I’m planning a new shooting range on my property; my old range will be turned into pasture land. I have almost a thousand empty sand bags in my storage shed and was curious to know just how many inches of sand a bullet will penetrate.

I found the following article with test results. I thought I would pass it along. The rounds tested were .22 LR from a revolver, 9mm, .45ACP, 5.56mm form an AR 15, 7.62x51 from a FAL, .308, .45-70 and a 12gauge slug.

In the test, no bullet penetrated the sand deeper than 6”.

The Box O' Truth #7 - The Sands O' Truth The Box O' Truth

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A gun has no brain.. use yours

Those sandbag berms on the perimeters of military posts are there for a reason.....they work. How many soldiers have been saved in their bunkers over the years?

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GA 2A member
Vietnam Vet

Good thing to know if times get tough. Any more info would be interesting and thanks for the post.

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Hue 68 noli me tangere

One thing t keep in mind when building that berm, is repeated shots in the same area will eat away the sand. So be sure to make it at lease 3 times as thick as you think you need . Then inspect the berm on a regular basis so you can make repairs.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

One range I used to go to used the small sharped edged pebbles. They said that it tore the bullets up. 6 inches was supposed to stop a 30-06. You might want to test that.

How much sand is required to stop a bullet ?

I expect a guy would have too be pretty brave ... Or easily persuaded
I've told some guys I load my 38s light enough you could catch em with a good pair of gloves ... I've never had the sand to try :-)

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the rules? there are no rules

I'm looking to do something similar. Have a big hillside to shoot into but want something closer to the house for casual step out the door with a 22 shooting. Was going to do a backstop setup with 10x10 beams with dirt/sand fill in between. The link posted was interesting info.

At our indoor range we have recently switched to shredded rubber bullet stops. It works great. 6-10" is supposed to stop up to a 50 BMG. We use 12" and limit it to 44 mag and have been no problems.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Last fall my indoor range switched to this stuff. One of the guys who "mines" the lead told me that no pistol bullets get more than 3 ~ 4 inches deep. The pistol caliber carbines go an inch or two deeper.

I suspect there is more than one "alloy" of rubber, so that would account for differing penetration depths.

You beat me to "more than I have," Kam.

Kidding aside, though: interesting thread. The thing about the shredded rubber is also good, and new to me. The berms at my outdoor range are just good 'ol dirt piled about 10 feet thick and 12 or 15 feet high, I think.

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Ukraine -- now more than ever

I would expect the shredded rubber to be more common in indoor ranges, where you really don't have room for a ten ft thick dirt backstop.

Clay, usually found in subsoil in these parts, is the best natural backstop in my view. Pistol bullets, including those fired from magnums, barely penetrate it more than an inch -if that. But it still prevents ricocheting.

Best wishes in your project,
Andy

I shoot .22LR into a 12” cube filled with shredded rubber (common rubber mulch) I can tell you that the .22 bullets do in fact go deeper than 3-4”.
Before building my backstop box I experimented with a shoe box full of rubber mulch, a .22 would in fact pass through the width of the box which was 5”.
The sides and rear of my box have a metal lining. I have found a few dents in the lining which I think are the result of deflecting bullets since the dents are near the top.

When the bullets begin to build up in my “trap” they make a very effective stop on their own.

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Ipsis Rebus Dictantitbus

Since the shredded rubber looked like old tires I asked about it. I was told it was a special compound, and it was a variety of sizes. Some of it had obvious layers - it wasn't solid. Once again, from what the range master told me, it does a great job. That's all I know.

I gave u a like but what about a steel core jacketed bullet out of a 30 06? Or a 500 -S&W out of a rifle would be fun to watch.

hey that was a great test i always see the empty sand bags 4 sale and they are cheap. it would be a good addition to some one survival kit if they were buging in and have lots of sand near by

Sand works great. This is why I only shoot at the beach. Only real problem is finding a holster that works with my Speedo.

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Thirty characters. Exactly...

A "Sticky Holster" should work.

Everything everywhere is sand in Florida, just mound up some "Florida soil" and you've got a berm.

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Dick

You may want to add some old tires to the backstop in addition to the sand. Our indoor range in NYC did this with our magnum pistol point. Worked well. I did fire a .41 Mag, both the SWC police load and the full power hunting load, into a 100lb sand bag at close range. Neither bullet penetrated and the bag did not budge.

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

Wet sand is superior to dry. My testing showed three bags deep to hold a 357. Bullet deformation was minimal as well. What do you plan to use behind the bags for backup?

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... fortunate son...

Couldn't you stack tires on top of each other and screw them together through the sidewalls with a few wood screws...
fill with sand... have several stacks with 3 off-set rows?

I plan to use old railroad ties behind the sand bags. There is a place locally where I can buy them cheap.

My current range is on an uphill grade. I used a tractor with bucket to scoop up a berm on the high side. The new range will be in a wooded area but the ground is flat there. The advantage of the new location is that there is forest for about a mile beyond the new berm.

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A gun has no brain.. use yours

I may be wrong but I have read that using only tires as a backstop can cause ricochets if the bullet strikes off angle.

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A gun has no brain.. use yours

I have been thinking of putting a unloading barrel next to my gun safe to use when I unload my carry gun to clean or put it away. I thought about using a cat litter pale and fill it with playground sand.

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Carpriver.

I've done gunsmithing for a lot of years. When I was still in town I test fired into a 55 gallon drum filled with layers of sand separated with old plywood or Masonite discs about every 6 inches. I used a plywood insert with old inner tube in the lid to keep from blowing stuff out of the barrel and screwed the lid in place after a .44 Mag Desert Eagle blew the lid off early on in its use. It was set in an angled frame like the clearing barrels I have seen. I shot everything imaginable into over a 10 year or better period. Rifle, pistol and shotgun. After moving out of town, it was disassembled and nothing had penetrated more than a foot.