Does anybody know where you can purchase a clearing barrel?  I chamber and clear pistols usually at least once or twice a day and would like to have a clearing barrel eventually if they are not ridiculously expensive.  I know that the chances of one of my firearms being damaged and slam-firing are VERY remote, and I always do this in a safe direction obviously.  My thought is that chambering a round several times a day for twenty years, a clearing barrel might pay off eventually.  Not only would it protect people and property, but if there ever was a slam-fire and it occured into the clearing barrel, this might help my case with the authorities when they show up to find out why a firearm is being discharged within city-limits.

Anyway, I just think that a clearing barrel might be kind of cool anyway.  Anybody ever seen one (besides in an armory)?


Like I said, I know that its not really necessary, but I have heard of slam-fires before.   What do you think?

Plastic trash can half full of kitty litter.  Get the industrial kitty litter, used in garages and by cleanup crews as it is the cheapest.

Make one.  55 gallon drum, filled 3/4 with sandbox sand, put on a rack tilted at 60 degrees.  

Never heard of one for sale before.  Maybe someone here can help ya out better than I can.

Quoted: Make one.  55 gallon drum, filled 3/4 with sandbox sand, put on a rack tilted at 60 degrees.   Never heard of one for sale before.  Maybe someone here can help ya out better than I can.

55 gal is way bigger than you need.  30 is bigger than you need.  If you are using pistols as you say a 5 gallon plastic bucket 3/4 full of sand or kitty litter would work well I believe.  Make one up and test it by firing 10 or 15 rounds into it next time you go shoot.  Or make 3 or 4 using different materiels inside and let us know the results.  Sort of a "Box Of Truth" for home safety.

Here's what commercial ones look like. If I was to make one I would use a length of thick wall Sch80 pipe filled with sand.

www.actiontarget.com/bullet_traps/clearing_trap.html




This is what I use www.snailtraps.com/gunsmith_home.htm but I'm test firing not just clearing.

Quoted: ... Anybody ever seen one (besides in an armory)?...

Saw quite a few when I was in the army – invariably 55-gallon drums full of sand and mounted at an angle.

Nowadays commercially made bullets traps are very common at LE and correction facilities.  However, they tend to be pricey.

I use a body armor test panel myself (square piece of ballistic material used for test firing) but I’d think those are not easy to come by.  I admit I’m a little worried about bullet bounce-back.  An old unit of body armor would also work.  

If I were looking to make one right now for handgun rounds, I’d probably fill a 5-gallon plastic bucket full of sand, snap a lid on it, and make some sort of mount out of 2X4’s that would elevate it a bit and hold it at an angle (so any errant bullet would go through the maximum amount of sand).

And, if anyone other than myself was going to use it, I’d tape a target on the lid to make it real clear where exactly the muzzle should be pointed.

Cool.  Thanks for all of the great info everybody.  The bucket or pipe idea is a good one.  I need to make this thing look respectable enough to get my wife to let me keep it in the bedroom next to the gun safe though.  I will think of something.  Thanks for the suggestions I have a great starting point to work with now.  I never really thought about making something myself.  

Once I get this done I will test it and post pictures and the results.  

Quoted: Quoted: ... Anybody ever seen one (besides in an armory)?... Saw quite a few when I was in the army – invariably 55-gallon drums full of sand and mounted at an angle. Nowadays commercially made bullets traps are very common at LE and correction facilities.  However, they tend to be pricey. I use a body armor test panel myself (square piece of ballistic material used for test firing) but I’d think those are not easy to come by.  I admit I’m a little worried about bullet bounce-back.  An old unit of body armor would also work.   If I were looking to make one right now for handgun rounds, I’d probably fill a 5-gallon plastic bucket full of sand, snap a lid on it, and make some sort of mount out of 2X4’s that would elevate it a bit and hold it at an angle (so any errant bullet would go through the maximum amount of sand). And, if anyone other than myself was going to use it, I’d tape a target on the lid to make it real clear where exactly the muzzle should be pointed.

the target thing is a real good idea...

i have done security forces augmentee duty and when we arm up in the armory they have these metal tubes that sit at an angle on stands that they use.  Probably a lot more expensive then the drums.


I wonder what kind of sand would be best, that would probably be the key thing, and I wonder if wetting it down would help or not.