I agree with huntingnva even though i don't use one my grandpa does and he is as manly if not more than a lot of people. Using a lead sled doesn't mean your not manly. Also lead sleds are really great to sight in rifles because you know it will be accurate when it counts because you had a steady rest.

Does "taking" recoil make a man? Was John Wayne 'all man?" I use my lead sled because i want to accurately boresight and sight my own guns. At age I owned, and used extensively, a lee enfield .303 sporterized with a hacksaw, a wood rasp, and a piece of broken glass for the fine work. I shoot, free hand, every thing from 12 ga. to .44 mag. to .300 mag. to .45 acp. I guess maybe ( by your logic) boresighting is a girly man thing to do since t deprives one of the opportunity to demonstrate to others at the range just how macho one can be by 'taking' recoil over and over, regardless of whether one hits what one is aiming at. John Wayne? Arnold the governator? W? might as well throw in another farce: ronald mcdonald reagan--mr. movie maker during the war. No doubt all of these paragons would 'take'recoil; who cares what they hit? kind of like their various poolitical acreers, no? ( except the duke of course ; i still enjoy his movies--the cornier, the better) who carsws what they did; it's all in the image, right. Manly men standing free and tall at the range, large bore to bruised shoulders, unflinchingly pouring lead hither and yon, no doubt from $3500.00 or more pieces while dressed in the finest of tailored safari clothing. (expletive deleted). My concern is getting the damernd thing sighted in so I can hunt, so I can hit whaty I aim at. If the lead sled facilitates hat process, (and it does) then I, for one, am secure enough in my own masculinity not to give a damn. And the movie? who cares? what is it they say about homophobes and latent homosexuality? Yes, I saw the movie. I thought it was somewhat of a flop although I thin I know what the director was trying to express. My wife of thirty four years, however, loved it. And, just for the record, she doesn't shoot; I own --and shoot as often as I can-- all the guns, and we are both foaming-at-the-mouth, die-hard, died in the wool liberals.

About the "pinheaded president" comment, let me ask you this: If you owned a business, would you leave George W. Bush in charge of it for eight years?About John Wayne: I was being ironic. A great many actors served heroically in World War II, but Wayne was not among them. He did, in fact, dodge the draft. I am a fan of his as far as movies go, but in real life Wayne was as much of a hero as Dick ("Five Deferments") Chaney.

One of the great freedoms in America is to say what you want.
Ive been shooting for 60 yrs., got my kicks and bruizes and woul've shot a howetzer if i could of got it to my shoulder
But; guess what my favorite guns now are .243, 223 , 7mm-08 and 20 gauges.
I use a lead sled to sight in with and i got as big of gonads as anybody.
And if you want, lets go to the woods and shoot. I'm 70, I'll shoot with anybody.
might not win but i want be embaressed.
I've won many 1/5ths. after the hunts.
With the led sled, I know that all my rifles shoot sub. minute. groups.
lots of confidence there.

Calm down man... you mouth foaming liberals will probably be back in the Oval Office around 2017. That is if you have learned your lesson by then and don't try to break a 230 year precedent of white male presidential rule. Again...

John Wayne was an actor....was paid to act. Yes, I think he would have starred in Broke Back Mountain had anyone the balls to make said movie while he was alive. Petzal, You should learn to stay on subject.P.S. Look up 3-A and 2-A status. No mention of that being a "dodger" in those Selective Service Status interpretations.

I've just purchased a Lead Sled and the main reason that I acquired it was to sight in my rifles.Recoil to me is not a major concern, but pointlessly shooting over and over and not being zeroed in is a waste of time and ammo. So any new product which facillitates more accurate shooting on my part is definitely welcome.

