Looking to improve the accuracy of your rifle?
Sure, you can buy better optics, ammo, and guns, but a shooter must have some skill to hit the target, and you can’t buy skill.
Maybe not entirely, but you can get close with a lead sled.
Sleds take the human error out of shooting a rifle by holding the gun for you and reducing your ability to goof up the shooting process. The shooter makes sure the gun is pointing at the target but still pulls the trigger.
Lead Sled is a specific name trademarked by Caldwell, but it’s become a common term in gun parlance for any shooting sled built to accommodate some form of weight applied to weigh the device down.
How We Picked the Best Lead Sleds
For this article, we considered ease of adjustability, precision, comfort, form factor, gun security, and price when looking for the best lead sleds.
Travis is an NRA-certified instructor, concealed carry instructor, and former Marine machine gunner. He’s been a gun reviewer for several years and has tested and evaluated hundreds of products for various publications, including Pew Pew Tactical.
Best Lead Sleds
Who makes the best lead sleds? Caldwell invented the name but not necessarily the concept. Admittedly, Caldwell occupies most of this list because the Lead Sled brand is quite prominent and favored, but we tossed in a worthy competitor.
1. Caldwell Lead Sled FCX – High-End Pick
Prices accurate at time of writing
Prices accurate at time of writing
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Pros
- Compact form factor
- Easy adjustments
Cons
- Expensive
Let’s start with the top-tier model from the Caldwell — the FCX, or Fire Control X. The Lead Sled FCX comes with everything you need to mount a variety of different rifles and chase accuracy excellence.
The Lead Sled FCX stands out with its lower profile and more minimalist design, a departure from the typical bulky lead sleds. This slim-line design prioritizes portability, making it easy to transport and use wherever your shooting adventures take you.
The design incorporates a weight bag that can be filled with shot, sand, rice, or whatever you want to weigh the system down.
Caldwell’s clever with the Lead Sled’s incorporated weight bag. It sits right under the forearm rest and helps keep the footprint small. Caldwell casts the weight tray from aluminum, which creates additional weight to complement the lead-filled bag.
The front rest is a soft polyester field bag with leather reinforcements to protect your gun and prevent sliding. At the rear, you have a pocket to accommodate the stock that has generous adjustability to size the rest for various rifles.
The Fire Control Arm allows you to make quick and easy adjustments for both windage and elevation. You can steer the gun into position quite easily. A knob and rising system will enable you to adjust the elevation of the weapon to get it into the proper position.
The downside of the Lead Sled FCX is its price. Priced between $300-400, it’s definitely geared toward the more serious hobbyist. But if you want a high-tech, ergonomic, and easy-to-use option, the Caldwell FCX is fantastic.
2. Caldwell Lead Sled DFT 2 – Best Value
Prices accurate at time of writing
Prices accurate at time of writing
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Pros
- Ball-bearing smooth adjustments
- Good adjustment range
Cons
- Heavier when moving around/storing
We have another entry for Caldwell with the great middle-ground in their series — the DFT 2.
It’s not their cheapest option, but it comes in priced under their FCX. It incorporates the features of the Lead Sled we need, with a few convenience options that elevate it.
Its larger feet grab tables nicely, and this sled can accommodate up to 100 pounds of extra weight. An extra 100 pounds of weight on top of a 24-pound sled gives you some serious stability and the capability of taming even the harshest recoiling rifles.
I like that the rear foot is adjustable for precise elevation adjustments. You can creep click by click right until you are on the bullseye.
Elevation and windage adjustments feel like they’re on ball bearings because they are. Fingertip adjustments allow for a high degree of precision and easy movement.
The cradle can adjust forward and rearward, making it easy to adjust for just about any size rifle. Your gun won’t get marred thanks to the non-slip rubber-padded cradle slots.
As with many sleds, a standard capacity 30-round magazine may be too tall. Swapping to a 10 or 20-round magazine will remedy this.
For the cash, this setup might be the best combination of what’s necessary and what is nice.
What are your thoughts on the Caldwell Lead Sled DFT 2?
