Buy a 5gal bucket w/lid and a 50# sack of Play Sand

[GBExpat]

I read on online story this morning about a fellow who experienced an ND in his apartment that killed a lady in her bed next door. This happened in Gwinnett County, GA IIRC.

If you load/unload firearms inside your home, a suggestion:

At Lowes/HomeDepot/etc buy a 5gal bucket w/ snap-on lid and a 50# sack of Play Sand. The sand will fill all but the final few inches of the bucket. Snap on the lid and place the assembly in a convenient location of your home where you find yourself loading/unloading that semi-auto firearm (a bedroom closet is fine).

Whenever you are doing an operation that may result in an AD/ND, stand over the bucket and have the firearm aimed at the lid.

For many years mine has been in my basement beside my primary "gunbench". I also have another set (bucket/lid/sack) that I never deployed (I was thinking of putting it somewher upstairs) after realizing that I never load one of my semi-autos except when I am at that bench.

Just a thought.

 

[bassjam]

Not a bad idea. Unfortunately the type of people who would use your suggestion are likely also the type of people who are already mindful of the direction their muzzle is pointing and what might be unseen behind walls whenever they handle a firearm. There's too many unsafe gun owners out there that don't even know they're unsafe.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

The 5 gallon bucket of sand in case of AD/ND clearing the chamber?

Supposedly a standard fixture in several police department squad rooms for cleaning of Glocks: the trigger must be pulled to drop the striker before you can disassemble a Glock. Ever so often someone removes the magazine but forgets to clear the "forgotten round" from the firing chamber.

I have a large cat litter bucket with a section of 6"x6"x2" board in the bottom and 4" of phonebooks jammed on top of the board as a pellet trap for shooting my air rifle indoors (backstop for misses is a metal door). While I was trying to rehabilitate a .22 magazine doing a lot of cycles testing feed/eject, I put the bucket on the floor and kept the muzzle of the gun in the bucket (beneath the floor is just a crawlspace then earth). Come to think of it, I really ought to do that whenever I have to clear the chamber of a gun indoors.

 

[Jim Watson]

The clearing barrel is also a regular feature of military bases in unfriendly territory where the Army has to allow troops to load their rifles.

 

[Speedo66]

The clearing barrel is also a regular feature of military bases in unfriendly territory where the Army has to allow troops to load their rifles.

Same with some police ranges I've been on.

 

[herrwalther]

A clearing barrel. Spent a lot of time clearing empty weapons into them when going in and out of a building. Most were 55 gallon barrels filled with sand or PVC pipes stuck into the ground. Quite an annoying piece of Army bureaucracy when you are walking into a chow hall carrying an M249, M4, and M9. Clearing all of them on the way in and out just to grab bad food. So I personally don't want one in my house. But I see how they would be useful for others.

 

[Rule3]

I just aim at the bed, chair or couch

Yes, they have those kind of buckets at one of our indoor ranges.

 

[sarduy]

How about removing the mag and visually+physically emptying the chamber before pulling the trigger uhh!

 

[bassjam]

How about removing the mag and visually+physically emptying the chamber before pulling the trigger uhh!

I still like to point my gun in a safe direction when unloading them. When I'm in the basement (which is where happens 90% of the time) I point at a concrete wall. In my bedroom where it happens the remaining 10% I point it out the window into the mile of woods behind my house.

 

[GAF]

How about removing the mag and visually+physically emptying the chamber before pulling the trigger uhh!

This is what I do. I live in a brick house on a slab.

 

[GBExpat]

For me ...

Actually, when manipulating one of my semi-auto pistols (or s/a rifle, if I ever did this) in the house the thing that raises my blood pressure a bit is dropping the slide on a loaded magazine; i.e., loading the firearm.

I never sweat dropping the hammer on an thrice-checked empty chamber.

 

[Lo-Profile]

I just use the bed ....

 

[Robert]

Mine stays loaded in the holster and secured if not on my hip.

