Wet sand or dry sand for catching bullets?

[dekibg]

Going to the open range soon and would like to catch some 357, 38 and 9mm bullets fired from handguns.
Plan is to put sand in the bigger bucket and fire from above . Should I wet the sand or just keep it dry ?
Would either one deform hollow points ?
( I cannot take 20 milk jugs and keep replacing them)

 

[stigfender]

I have shot into wet and dry gravel. Can't say I have noticed a huge difference. Wet sand will keep the dust down. I have not tried hollow points, only large maplat bullets in 45/70 and 356 Winchester

 

[AJC1]

Wet sand stays in a bucket with holes better than dry if you plan on capturing a few...

 

[starnbar]

Go with the wet sand projectiles are easier to find as a side note a couple of wet phone books duct taped together work good too if you can get some decent sized books.

 

[dekibg]

Wet sand stays in a bucket with holes better than dry if you plan on capturing a few...

Why bucket has to have holes?

 

[AJC1]

Why bucket has to have holes?

Bullets seem to do that.....

 

[stigfender]

I think he was planning on shooting from above... If the bucket is big enough, you should probably wont shot out the bottom.

 

[CDW4ME]

How about a outdoor trash can filled with water, could put denim over the top.
Seems any bullets collected from denim followed by water might be more applicable to what they might look like (expand) in tissue / gel.
Sand? Oh, wait ...

 

[AJC1]

I think he was planning on shooting from above... If the bucket is big enough, you should probably wont shot out the bottom.

I would not plan on being that close to a discharge of that much energy. Saftey first! I do get you hold the gun so don't respond silly...

 

[hso]

I have seen the wet phone book/newspaper in a 5 gallon bucket approach used several times for bullet capture. Of course, both news papers and phone books are not as common as a decade ago so a foot or more of sand makes for a logical bullet capture medium. If you want to spend some more money for less mess the playground granulated rubber works well also.

 

[481]

Going to the open range soon and would like to catch some 357, 38 and 9mm bullets fired from handguns.
Plan is to put sand in the bigger bucket and fire from above . Should I wet the sand or just keep it dry ?
Would either one deform hollow points ?
( I cannot take 20 milk jugs and keep replacing them)

Both wet and dry sand will deform hollow points, but not in the same way as would ordnance gelatin, water, or mammalian soft tissues. In dry sand, the primary process for JHP deformation will be erosion/abrasion of the alloy itself as the expansion cavity will likely become plugged by comminuted sand and fail to expand. In water-saturated sand, JHPs will expand and then exhibit erosion of the alloy similar to that seen in dry sand. Neither will reproduce terminal behavior & expansion characteristics of bullets fired into soft tissues.

If you're looking to duplicate the behavior of JHPs in soft tissue, @CDW4ME offers some solid guidance above in post #8.

 

[Jim Watson]

I don't know how to catch an undeformed bullet like they do on CSI.
Straight down off the back deck into a trash can full of water gave me a beautifully expanded lead hollow point from a 2" .38 Special. A dry cleaner bag spread over the surface minimized splash back.
The same setup with an 88 gr JHP .380 from Remington 51 gave me a leaky trash can. The unexpanded hollow point was about 3 inches into the dirt beneath the can.

 

[Hooda Thunkit]

I don't know how to catch an undeformed bullet like they do on CSI.
Straight down off the back deck into a trash can full of water gave me a beautifully expanded lead hollow point from a 2" .38 Special. A dry cleaner bag spread over the surface minimized splash back.
The same setup with an 88 gr JHP .380 from Remington 51 gave me a leaky trash can. The unexpanded hollow point was about 3 inches into the dirt beneath the can.

The late Richard Lee, in his Modern Reloading book, explains how he would shoot lead bullets into his (indoor) swimming pool, to catch and examine the bullets.

He tells about what fun his son had diving in after the shot, to chase the projectile.

 

[Bob Willman]

If I remember correctly from many years a go, the ballistics tanks used in police labs were 3 feet deep for handguns and 10 feet deep for long guns. Due to the large gains in firearms power levels and bullet technology since then, I suspect it may take deeper tanks these days.

NRA Benefactor

 

[Shawn Dodson]

1 water-filled milk carton per shot placed in front of a box densely filled full of polyester pillow filling.

The JHP will expand in the water and the polyester will catch the bullet without damaging/deforming it.

