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I ordered a Lead Sled Solo. I know nothing about these things but checked around and it seems that Lead Sled are amongst the better of the rests. No V, not for the 416, that will be shot on my hind legs. It seems that more people are asking for my help in sighting in their guns and while I have other rests this one would have been handy yesterday with Paul's gun. Will give report when it gets here.
We have one at the club in Madison and I was impressed with it. Bags of lead shot kept vanishing to be replaced with sand until we filled them with lead ingots and sand mix. There is always a line waiting to use it in the fall on "sight-in" days. I shot 20rds in a brutally lightweight .458 whose owner was afraid to shoot (he calls it his Flinch-O-Matic), got it all sighted in for him and walked away laughing. I think you will really like it. I would buy one for myself in a minute if I did not have access to the one at the club.
Some additional food for thought: Before the club got the Sled, I began using a Past magnum recoil shield (they come in several thicknesses, mine is the thickest one they make) with my favorite adjustable rifle rest about a dozen years ago for bench work/sight-ins/load testing, almost an inch of Sorbethane takes the sting out of extended sessions. As you know, these days I am pretty much forbidden from shooting anything with much kick to it, but I can get around at least some of those restrictions without risk of injury if I am careful. The biggest plusses to it are that it also works well for offhand shooting and gives you the same LOP in the summer wearing a t shirt that you get with a heavy coat on for fall hunting. My shooting buddy calls it the "portable no-flincher" (as in "I want to test these 180gr -06 moose loads. Pass me that 'no-flincher', will you?"). It is always in my shooting bag. It is nowhere near as effective as the fully weighted Lead Sled, but it takes up next to no room in my range bag and weighs ounces instead of half a ton. Once you get the big one sighted in and the loads worked up for it on the Sled, one of them would make offhand practice with that .416 a whole lot more fun.
Bought the original lead sled years ago when they first hit the market, one of the best investments I've ever made. It has paid for itself several times over just from sighting-in. I don't use the weights anymore ,I have a short heavy bungee attached to the front of my bench. Enjoy yours, I and many others have mine . Mike
Everytime they are on sale I really think about buying on. But I have a cheaper cabelas rest I use.
This past Tues Paul and I went to the range and Paul got a lesson on using the Lead Sled. Our debriefing was that it was a great thing to use to sight in with. It showed both of us where Paul was going wrong in pulling the trigger. He started to get a flinch so I told him that we were going to stop shooting for the day and that he should take the 22 to the range next week.
Flinch test: Have someone else load the rifle with either a live round or a dummy cartridge several times without the shooter knowing which it will be. Sometimes I don't realize when I am getting flinchy, especially if I have been doing a lot of benchwork testing loads, but when I find myself cringing and it just goes "click", it's a real eye opener.
Half the battle for me is knowing when to stop shooting a particular rifle. Some rifles I can only take two or three shots with at a range session using full charge loads. If I go too far and shoot so many rounds that I begin to flinch it takes me a lot longer to get back on track to eliminate it. With my light frame and multiple spine surgeries I have to be really careful about heavy recoil, and even a rifle whose kick wouldn't bother most people can get me into trouble if I don't stay aware. My Past shield lets me shoot more rounds before I have to stop, but even with that there are still limits with my harder kicking rifles and I need to pay attention. While I won't even notice a large game rifle going off in the field, I sure do in practice, and if I am anticipating recoil then I am just not concentrating on the basics of sight picture and trigger control and my accuracy goes to hell in a handbasket.
When I notice a rifle makes me start to get flinchy, I stop shooting it and drop back to reduced loads in it the next range session until I am no longer anticipating the recoil and then work back up over the next few weeks. Yes, switching to a .22 or a .223 helps some, but no matter how many rounds I fire in the little ones I still know the bigger bore hunting rifle is going to hurt when I pull that trigger and I need to get back to being comfortable with the same rifle that hurt me to overcome the problem.