Question

[Badhabit]

I read something awhile back about using a 5 gallon bucket full of sand to chamber a round safely. Does anyone do this? Has anyone had a round discharge and does the sand stop the round?

[a_canadian]

Really depends on the caliber. I recall reading somewhere about how an urban machine gun manufacturer during WWII was using a thick wall (10 feet?) of wet sand as a backstop inside a brick building, then after some thousands of rounds put into a target someone noticed daylight coming through the hole. Investigation revealed holes in the building across the street. No one was injured, but they had to re-think their backstop. Dry sand would seem an obvious solution as it falls to fill in any hole. So perhaps a bucket of dry sand is adequate. I know the guy who has the ECCO Machine channel on Youtube uses a 5 gallon bucket of dry sand with a rubber membrane over most of the top to shop test his builds, seems okay pointing not quite straight down with 9mm subs firing 5 to 10 rounds semi auto. I wouldn't bet the farm on it being safe for anything a lot more powerful than that though.

[doubloon]

Maybe if the bucket was buried in the ground and filled with sand or rubber mulch.

Seems like it would be hard to guarantee an off center discharge wouldn't exit the side of the bucket in some random direction.

I think a bullet can travel 5-6" in sand and a 5 gallon bucket is <12" in diameter ... not a big margin for error.

[jlwilliams]

Are you looking to stop a single round, or a half dozen? 22lr, or 357mag?

[T-Rex]

Home Depot sand "Clearing Bucket"

50BMG vs Sand Bags

From these 2 videos, I say your GTG. Just put a lid on the bucket, w/ a hole, and fire into a short piece of tube or something (so sand doesn't go everywhere).

I've seen and used Sonotubes (like 12" dia) full of rubber mulch. Work nicely, but that mulch isn't as cheap as sand/dirt.

[a_canadian]

Spent lead works well too. I've got close to 100lbs in a bucket and it stops .22lr subs like nothing happened.