Forgive me as this is kind of a double post. I first posted photos and a description of this in the negligent discharge discussion and upon further reflection decided that making this its own post might help people who might want to see it, see it.
Here is something I made a couple years ago. As yet, I have not had a negligent discharge. Notice I said as of yet. I am not going to pretend that I am immune from the possibility. Anyway, this sits on the floor next to my reloading bench in my gun room in the basement. It is literally a 5 gallon bucket filled with sand along with a siding dryer vent to give me space to insert the muzzle a reasonable distance. The idea being that if I had a NG, the gun would be pointed in a safe direction and even if it didnt catch the bullet, it would take most of the energy. If I dry fire practice or if I am cleaning a gun such as a glock that requires you to dry fire it to strip, the first trigger pull AFTER checking, regardless of the gun, will be with the muzzle controlled in this bucket. It cost me less than $20 to make, the most expensive part was a couple bags of sand.
A great idea sir. In the military, we had clearing barrels. These are larger versions of what you built. Every deployment you would hear someone punch off a live round. Not a frequent event but it did happen. In Iraq, you had to clear you weapon going into the mess hall and other places.
@Brian139 Great topic. I live in an apartment home and have thought about constructing exactly what you describe. Have you tested it somewhere? If yes, what caliber?
I have not tested it, and one of these days, I will get a wild hare, put a can on a gun or two and give it a test in the back yard. I have reasonable faith that it will contain a bullet. Sandbags stop bullets and mine has over a sandbag worth of sand, probably 50 pounds worth. Also, it is a 5 gallon bucket, so I am looking at about a foot of sand. Compare that with how deep you find bullets in the berms of your gun range when you look around behind the targets. That said, IF it did make it through the foot of sand, there isnt going to be a whole lot of energy left. If I was in an apartment and was worried about that, I would see if I could find a piece of A500 steel or maybe put an inch or two of concrete in the bottom to ensure nothing got out.
That said, this is not a bullet trap. This is not something you test reloads into, etc. It is simply one last safety tool to help maintain the rules of safe firearms handling. IF for some reason, you are forced to use it for what it is for and you have a negligent discharge, I dont expect it will be a pleasant experience. After you clean out your shorts, you are going to have a big cleanup. I would expect the lid to come off and to throw sand everywhere. The bucket might even split, dumping 50 pounds of sand on the floor. But it did its job. It took the punishment of a ND to help keep everyone safe.
No problem, I should have explained it better. I heard about using sand as a bullet trap years ago, and it makes sense when you think about all the sand bags in photos of WW trenches etc. So a friend and I put together some 5 gallon buckets filled with dry sand and shot them with rifles, and they worked. We noticed the sand eventually would be spilling out through the bullet holes in the bucket lid. Our solution was to wet the sand to keep it in the bucket. We started punching holes through both ends of the bucket when the sand was wet. I know my "barn yard’ testing is not scientific and maybe there is a threshold where pistol rounds will work with wet sand and rifle won’t? But my observations are that the sand is more effective dry. The dry sand seems to erode the bullet as it goes through it and the wet creates a cavity. Hope that helps clear it up.