What is it with Field & Stream shooting editors and their infatuation with John Wayne? First Warren Page calls John Wayne a "man's man", and now Dave Petzal speculates on whether the Duke would have starred on "Brokeback Mountain". Since John Wayne was a screen name and the real man was Marion Morrison, who knows what he might have done given the right offer $$$ by Hollywood?John Wayne was also a phony. He was the Western movie hero who actually hated horses. He was the war movie hero who did all he could to evade military service. Yeah, yeah, he was Stryker, the sergeant who shaped recruits into Marines, and he was that Colonel from "The Longest Day" who asked the medic to sew him up so he could continue fighting, but that was about it. I'm sure whatever "John Wayne" could do, Ernest Hemingway (a real person) would beat him. Boxing, hunting, name it. And in a make-believe world, in a fantasy gunfight, I'd still pick Yul Brynner over John Wayne anytime. The King of Siam would outdraw and outshoot the Duke 99 out of 100.Next time, Mr. Petzal, if you want to stoke our machismo, use celebrities who also happened to be real life heroes. Jimmy Stewart, in addition to being a really nice guy, flew bomber missions over Hitler's backyard. Lee Marvin served in WW2. Ted Williams flew Navy and Marine planes in WW2 and Korea. Warren Spahn was in the Battle of the Bulge. And Christy Matthewson suffered horribly from being gassed in WW1, never regaining his baseball career.John Wayne? As Owen Wilson says in Shanghai Noon, that's a terrible name for a cowboy.

If you are tired of getting beaten up by your rifle, then it is time to put it down and work with something smaller for a while. Besides you don't always need to use the largest hammer in the tool box to drive a nail through a board.Shoot what you are comfotable with and learn to shoot it well.Now it is time for me to go back cruising porn using government monitored search engines, maybe they will learn a little something.

Lets stop the praise and get down to real facts now. 1- For most guys (not all) 90% of their shooting of their new deer/elk/moose gun occurs during the sighting in period. After that its only shot a few times a year.2- I am an avid weightlifter, and if you can't handle 405lbs on the bench you DONT put it on the bench.3- If you can not handle a gun for the sighting in period...you are a girly man-wussie -period-!!Charles Moon

I AM 70 YRS OLD WAS A 30 CAL AND SILLOUETT COMPETETOR . I HAVE PUT LITTERLY THOUSANDS OF RDS DOWN RANGE. I HAVE FIRED RIFLES ALL THE WAY TO A 600 NITRO. SO I AM NO STRANGER TO RECOIL.I ALSO OWEN SEVERAL HAND CANNONS. BUT FOR WORKING UP LOADS ON BIG DOUBLES AND BIG BOLT GUNS I THINK THE LEAD SLED IS A GREAT TOOL. AFTER THE LOADS ARE WORKED UP THE SLED IS RETIRED AND THE OFF HAND AND BENCH WORK ARE IN . I ALSO AM A MARTIAL ARTIST AND THE NO PAIN NO GAIN DOESN'T ALWAYS APPLY BELIEVE ME IT IS ALSO A MEDICAL FACT5 THAT AS AGE INCREASES SO THE TOLERANCE FOR PAIN DECREASE....BOB G

I use a lead sled for its intended purpose, to sight in a new scope or a new load. I have been shooting since I was 4years old and know about recoil.The Lead sled is the greatest thing to come along since sliced bread. After sighting in high power rifles on the sled I find they are right on, from the sholder, or the sand bags.Yes John Wayne was smart enough thae he would have used one ,and, he would NOT be in that broken movie.

I have a lead sled and a 338 win mag that I dearly love. The 338 is my deer and elk and everything gun. One gun tends to make you more skillfull. Sighting it in is torture and punishing.When I am checking loads and new bullets I'll continue using the lead sled thank you. It's a great invention, and no I don't intend on seeing "that movie" either.

Mr. Petzal,Great comment. I have to admit that I am a young gun. I am 25 and yet I learned to shoot off of a single shot 12. That old gun could almost lift me off my feet when I was 13 and yet today I love having shot it. I know that no matter how much kick my gun has it won't knock me as hard as that did and I have no fear of recoil. People are asking for things to be way to easy now a days. I think that part of doing things is living will all the pain and joy that comes with it. Thanks for the post.Eric

I agree with you. In the real world of hunting game you will never get a perfect shot. You must practice offhand, kneeling, and prone. These are the real positions that will present theselves in the field, not off of some stupid sled.

Shooting is like drinking, is it not?If you're going to drink- drink like a man (spare me the Light beer, please).If you're going to shoot.....you get the point.