 

[GBExpat]

After cleaning my carry pistol at my secondary gunbench I move 6' to my primary gunbench & the bucket of sand to reload the pistol prior to returning it to the holster.

 

[Tirod]

The clearing barrel is also a regular feature of military bases in unfriendly territory where the Army has to allow troops to load their rifles.

And every CONUS MP armory. You'll find it outside before you even approach the door.

The bucket is a good idea. More of us should adopt it.

 

[jmorris]

If you don’t have a safe direction to point a firearm when you need to hammer down, a bullet container isn’t a bad idea at all.

 

[LiberalVet]

Not a bad idea. Unfortunately…There's too many unsafe gun owners out there that don't even know they're unsafe.

Maybe we need gun laws and insurance requirements to protect against irresponsible gun owners. Kinda like how we have laws to protect the public against irresponsible vehicle owners.

 

[dodo bird]

Mine stays loaded in the holster and secured if not on my hip.

I think the op is talking about loading after cleaning a gun. I use a stack of books. It’s good idea for the 2nd rule of gun safety.

 

[jmorris]

Maybe we need gun laws and insurance requirements to protect against irresponsible gun owners. Kinda like how we have laws to protect the public against irresponsible vehicle owners.

Maybe we need vehicle owners go through waiting periods, background checks, and have clean records, like gun owners…might reduce the numbers of “irresponsible vehicle owners” and insurance costs for the rest of us.

 

[Elkins45]

Maybe we need gun laws and insurance requirements to protect against irresponsible gun owners. Kinda like how we have laws to protect the public against irresponsible vehicle owners.

I’m practically aquiver with the anticipation of learning what specific laws these might be.

 

[luzyfuerza]

In case anyone is wondering, a plastic bucket full of sand is plenty deep for a clearing barrel. Just aim your firearm straight into the middle of the lid.

https://www.theboxotruth.com/the-box-o-truth-7-the-sands-o-truth/

Old_Painless is always right: "Shooting stuff is fun"

 

[MrChicken]

About twenty five years ago I lived in the Phx area. A huge gun store opened up and had a clearing trap by the front door. On the front door was a sign that said no loaded guns allowed. AZ was an open carry state back then.

Within a week of their opening there was a bullet scar on the armor plate of the trap.

As I remember it, the trap and the sign eventually disappeared.

 

[bdickens]

An idea born in a lowest common denominator environment where safety is a set of administrative procedures instead of a mindset.

 

[230RN]

I think the op is talking about loading after cleaning a gun. I use a stack of books. It’s good idea for the 2nd rule of gun safety.

Same here. I have a bookshelf with the side exposed. I keep a mess of obsolete and useless books on one shelf at more or less elbow height which I point at when manipulating a firearm for any reason. (When I had a shop I used the sand-bucket method.)

Once you've clicked on about 30 inches of old books, you're good to go, still maintaining a reasonably safe direction until the gun is apart.

Amusingly, that "safe direction" thing still sticks with me with other gun-like objects like hand drills.

I add that just cycling the action does not necessarily assure an empty gun. I wandered the Grasslands one day with my 1911, shooting (safely) at various rocks and cow pies of opportunity, got back to my van, pulled the clip, racked the slide a couple of times and no cartridge flew out. "Hunh. That's odd." I assumed a mis-feed on my last shot, pointed the gun at a fence post and pulled the trigger. BANG!

Turned out the extractor tip had broken off and the gun functioned normally through the day. Found the broken tip on my workbench a couple of days later. I guess residual pressure blew the empty out for me through that day.

They say the two loudest noises with guns is a click when you expect a bang and a bang when you expect a click. I testify ! Amen !

The fencepost survived, by the way.

Terry, 230RN

 

[Rule3]

About twenty five years ago I lived in the Phx area. A huge gun store opened up and had a clearing trap by the front door. On the front door was a sign that said no loaded guns allowed. AZ was an open carry state back then.

Within a week of their opening there was a bullet scar on the armor plate of the trap.

As I remember it, the trap and the sign eventually disappeared.

Seems that the store would have disappeared with a sign like that!