn't call you a name just because you wanted to use a different tool or method to get the same task done. Just saying. Best of luck to all.

[scottryan]

Dude, seriously, "morons and pussies". Ok everyone is entitled to not just their opinion but to do things their own way, as long as it doesn't cause a safety issue for others. As such please enjoy zeroing your rifle while laying among rocks, downed tree limbs, cut crop field or whatever works for you. There are legitimate uses for bench rests, zeroing rifles is one, there are others. Again zero your rifles anyway that you like, no need to call anyone else names because they choose a different method. For example if the task was to dig a ditch I might elect to use an excavator, you might feel that a stick on the ground is the only proper tool for ditch digging.. I wouldn't call you a name just because you wanted to use a different tool or method to get the same task done. Just saying. Best of luck to all.

As a professional gunman, I can attest that you are wrong.

It does cause a safety issue. It causes people who go on African hunts to not know how to handle their rifle when an elephant or buffalo is charging because they have used a lead sled.

You must know how to handle your magnum rifle in territory with dangerous game.

I have hunted all over North America and Africa.

The lead sled is just a way to seperate hobbiest gun owners from their money.

It does not give an accurate zero. You can read other gun forums with other people having difficultly with these things.

[Kain]

You can read other gun forums with other people having difficultly with these things.

I would like to see some of these examples, honest. While, I don't doubt that the lead sled can cause issues, I am having a bit of trouble understanding how it would affect zero. Because, outside of the shooter now having issues because they are failing to manage the recoil, which is a valid point, or flinching because of recoil, or using piss poor optics/mounts(.338LM with a BSA optic for example) I am not seeing how it would affect the zero tremendously if at all, and the examples I am giving are not issues with the rest but the shooter/rifle/equipment. I would like to hear the entire arguments that are occurring on other forums since, while I don't frequent many other forums these days, I've never actually heard of the issue with rests causing zeroing issues outside of the resting the barrel on the rest and the shots not being true to the zero due to this, which is a user issue, not the rest's fault.

[City Rat]

What you are describing are practice and technique problems, not what tool to use to zero a rifle problem. The OP never advocated using the rest to zero the rifle and scope, pack up and not shoot again until the grizzly is charging.That would be stupid. It is implied that you always need to practice with and be proficient with the weapon long before the hunt.

[scottryan]

What you are describing are practice and technique problems, not what tool to use to zero a rifle problem. The OP never advocated using the rest to zero the rifle and scope, pack up and not shoot again until the grizzly is charging.That would be stupid. It is implied that you always need to practice with and be proficient with the weapon long before the hunt.

What type of technique is using a lead sled? Laziness?

Every time you pull the trigger on a firearm needs to be a training session for real world use. That means taking recoil to the shoulder. You also need to zero the firearm in field configurations. Lead sled makes people lazy and breads stupidity. It is a waste of money. It takes up space.

I am not going to argue this anymore with anybody.

[Jsp10477]

I agree that you should zero your rifle as similar to actual field conditions as possible. Shoot 5 10 round groups off a bipod with consistent loading of the bipod, then 5 more groups without loading it. The groups will shift in my experience.

I personally witnessed a pre 64 model 70 super grade chambered in 30-06 break the stock at the recoil lug while being shot in a lead sled. The stock had to absorb all of the recoil. The guy couldn't understand why his rifle quit grouping. I suggested he take the action out of the stock. The bolts were warped and stock destroyed.

[SkipD]

I agree that you should zero your rifle as similar to actual field conditions as possible. Shoot 5 10 round groups off a bipod with consistent loading of the bipod, then 5 more groups without loading it. The groups will shift in my experience.

That is absolutely true. The Lead Sled (or whatever name it goes by) is the dumbest thing I can think of to use for sighting a rifle that will be shot any other way in "real life". The sled could be useful in working up a maximum accuracy load for a particular barrel (as long as the sled only contacts the stock the way the ads show) but the impact point will change when the style of holding the rifle changes.

[MegademiC]

...

Every time you pull the trigger on a firearm needs to be a training session for real world use.

Hilarious!

The other stuff I'm finding quite informative as I never er used a sled before.

[City Rat]

This all goes to my point of practicing to proficiency. I only drag the sled out once a year to make sure that the scope on my rifle are still zeroed where I want. After that I shoot off bags, tripod rest or offhand until brings are dialed in to where I like.