 

[Jerry M]

Some Ballistic labs shoot into a large barrel of water.

 

[Demi-human]

For catching bullets in a manner of safety, such as a clearing tube, dry sand is best.
Water is a lubricant, and will let a bullet slip through the sand further than if it were dry.
A dry five gallon bucket of clean dry sand will stop a 150grain .308.

A wet one will not.

Both will require clean up…

As far as catching a perfect and undamaged bullet, snow has the most gentle touch. I haven’t gone as far as trying to load a projectile twice…

Hard to get snow in some places.

For catching “bullet flowers”, a layered up old blanket under a hinged steel plate will keep the flower shape better, and will be easier, than finding them on the ground. I prefer these “flowers” to opened projectiles found in gel, wet newsprint or water. They are often shed of their extra lead and will stay upright on a copper wire in a vase. Let the plate come to rest each time. Be a good shot and shoot from as long a distance as one can. Good center hits produce the most symmetrical bullets.

 

[film495]

I'd get one of those large like 55 gallon drums and fill it with water, then just fish stuff out off the bottom. try not to shoot a hole in the side.

 

[bearcreek]

If I remember correctly from many years a go, the ballistics tanks used in police labs were 3 feet deep for handguns and 10 feet deep for long guns. Due to the large gains in firearms power levels and bullet technology since then, I suspect it may take deeper tanks these days.

NRA Benefactor

The opposite is actually true. The faster the bullet, the quicker it dumps it's energy in water. Mythbusters did an episode about this. Supersonic bullets slow to non lethal velocities in less than three feet of water.

 

[tark]

The opposite is actually true. The faster the bullet, the quicker it dumps it's energy in water. Mythbusters did an episode about this. Supersonic bullets slow to non lethal velocities in less than three feet of water.

Absolutely true. Here's a little experiment anyone can try. Get a large container of water and tale the palm of your hand and push it into the water. This represents a sub sonic bullet. There is little resistance from the water. Now, slap the water as hard and fast as you can. This represents a supersonic bullet. Your hand didn't go very far into the water...did it?

 

[GRIZ22]

IIRC from the US Army fortifications manual wet sand is more efficient stopping bullets. That's most likely due to the fact its denser.

 

[792mauser]

Dry sand works better.
As stated above, the water acts as a lubricant and you need more sand to stop a projectile.

 

[gwpercle]

Why bucket has to have holes?

It will develop holes while shooting ... hence the tip to duct tape two telephone books to the bottom of the bucket ... the bullets will stop in the phone books !

Are phone books still printed ... I haven't seen one in a few years .
A young lady called my office, not that long ago and wanted the phone number of a competitor ... I said " I don't know it offhand ... He's in the phone book , just look him up ." She say's ..."What's a phone book ." Just as serious as she could be and I swear this is true ... it happened to me !
I hope she was just yanking my chain !
Gary

 

[DustyGmt]

Not that it will be applicable for you most likely, I worked in a food manufacturing facility for many years and the primary product was pasta, the dough would come out on an extruder belt about a foot wide and ¼" thick onto a roller (think about a roll of toilet paper except very heavy, dense dough) and alot of times entire 30lb+ rolls would be destined to be discarded and sometimes I would take them home and do some non scientific testing with JHP's. It was easy to recover the projectiles because all I'd have to do is unravel a few layers of dough and I could shoot it many times before it became unusable.

It was alot of fun actually.


L to R: Winchester White Box 147gr JHP, Winchester PDX1 147gr, Federal Hydra-Shok 147gr, Federal HST 124gr, Hornady Critical Duty 135gr +P. All 9mm above.

I liked the HST's and Critical Duty the best, the Critical Duty never failed to expand and was the most consistent, all expanded CD's looked identical and penetrated further than all the others. I had many more pictures I can't locate, but I tested Gold Dots, Golden Sabers, 9BPLE +P+, Hornady Tap, Hornady XTP, Winchester Ranger T's and a few others.... I also did some .38spl and .380acp JHP's in short barreled guns and that test inspired me to discontinued the use of all JHP's in those guns. Very very poor penetration and expansion.......

 

[doubleh]

Would either one deform hollow point

I has been my experience that a bullet with deform in either. I tried a 5 gallon bucket of water with a 22 pistol----once. I might have stayed dry if i had been on a step ladder. I was amazed at how high and how much splashed out onto me. At least I did it in summer so it was cool after the surprise.