Posted: 2/28/2011 6:01:40 AM EDT
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In recent weeks I have looked upon my humble mountain of staples in 5 gal buckets and wondered how they would perform as a barrier. Not rice & elbow pasta, but the buckets themselves.
What exactly would a bucket of sand withstand? I know there is a lot of published data on sand penetration of various calibers, but I was nonetheless curious. We had a range day yesterday, so I gave it a swing. The bucket is a typical 5 gal construction material bucket. I put one wrap of duct tape around it to try to keep the bucket from splintering. Here is our modest range. The Bucket is on the right side of the frame. 
Here is a closer shot of the victim. It was filled with sand from the backstop. I just shoveled it full and did not tamp it down. 
The rifle is an N4 loaded with green tips. 
Shooting was done at 25M. Here are shots of the front and back of the bucket after 30 rounds. 
I tried to space the shots around the bucket, but I still wound up with a concentration. There was a blowout, but I didn't have a backstop to see what exactly came out. Oh - Tried to film this super-scientific test with a Burris Accucam, but it flew off half way through the mag - guess I should play with the mounting some. After the magazine of .556, this poor bucket endured 40 rounds of .308 FMJ and 15 round of 00 buckshot. There were 2 other blowouts, but I was still impressed. I wish I would have had a piece of plywood behind the bucket - next time. Anyway, I know sandbags are preferred, but it occurs to me that most here have a pile of buckets at any given moment. If improvisation was needed, buckets of sand would do a helluva job. Finally, here are a couple gratuitous shots of a ladyfriend on the range since she's better subject matter than yours truly. 
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After the magazine of .556, this poor bucket endured 40 rounds of .308 FMJ and 15 round of 00 buckshot. There were 2 other blowouts, but I was still impressed. I wish I would have had a piece of plywood behind the bucket - next time.  That's one strong bucket!
Great writeup. I've got a wealth of buckets....always wondered how they would do as barriers. |
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Biggest problem with buckets is their tapered design, which means you need two courses to avoid gaps.
I'd be more inclined to use the buckets horizontally - assuming good lids and tamped sand - which can be augmented by the judicious application of duct-tape... would likely avoid a blowout in all but the largest of calibers. Wonder if damp sand would fair better or worse? Looks like you had fun! 
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Just a FYI
Old_Painless did a similar test (with sandbags) on his Web site, theboxotruth.com. He made some interesting discoveries, primarily, that HANDGUN bullets (of reasonably similar design) outperformed rifle bullets! The reason for this is that rifle bullets were going so fast, they'd fragment much faster than handgun rounds. OP, this is an interesting post! Thanks for sharing! (hmmm.... at HoDo [Home Depot], buckets are about $2.65 each... twelve buckets at $2.65 is only $31 or so...) |
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Quoted: Anyway, I know sandbags are preferred, but it occurs to me that most here have a pile of buckets at any given moment. If improvisation was needed, buckets of sand would do a helluva job. Unless its cold The plastic as well as tape shatters in cold weather, when its warm not so much |
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sandbags
$0.45 per....you can find them cheaper if you look... |
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Nice review Thank you. Need one more good pic of the pink kitty, Kar15, for those of us with wives and daughters about. well my wife has both a tabby and a white domestic american shorthair but this is no place to talk about her pink kitty ... oh you meant the OP's ladyfriend's AR15, nevermind, move along nothing to see here...
K. |
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Excellent Post!
If you staggered two rows, you could have quite the little fortress. Now if we could figure a way to make some of the zillion empty tin cans into reactive armor, we'd be all set. ULINE also has sandbags pretty cheap http://www.uline.com/BL_5565/Sand-Bags?keywords=sand+bags |
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Interesting test. What is a Burris Accucam? It was. I don't fault the system - I just don't think I had it cranked down enough. I got it during the big sale, but this was the first time I played with it. I haven't reviewed the video I took with it yet, but other samples I've seen look pretty good. I don't think I'll ever use it for the intended purpose, but $100 for a laser, light, video and stills is a deal in my book. I'm dying to ambush a good group of pigs with the camera rolling. I'll also incorporate it into movement drills. BTW - the light is NOT a replacement for a true weapon light. |
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Quoted:
Just a FYI Old_Painless did a similar test (with sandbags) on his Web site, theboxotruth.com. He made some interesting discoveries, primarily, that HANDGUN bullets (of reasonably similar design) outperformed rifle bullets! The reason for this is that rifle bullets were going so fast, they'd fragment much faster than handgun rounds. OP, this is an interesting post! Thanks for sharing! (hmmm.... at HoDo [Home Depot], buckets are about $2.65 each... twelve buckets at $2.65 is only $31 or so...) I thought I'd read all of Painless' stuff, but the Bucket of Truth escaped me. I'll check again, but if you have a link, please share. I'll bring another bucket for handgun work next time. |
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Nice review Thank you. Need one more good pic of the pink KittyKar15 for those of us with wives and daughters about. I've got some somewhere. Not much to it. Stag gov't profile on an oly lower. Biker buddy hit the stock and grip with duracoat for me. It may have to go back to black though - I tend to hit better with irons with the pink lady than I do my other AR's. I'll find another pic or 2 and put it up. |
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Excellent Post! If you staggered two rows, you could have quite the little fortress. Now if we could figure a way to make some of the zillion empty tin cans into reactive armor, we'd be all set. ULINE also has sandbags pretty cheap http://www.uline.com/BL_5565/Sand-Bags?keywords=sand+bags That's what I was thinking. I'm not planning for it necessarily, but staggering these would offer some good protection. For example, my window sills are only 1 foot off the floor. With 6 buckets, I could establish a decent position. And no - I don't want this to devolve into a bug in/bug out question, or that fact that sand bags already fill this role, etc. I was just curious and had the time to play with it. I'll do another set soon. With and without duct tape. Handgun and rifle. I'll also put plywood behind it to see what's really happening when it blows out. |
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Very cool experiment, seeing is believing!
