Yesterday I was working up some new loads for my .470 and pulled out for the first time a recent purchase--the Caldwell Lead Sled. It's a shooting rest that allows you to add as much additional weight to the rest as you would like in an effort to manage recoil. I put two 25 pound bags of lead shot on my sled and started firing some .470 rounds for accuracy. I was truly amazed at how much easier it was to sit there and almost drive nails with my gun as I was determining exactly how slight modifications in my loads would shoot through my rifle. I almost felt like I was shooting a .270 or so in terms of my ability to sit back and almost pinpoint shots in a way that is just impossible with other rests I have used. The additional confidence I was able to achieve in the performance of various loads was so remarkably refreshing!
If you haven't yet tried a Lead Sled, I'd give one serious consideration.

.470 NE? or .470 Capstick?

I was shooting a 470 NE.

I have used something similar. Homemade out of wood. It does take most of the recoil out of the equasion, but I also think it has some influence on POI as the gun acts differently, in a contraption like the lead sled, than when it is fired from the shoulder. I may be wrong... Have you checked it out?

I think that if you shoot a gun in a situation where it is locked down and not allowed to recoil and rise normally when shot, the POI should well be different than when shot off of your shoulder. This Lead Sled, however, does not restrict the gun in any way, other than to provide a "heavier" shoulder than most of us could provide on our own. When fired, the muzzle still lifts, the gun still lurches backward, and from what I can tell, the POI is not impacted in a way that I would suggest is material. Even if it were impacted by a fraction of an inch, the consisitency gained by being able to fire the big gun with such a substanstial increase in ease and accuracy, I believe, is well worth it.

I have a very expensive bench rest recoil taming stand for the bench...it will totally tame a 600 Nitro, only problem is, when I strap it down, it will damage scopes and stocks severely...therefore I don't strap it down, rather I leave about 3" of slack in the forend strap, so the recoil can go someplace...Just a word to the wise on these inovations...

I was to cheap to buy one so I made one & it really does work well. On mermel 470 impact did not change using the sled or not. my son used it on a 416 with the same results.

Agree with Ray. My friend has one & when we had about 20kg of shot on board the thing is so stiff the vibrations go back into the gun. So much so that on my .308 Sako the action screws came loose after about 10 shots. On my friend's M70 Stainless 375H&H the screws came loose in about 7 shots. NB. my friend uses a torque wrench to tighten his action screws at 65 inch lbs. They still came loose.

The recoil reduction is dramatic though. Best I have experienced. Am concerned it may be too good. Will be reducing the weight next time & put some HD foam padding at the butt.

I'd be more than a bit worried about nice custom wood stocks & heavy calibres too.

Regards
JohnT

John T we would certainly not want to put our nice .404's on them !!

quote:

Originally posted by PC:
John T we would certainly not want to put our nice .404's on them !!

Are you saying you now have yours? Last I remember you were still waiting.
So where are the pics?
John L.

JAL,

No I still don't have it stock work is pretty much all that needs to be done, Ross Waghorn has my Blank and Bob De'Vries for all intensive purposes has finished his bit. Just need to raise more $$ before I give Ross the go ahead.

I suppose what I wrote sounded like I already had it, but I meant I would not want to risk putting my nice stock on the lead sled if it had a chance of stuffing it.

Hi,
I have used the Caldwell lead sled a lot with my CZ550 based custom rifle in 416 WBY. 410 grs GS Custom FN Solids at 2760 f/s was tested yesterday. Grouped 0,7" / 100 m. Without the sled I am able to reach average 1,2" with one 0,8-0,9" group occasionally. It improves testing for accuracy a lot. I do not put on 50-100 Ibs of lead. I will only use 25 Ibs. That is enough. The system has to be able to move to absorb the recoil. But having shot hundreds of shots from the sled I have not had a single stock screw loosening, no split stock and no damaged scope (a VariX III 1,5-5x20) whatsoever.. AND in all my rifles: NO difference in POI compared to when fired from the shoulder..!!!

I sent messages to both the European distributors mentioned for Caldwell rests and have yet to receive an answer about the Lead Sled. No wonder the economy is on the slide in Europe, they don't even answer a request to buy an item.

I love my lead sled, it makes bench work with
my 416 rem. a pleasure
Bill