What is the best material to fill shooting bags with?

I would say lead shot would be best. My son uses some of his brother's air-soft pellets. It is much lighter and cheaper than lead and works pretty well. He is pretty portable and likes the light weight. He started out using lead shot.

Lead Shot Bags

Rice works awesome !!! I put a plastic bag inside and fill it with air from my breath/mouth like filling a balloon and that way it gets all corners in the shooting bag when empty before you start then I fill it up with rice and after it is full I spin the bag and tie it off and cut the tail left over of the bag and tuck it in the shooting bag itself and done !!! stays dry and fresh and its light yet heavy enough to work and conforms well .

Whatever you fill shooting bags with, it has to be portable, formable so it conforms to the surface it is sitting on as well as the firearm, and should be fairly stable so it stays in the shape of the firearm. Sand works well for this purpose, as do plastic pellets or lead shot. Most people use sand due to low cost. I have used sand and plastic pellets, they work about the same,

I agree with the other guy, I use old lead shot bags from reloading shotgun shells, fill it with clean sand (but only 3/4 full so it has room to "form" around your firearm) and have never had a problem.

Shoot safe

I use sand in old lead shot bags,most of the time I conveniently use the foam rubber pads I made up for informal target practice,they suit me fine,seldom bother with the sand filled bags. Lead yet,never.

The foam is in sewed Turkish towels.

smallest lead shot to possibly find(#9 is the best commonly available), but people not willing to spend the money for it use sand instead, those are the only ones that I know of.

the reason for smaller shot is for better formability and more density to the bags, since the larger the shot, the more empty space between them, lightening your bags.

The last bag I filled with beans - adzuki (nice little ones). Works fine, plenty of weight, no question of sand dust.

Don't want to get it soaking wet though.

Most people use lead shot, if you can find it. I have play sand in my shooting bags. But lead would be better.

* White sand works great to put in shooting bags.* That's what I like to use.*~~