Yoter

I see posts from time to time about how much a particular gun/caliber/cartridge kick. Most guys take their gun to the range, sight it in from the bench, and then go hunting with it. They base the recoil off of a sore shoulder after shooting 20 rounds consecutively from a bench. I'm not advocating that anybody not practice, but this is just how it works out for most. My question is about some of the bench rests that are out there that basically can be weighted down to help absorb the recoil. Do they help much? Which ones work the best? If they do work, it seems like recoil would be a little less of a concern for some if they didn't get beat up at the range. Haven't ever heard anybody complain about the recoil they felt when they were sooting at a deer, or elk.

bugsNbows

The one I see most often at the range is the Caldwell Lead Sled. I've never tried one myself, but the users I spoke with said they were a blessing for the big kickers.

HEAD0001

They may be nice as far as recoil goes. I can not argue about that. However if you sight your rifle in with one, just remember that under hunting conditions with standard recoil, the rifle will hit in a different spot. If a rifle is not allowed to recoil naturally then the follow through of the rifle will be different. Tom.

Highpower

I have a 'Lead-Sled' and swear by it. Makes those all day sessions at the range painless with the big guns. IMHO, it helps kep you from building a flinch as well since theres no recoil. I personally haven't had any issues with point of impact changing while hunting.

SwampCollie

For reloaders and for sighting in they are great because they take a lot of the human element away from the equation. It allows you to see exactly what your gun can do with a particular load. The Lead Sled, which I personally use, is amazingly effective at killing recoil. For my money, there is no worse position, regarding felt recoil, than seated at the bench. It makes a medium/mild recoiling gun feel much worse than it really is. Prone may well be as bad, but its not any worse.

I have not noticed a change in point of impact when sighting in off the Lead Sled. Any varience is purely user induced (read: my bad). It is surely no substitute for practice, but you cannot practice from the bench anyway, unless you are shooting benchrest competitions of course.

Its a good device for testing your equipment rather than testing yourself. It is what it is.

Pawildman

We have a LeadSled at our range at camp. It noitceably reduces the felt recoil of the big kickers. One of our guys has a 375 H&H and I personally will attest to the amount of reduction it provides.
What I don't like about it is that for me, it is very time consuming to get re-adjusted after each shot. The sled will and does move with the recoil, causing you to have to do a lot of realigning after a shot. However, this should not be a burden for those who are highly recoil-sensitive and can appreciate the way it "eases the pain"

jeepkid

I've heard that the Lead-Sled causes scopes, mounts, rings, and stocks to break. Especially on the big magnums. All the recoil energy has to be transfered somewhere, so it goesright into the gun. I wouldn't use one on my magnums, small calibers yes, but they don't recoil enough to need a lead-sled. If you can't handle the recoil, either get a smaller gun, muzzle break, recoil pad, shoulder pad, etc... IMO

Yoter

Why would it cause something on the gun to break? The energy is being absorbed by the weight of the rest, rather than all in your shoulder. I could see an issue if you were strapping the rifle onto the rest, but from what I can see, that's not how the lead sled works.

jeepkid

Well metal usually doesn't absorb much energy. When you put the weight on the rest, the rest now cannot move to absorb energy, an inch of movement is not much. For a little more money, you could get the HySkore rest, that has springs built in to absorb the recoil. Easy example of the Lead-Sled- stand up and let someone hit you in the shoulder, you will move backward and it won't hurt much. Now standaganist a wall and let someone hit you, you now have no where to move, and all the energy will be transferred into your shoulder and it will hurt.

bigbulls

A led sled will in no way, no how make scopes or scope screws break. The scope is stationary on top of the rifle held on by four little screws. When the gun recoils the scope wants to stay put until the gun forces it to move. This causes high ammounts ofsheering forces on the screws.When using a led sled the gun moves rearward less and not as abruptly so the sheering forces applied to the scope and screws is less than it would be when not using the led sled.

An object in motion tends to stay in motion and an object at rest tends to stay at rest until it is acted upon by another force.