idea: make some homemade ballistic gel, and place a block of it behind the bucket...find out what kind of damage could occur if someone were to make a wall of them. Will be interesting to see how much energy is left after some bucket "pass throughs". good job. |
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I've seen pictures from WW II and Vietnam of something similar. In those cases the containers used were ammo crates and ammo cans. In both cases the cans/crates were filled with sand and then stacked to fortify a position. The advantage the 5 gallon buckets would have to sand bags is their resistance to weathering. Most commercially produced sand bags are designed to break down after a certain period. If you go to some of the big sand bag suppliers sites they will often list the break down time along with the bags measurements. And as always, getting more than one use out of any item is always a plus.
stasiman |
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Can't remember what they are called. In Afg. the US is using wire fence with some type of plastic liner to make fortifications. Place the liner inside of a section of wire fence approx. 3 ft in diameter or what ever size you want. Fill up that container with gravel, dirt, or whatever available. Make them about 3 or 4 ft. tall and four or five containers thick and you can build another layer on top. If you want to be discreet stockpile the items and then build the fortifications when needed, shouldn't take long, but work intensive, unless you have a backhoe handy. Could probably landscape over the whole thing with some vines or plants or something and have it look half way decent.
Tipy |
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Just a thought here: What about filling 50gal oil drums? They can be had from your local implement/farm machinery store for free. Yes, they would be impossible to move once filled, but would provide a LOT of sand for a bullet to go through. Not to mention, they could not be knocked over easily by someone/thing advancing on your position. There's also no taper to them, so a few of them next to one another would seal your gaps, although the joints would offer little protection.
If you staggered them with a few inches of overlap you'd have a hell of a fortification. Also, the sheet metal will not ever shatter. No duct tape required. |
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The military basket type things, which are stackable, are called Hesco barriers.
As posted above, use two widths of buckets for better protection. Since the buckets are rounded, there would be almost no protection along the right or left edge of each bucket if only one thickness is used. A sheet of cardboard behind the test medium (bucket in this case) will provide much better info than a sheet of plywood. Some people call this a witness panel. |
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Anyway, I know sandbags are preferred, but it occurs to me that most here have a pile of buckets at any given moment. If improvisation was needed, buckets of sand would do a helluva job. Unless its cold The plastic as well as tape shatters in cold weather, when its warm not so much Good point! |
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I wonder how 120mm ammo cans would do filled with sand. 100dallarman has pallets full (sans lids) for $50 a pallet, however unless your local shipping would be a bitch. No lids hurts the deal - but I suppose anything that holds sand would make for a barrier. I tried the bucket because I have so many lying around. |
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Just a thought here: What about filling 50gal oil drums? They can be had from your local implement/farm machinery store for free. Yes, they would be impossible to move once filled, but would provide a LOT of sand for a bullet to go through. Not to mention, they could not be knocked over easily by someone/thing advancing on your position. There's also no taper to them, so a few of them next to one another would seal your gaps, although the joints would offer little protection. If you staggered them with a few inches of overlap you'd have a hell of a fortification. Also, the sheet metal will not ever shatter. No duct tape required. I have 1/2 dozen barrels in storage. I was going to store charcoal in them, but went with 5 gal buckets instead. No immediate plan for them, but if I ever needed to fortify the BOL, the backhoe could have them ready in little time. |
This thread got me thinking, not only can you use them filled with sand as barrier protection, as well as for fire suppression...you might be able to use them as an inexpensive bullet trap. Not sure if it would necessarily work, so I'd recommend you test it out first in a safe environment with a variety of weapons/calibers, but I'm wondering if you discharged a round into the top of a 5 gallon bucket full of sand...would it fail to pierce the bottom of the bucket? If it did, I suppose you could double up buckets or use a bigger bucket, or perhaps a larger rubbermade type trash can. Either way, it might be something worth considering for the safety concious amongst the group...just don't leave it uncovered if you have cat's in your home. 
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