Sandbags Or Gun Vise

What do you guys use when shooting off a bench and sighting in a rifle? For several years I had used an old Lohman gun vise that clamps down on the forend of the rifle. It always seemed to work just fine, but a last year I got a lead sled solo. For whatever reason, I shoot very inconsistently out of it. I have shot off of plain sandbags, but I never feel totally stable to know I’ve got the scope dialed in. Has anyone ever used the Caldwell Tackdriver sandbags?

Don't use a lead sled and don't like a vice. Allow the gun to recoil with the shooter.

Nothing wrong with vising your gun up but if a hunting rig shoot like you would in field. One school of thought espoused by Boddington and others is after benching rifle stay off bench and use field positions only. Far as sighting in you using a 100 yard zero?

I am a bag guy only. And natural rests. Tends to shoot same POA as what I will do hunting.

Got a tackdriver. It’s okay but buy a rear rest with it. Otherwise it’s no better than a bunch of wadded up coats. Prefer front tripod style rest and rear sandbag.

Bags don't like a vise

This

I tried all of them and always go back to sand bags.

Easy fix. The rear of my sled is loaded up with about 3" inches (maybe more) of memory foam

hARRIS 6-9 BI POD

I use sand bags cause i'm broke but wouldn't use a vice on anything. If I wanted to work up some long distance rig,I would use a target type adjustable rest set up,but I don't think those $100 cheap versions are any better than homemade sand bags. I made some by sewing up some old cut off pants legs. I rubbed some silicone all over the inside and it seems to keep the dust off the outside so far.

Love my Sled for sighting in.

I do the same thing!

The ol coat over hood method here

Was a preferred method of a buddy of mine, that was up until one day his barrel didn't clear his hood with his 300 Mag, that had a big ol muzzle break 😳🤣🤣🤣🤭

I'll keep that in mind 🤣

My dad was bad to open the truck door, roll the window down and shoot from the door.
Until he shattered a mirror with a muzzle break on a 7mm RUM.

Tripod style front with cradle bag and a rabbit ear bag for the rear is my general go to. I stack short pieces of 2x and/or 1x4 to adjust bag height if needed.

Many years ago, guy in our club told a story about rolling down the window of his truck and using the door as a rest for pistol practice. A yella jacket lit on his right arm and he slapped at it with his left hand. But he had dropped his right arm down and he shot a hole through the door with his 44. 😀

sand bags, all day every day.

Vices and hard surfaces and anything else that keeps a HUNTING rifle from acting like it was fired from a field, shouldered position, zeroes differently and creates different muzzle reactions on firing, during what would be normal follow through. You might fire from a firm rest, or a bipod, or a shooting house window, or a tree trunk, but you’ll generally have something between your forearm and any hard surface, Not much else acts like your shoulder, either. Bags and rests and bipeds don’t interfere with that imitation. Even all sorts of improvised rests and positions don’t. Vises do. Never been able to mimic a vise. LOL

If I want to know how the rifle shoots, I put it in a vice or sled. If I want to know how I shoot then I'll put in on a common rest or pillow / bag / coat.

😕

The most accurate gun in the world is only as good as the person with his booger hooker on the trigger.

To a point , I agree. But when a rifle is stable and cannot move it removes the human element of flinch, among other things.

Why use a rest at all then?

To see what a rifle is capable of without the human element added.

Well, OTOH, if the human element is that unreliable, what the rifle might do without a human is pretty irrelevant, also. If you just want to machine rest something for some testing, knock yourself out, but the point is that POA vs POI shifts will occur between the two, and the vice/machine rest will seldom make it off the bench, to go shoot a rifle. Therefore, it’s a step most can (and likely should) skip out on for a hunting rifle. I’m not even aware of any competitive shooting that allows a vice. I get ‘testing’ on guns, especially for others, but a good bench rest and bags has almost all the capabilities and few of the drawbacks.

Some rifles don't shoot. If I use a stable platform and have a baseline, and have established that a rifle will shoot, then I know that it's my own fault if it doesn't. Also , if I can't get a rifle to shoot on a platform , then I don't waste my time shooting off a hood our out of a shooting house. If it won't shoot in a vice it dang sure won't shoot in a hunting situation... It might not matter much to some, but it does to me. To each his own.

If a rifle WILL shoot in a vice, but WON’T shoot for you, do you still hunt it? Does it matter if it DID shoot in a vice? I do get what you’re getting at, and I promise this is intended as good-natured ribbing. Some folks DO want to know a max potential baseline for a rifle, for specific purposes. I’ve moved on to just shooting and load work up to a max specific range for the rig, and it’s either good enough or it ain’t.....if it ain’t, someone else can be the nut behind that trigger, or drag out their shooting vise, just to see.

I do have vices....they’re just for holding the rig while I work on it. Bags and rests are for working on me. Everyone should have their own approach. All nuts are different. LOL

Absolutely.

When sighting In Scopes on rifles from scratch I will use a vice. Once I have determined the setup is solid and consistently hitting where it is aimed, from then on it is just bench shooting with a bag or the bench to rest on.

Sandbags....or, in a pinch, a backpack or wadded up jacket/sweatshirt.

I used sand bags only (front and rear) up until about 6 months ago when I purchased a Caldwell Rock BR https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1015040838

Wish I’d made the purchase years ago. I now use it in conjunction with a rear squeeze bag and it’s extremely stable and you don’t have to adjust everything every couple of shots like you do when using front sandbags.

Bull bag or that bug ass caldwell front bag and a squeeze bag in the rear or if I want to get freaky a Farley coax and Seb loaf

Rest in front and sand bag for back

A vice is HELL on rings and scopes. I use a Caldwell rest and rear bag. If you can't shoot with those then you need more practice.

We shoot .22lr out to 150 yards with the same setup. Its a very cheap way to "practice".