One of the potentially dangerous times as a CCW holder is during the "administrative handling" of a weapon - the loading and unloading of the defensive handgun. Although I have no statistics to back this up, I bet that most of the accidental discharges and negligent discharges occur during this time.
One of the pieces of gear in every police station is a "clearing drum" - usually a steel drum filled with sand into which the weapon is pointed during those times, such that, should a discharge occur, the sand catches the bullet. I've always thought that a similar device would be a great addition to my gun room.
Recently while browsing the internet I ran across a YouTube video by "The Yankee Marshal". If you haven't seen any of his videos they take a kind of tongue-in-cheek at the firearm hobby and lifestyle. But once in a while a serious subject is presented. I watched a video that he made wherein he demonstrated his "clearing bucket". This was simply a utility bucket, as sold at any big box home improvement store filled with sand. His demonstration consisted of firing a 9mm round from a SIG handgun into the bucket from a range of about 12". I was surprised that the bullet barely penetrated the sand at all, making a sort of crater but with the base of the bullet still visible!
What I noticed, however, is that a certain amount of sand was ejected during the demonstration, probably by the muzzle blast. (I would be in enough trouble with the missus from having the accidental discharge in the first place, and having sand all over the floor would only make matters worse!) Also, with the top of the bucket being open, I could foresee all manner of critters making their homes in the sand, as well as the cats using it for a litter box. Not good.
But taking the idea and running with it, here is what I did:
As you can see, I used one of the utility buckets available from Home Depot. A bag of "Play Sand" filled it to within a few inches of the top. I added one of their snap-on lids, in which I cut a round hole in the center, about 4-1/2" in diameter, using a utility knife. I finished it off with an adhesive-backed 6" Shoot-N-See target which serves three purposes: It provides an aiming point, it seals the hole in the top of the bucket to keep critters out, and it will help to contain the sand should a discharge occur.
The bucket now lives on the floor next to my gun safe, available for convenient use. I am transitioning my EDC from a 1911 platform (which I carried cocked-and-locked) to pistols which are more of a point-and-click interface (DA/SA). My most frequently used pistols are a CZ 83 and a CZ 75 B, both of which, to place in DA mode, require one to manually decock the hammer by pulling the trigger while letting the hammer down. I have no issue with doing so, as I grew up in an era when manually decocking hammers on rifles and pistols was a necessary skill. However I do acknowledge that the danger of a slip is always there.
