Caldwell Lead Sled problems

[olsingleshot]

A while back I got a Lead sled to reduce recoil due to an injury. I used it as directed. After about 30 rounds, the stock on the rifle I was shooting cracked at the wrist. This rifle was not a magnum or African style rifle. It was a .260 Rem. After review, I found that recoil has to go some where. If it does not reach the shooter, it is absorbed by the stock and some by the Lead Sled. Also, I found the point of impact was different when the same rifle and load was shot off sand bags. I still have the Lead Sled and use it with bags full of sand not lead. It does reduce the recoil considerably but allows the rifle to recoil some. Just an observation.

[jls]

I've heard simuliar comments about the sled causing wrists, tangs to crack/spilt from recoil but I've never used one so I can't speak from experience. I just use good pads and a sand bag from time to time.

[Old Fart]

I'm coming into this post a little late but glad I read it. I bought a lead sled about 3 or 4 years ago at a local bargain store for about $20.
It was from a fire sale. Appeared new in every way. I've never got around to using it, now I'll be a little more careful.

I picked it up primarily for my lightwieght Sako in 7 mag. I would be sick if I ever damaged the stock on it.

I think I'll look for some kind of a pad for the end to help lessen the recoil there.

Thanks for the post.

OF

[Skunk]

I've got the newer model lead sled - the one with the dual rails. I use it mostly as a solid rest for sighting in rifles. My oldest son and his friends use it way more than I do since they are the ones with the big mag calibers. None of us have every experienced damage to our stocks, however, I too have heard about some stocks breaking, especially in the upper wrist and tang areas. We usually use no extra weight on the sled. One time we used one bag of shot for weight. Wonder if adding too much extra weight might cause the cracking problems? Something has to give and it sounds like it's the stock at times.

[wink_man]

I bought a lead sled several years ago, and right after I bought it, I too heard rumors of stocks cracking at the wrist, being scratched heavily on the sides of the stock from the sled also.

So I took the protective cover off the back of it where you put the rifle butt, and glued in some protection to ease the thrust of the wood stock against the steel. I obtained some heavy duty styrofoam from a local craft store, and glued in on the inside walls, 1/2 inch thick on the bottom and back, and 1/4 inch on the sidewalls. The protectiove cover then fits nice and snug over the whole setup. As an additional plus, this holds the gun in place much more firmly, with no side to side slop.

We use the lead sled primarily for sighting in 12 gauge slug guns, and they recoil pretty darn hard, especially those 3 inch slugs. We've never had a problem, or any damage of any kind to any of the guns, and haven't seen any change in impact shooting the gun otherwise after sighting in on the lead sled.

We use the lead sled as is, with no weight of any kind on the tray, it's simply not needed, and I believe, if you do make the sled to heavy, it could be detrimental to the stock. The idea is to reduce recoil, not make it a solid machine rest, and the sled itself is heavy enough by itself to do just that. Used on a smooth bench, the sled will move backwards and recoil mildly into your shoulder at the shot, which is just what you want, so in effect, you're adding weight to the gun(via the sled) and not making it a solid machine rest.

Believe me, I have some slug guns with custom wood I have built, and in some cases, the wood is worth as much, if not more than the rest of the gun, and if I thought the lead sled was going to damage them in any way, there's no way I'd use it, but we've used it sighting in a goodly number of 12 gauge slug guns(all with wood stocks), in some cases over 100 rounds per gun in the sled, and never an issue. It is vastly superior to sandbags, in my opinion for doing fine tuned sighting in.

Number 1 son sighted in his Ithaca 37 smooth bore slug gun on the lead sled, then, last Monday afternoon, proceeded to take a large doe at 129 lasered yards shooting sitting down, offhand, military style with his left arm tightly wrapped in the sling, no change in impact at all, one shot, bang flop, a very dead doe.

[olsingleshot]

I still have the lead sled and use it only with sand bags. But if a shooter uses it as the TV advertisement suggests, the recoild energy has to go somewhere.   End results will vary with the type of stock, design and composition. I have not tried the new one. There are some on the market that have shock absorbers built in and theoretically, that design may be far better. For my magnum rifle I went with the Knoxx recoil reducing stock and it really works, see my review.