3. MTM The Bull Rifle Rest – Most Affordable
Prices accurate at time of writing
Prices accurate at time of writing
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Pros
- Affordable
- Easy to move around and store
- Compatible with 30-round AR mags
Cons
- Doesn’t provide as much stability or recoil reduction
MTM isn’t a traditional rifle rest company. They are mostly known for making plastic storage cases for ammo, guns, and magazines. But MTM brought their polymer expertise to the world of rifle rests.
The Bull Rifle Rest is almost entirely polymer. This provides two benefits right off the bat.
First, it’s lightweight. That might seem silly for a genre of tools that we want to weigh down with lead. However, if you’re shooting something like an AR-15, the recoil is so minimal weight isn’t needed.
Second, the polymer design helps keep the cost down. At around $50, it’s priced so that anyone can make this part of their range day kit.
While The Bull is lightweight, it still retains the ability to add lead shot to the rear portion of the device to increase the weight as you see fit. You don’t need to lay a bag on the slide; just add the shot directly to the polymer frame.
The Bull gives the ability to use practically any rifle with an adjustment of 18 to 26 inches. I can sight in an MP5 or an elephant gun. The guns sit relatively high in this rest, so it’s one of the few shooting rests that allows you to use 30-round magazines.
One downside is that the rear support is not a pocket. You’re still sticking a shoulder against the stock and dealing with recoil. The primarily plastic construction also doesn’t have the smoothest series of adjustments.
While this isn’t our first pick for heavy-hitting guns, this option is great if you’re primarily going to be shooting small to intermediate-caliber rifles.
4. Caldwell HydroSled – Most Flexible
Prices accurate at time of writing
Prices accurate at time of writing
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Pros
- Can accept multiple types of media for weight
- Can be emptied for easy transport
- Good adjustability
Cons
- Larger form factor
Another Caldwell? Well, yeah, it is kind of their thing. As the name HydroSled implies, it is primarily meant to use water for weight.
The HydroSled utilizes an internal reservoir to hold water but can still accept all sorts of mediums. Empty, the sled weighs 16 pounds.
If you fill the reservoir full of water, it weighs 35 pounds. Sand brings it to 45 pounds, and lead can take it well beyond 50 pounds.
When used with water, you can empty it with ease for storage and transportation. All you need is a hose and water to get it ready to go again.
You get a front rest complete with a strap to keep the gun locked into the stand. At the rear, the pocket total envelops the stock to spare your precious shoulders from recoil. As a dude with arthritis, your shoulders are precious; take care of them.
Shooters can reach the controls easily without breaking down their shooting position to do so. It accommodates both right and wrong-handers with intelligent placement of adjustment knobs.
Those adjustments allow for 2.75 inches of horizontal movement and 3 inches of front elevation. Under the stock, we have an adjustable monopod-esque piece to get some fine rear elevation adjustments dialed in.
Like all the other Caldwell shooting rests, the HydroSled doesn’t play nice with higher-capacity magazines. Shorties it is again.
The HydroSled allows for a different level of flexibility and a number of weights to weigh your sled down. It’s handy and intelligent in its design, and water seems like such an easy solution. I’m surprised no one thought of it until now.
Why Do You Need One?
Holding the gun is where most shooters fail, and the sled takes that effort off the shooter.
Lead sleds can be used for a few purposes. Most of the time, it’s just for bench rest shooting. If you want to see what your rifle is capable of instead of what you are capable of, then a lead sled is the right tool. You can test that 1 MOA All Day claim with ease.
They are exceedingly handy for sighting in optics. They make it easy to zero your rifle by adding a high level of stability and repeatability.
These things are often heavy, and they fix your gun into place. They aren’t used for action shooting or hunting but rather purely for range use.
Final Thoughts
Lead sleds are tools designed to make life easier. Can you zero and shoot accurately without one? Of course, but if you want to minimize the human factor, a lead sled is the way to go.
These things improve stability, reduce recoil, and make zeroing long guns a breeze.
The above are just a few of my favorites. Do you have any experience with these? Are there any that we missed? Let us know in the comments below!
2 Leave a Reply
Hey Travis. I have tried some of the sleds you reviewed but really like the Caldwell Stinger Shooting Sled. Your thoughts?
I have the dft 2 and 30 round mags fit fine.