Tried several different platforms but want to go back to my old style sandbag setups as I have at my farm.

Question: Since I want to have a set for the deer lease and I do not want a lot of weight/ What have you found as the best thing to fill your bags with other than sand to cut the weight down?
Thanks, Jim

I too, got tired of lugging heavy bags around, so I dumped the sand and used kitty litter. Works for me, but others may have alternates in mind.

Packing peanuts and sand.

I've tried a few alternatives, rice, beans, corn, corn cob media but none of them provide the stability of sand so I always switch back and put up with the weight.

I use Caldwell shooting bags filled with kitty litter as recommended by Caldwell. Still about as heavy as sand but at least the litter is dry and probably doesn't degrade the bags as damp sand may do.
There are different types of kitty litter, mine is clay based litter but I imagine the paper pulp based litter would probably be lighter.

Thanks for the help.

I had picked up a couple of Amazon P shooting bags set ups.

I bought a Caldwell sled when they were changing models but never like shooting off it. It was not the same or as good as shooting off bags.
I do have the sled to shoot in my crossbow arrows to tune them then I resight the bow into bags or off hand zero.

My old bags are large and heavy and have a tear after 35 years.

Be curious to see how these smaller bags will do.

I did try the plastic caldwell shooting rest and it does ok but not when shooting under an inch groups for me.

Has anyone tried the bags filled with air soft BB's? Have a friend that swears by them.

kitty litter

Fairly course saw dust works well that is what I have in my field bags.

My Caldwell Deadshot shooting bags didn't last 5 range trips before the stitching leaked all the sand out. I too would rather shoot off of bags instead of the lead sled style contraptions

I had picked up two of the cheap 9 and 15 dollar shooting bags from AP and a 4 dollar 20 lb bag of kitty litter non clumping. The bag just filled both sets of bags. All the cheap AP bags look about the same out of cheap 600 or 900 denier material.

There is a complaint that some of these sets leak out the sand but the litter did not leak but a piece of duct tape over the fill end should fix and potential leak problems which I will do once the bags are correctly filled.

Both bags are rock solid plus I found you could turn the front bag on it end and it is still be rock solid.

The problem that I see is the back bag is WAY TOO LOW unless you are shooting prone but I did not ck that position yet.

I have some scrap 2x4s and 1x4s similar to what I have with the old sand bags for adjustment and this should fix problems vs carrying more sand bags for height adjustments.

IF there is a problem it will be the black material they put on top of the front bag which in not 600 or 900 denier materiel.

So I have two solid sets of bags for 11 dollars and 16 dollars and weight 10 pounds and a whole lot more solid and better rest than the cheaper Caldwell plastic rests.

I appreciate the help.

Jim

I never could get my sled to shoot the same as I do off bags or have the same zero either.

But It seems to work for the cross bow to sight in and tune the arrows.

Mine are made out of old cloth shot bags.

You may be right. The weak point on the bag is the cloth on top ( to save your stock finish) lol and not making them all 600 or 900 denier material.

The problem with all these China made bags is a WAY too small back bag. For me the back bag should be about 6" tall or a little taller to fit the average shooter I and 5'11" 200 lbs and there is no way I can hunch over to get on the bags either on a table or one the ground.

The cheap easy fix is either a couple of 2x4 or 1x4 pieces of wood or a shot or jean extra sand or kitty litter bag for the back to be able to use the back little bag which is a very stable set up. You can use the front bag on the side or on end as needed. I figured it needed to be at least 6" high on the back bag to be able to adjust the little bag.

Using their lightweight set out of my backpack while hunting
as well at the range

https://wiebad.com

A Lawrence Shot bag with packing peanuts and sand is <3 1/2 lbs

Some of you guys need to get a real job, you have way too much time on your hands!

Dog-Gone Good bags filled with polypropylene regrind (ground up recycled plastic).
Best bags and fill I've ever used.
No moisture issue and perfectly proportioned bags.

Last time I was at the range with my Caldwell shooting bags I mulled over the fact that as the front bag is not high enough and I always had to use a packer board under the bag. The solid 6x2 base board I use came from my old shooting rest where I had another piece of 6x2 attached on edge with a padded Vee. Problem with the shooting bag is that despite being as full of kitty litter as I can get in, it 'sags' so is never the same between shots and needs 'plumping up' every so often. The biggest issue with bags or fixed rests is that you have no simple vertical adjustments when shooting at different targets or through a chronograph (apart from packing them up or down with something).

I came home after the last range session and grabbed a spare alloy vehicle scissor jack, screwed it to my stable 6x2 base board and hacksawed a Vee into the top vehicle support and glued a piece of heavy foam into the Vee. I've seen these in use at a private shooting range around here and also at the club range I use where you have to take your own supports (the benches are solid concrete shaped to suit both left and right handed shooters). Although I haven't had my new rifle support on the range yet, it is an easily adjusted and solid support when trying it out on the kitchen table.

JimTX, are you hunting out of an established stand on your lease? How many stands? Why not just leave your sand bags in the stand, instead of carrying back and forth?

I have access to several ranches and shoot hogs and coyotes out of the suv.

Couple of the ranches have some high fenced areas and I take more pxs than anything. When you can drive several thousand acres and feel like you are on safari and The owner does not want his animals shoot even if you could.

There is no challenge and certainly no sport.

My kick is getting pxs of monster deer on the high fenced ranches. It is fun to try to get good pxs of the big deer and inter act with them. Some run a little but even if I could shoot what challenge is it to shoot a semi pet? They seem to think that I am one of the ranch hands and they are not real spooky most of the time.

I do not shoot out or hunt stands. I will take an axis doe each year and shoot hogs and dogs any time I can get a shot then try to get a 2or 3 shoot at hogs running off if possible.

I want a set of bags to Be able to check my rifles and let others check their rifles since there is not a range on the ranches. Plus I like to shoot different distances.

Got it. Sounds like fun.