Play Sand!

[Griff]

A couple weeks ago, when I went out to Krodle Kountry to sight in my new AR I stopped in at a guns shop and bought a set of bags... In the past I've always just used old canvas shot bags filled with sand from the CA beach... My last one finally bit the dust! But, where does one get sand in Texas... why Lowe's, of course:


Figured, 50 lbs? How would I ever use all that?


Golly, almost half the bag went into the 3 bags that make up this set!


With the rifle done, and a few days before I leave again, I think I'll fine tune the scope and do that bolt thrust test.

On the way home last nite, I passed a gun shop that my son had checked out during that time a couple of weeks ago... they were closed, but looking thru the window he said, "they have a lot of reloading supplies." Stopped in, WOW! They did have a bunch. Not everything I wanted, but enough that I can do the testing and have some supplies to do some reloading.

Garnered some Winchester LP, shotshell and Fed. match small rifle, 8 lbs of TiteGroup, and a couple pounds of RedDot, plus the lb of Blue Dot! Sure makes the loading stash look better! Great little shop, 3 miles from the house, and they're super folks, on the list to get some CFE223 plus some more Clays when they get it in.

[Sixgun]

and bought a sent of bags...

Figured, 50 lbs? How would I ever use all that?

.

Griff,
You mean there's no sand in Texas? I thought that's all you had of down there, with the desert and all.

I have the same set of bags and those babies are nice. Nothing equals a nice sand bag for accuracy testing.

If you have any extra sand, I'd like to have it. Can you overnight me 20 pounds or so?

I'm curious about one thing. What is a "sent of bags"? Is that Ebonics or something? Just curious.

On another note, it sure was nice to see what you Texans did down at the Alamo with the protest.----Sixgun

[JerryB]

I make mine from the legs cut off of worn out Levis. Tie one end and fill it up then tie that end shut.

[Griff]

and bought a se(n)t of bags...
Figured, 50 lbs? How would I ever use all that?
.

Griff,
You mean there's no sand in Texas? I thought that's all you had of down there, with the desert and all.
I have the same set of bags and those babies are nice. Nothing equals a nice sand bag for accuracy testing.
If you have any extra sand, I'd like to have it. Can you overnight me 20 pounds or so?
I'm curious about one thing. What is a "sent of bags"? Is that Ebonics or something? Just curious.
On another note, it sure was nice to see what you Texans did down at the Alamo with the protest.----Sixgun

Fixed that... Spell checker failure!

Oh yes, there's all kind of sand in Texas... just none around my place. Now, if you want black, gumbo mud... I have that in spades... It's stuck to the spade, maddox, and all those other gardening tools!

Alamo? Protest? What? Back in 1836? I don't watch the news... it's always bad... just makes the blood pressure spike... and my neck's red enough already!

[765x53]

I make mine from the legs cut off of worn out Levis. Tie one end and fill it up then tie that end shut.

Same here. I use plastic bread wrappers as liners to keep dust from sifting through the cloth and fill with clay cat litter.
It works as well and is lighter to carry.

[Griff]

I make mine from the legs cut off of worn out Levis. Tie one end and fill it up then tie that end shut.

Same here. I use plastic bread wrappers as liners to keep dust from sifting through the cloth and fill with clay cat litter.
It works as well and is lighter to carry.

I use the cut off legs from my jeans to use as range brass bags. Cut 'em off right below that worn out knee area, turn 'em inside out, sew up the cut off part, turn 'em right-side out again and instant bag for range brass... or shotshells, or...?

[Gobblerforge]

I packed shot bags with planer shavings and sewed shut. Very lite.
Gobbler

[crs]

Griff,
My PH in RSA filled his bags with rice and they worked as well as sand , but are much lighter.

[Griff]

Griff,
My PH in RSA filled his bags with rice and they worked as well as sand , but are much lighter.

Even lighter after a shower, then puff up if left for hours in the sun. But... I guess they'd also be handy in the event of a wedding at the range. You know that if you'd fill one bag with red beans, you'd have half a traditional and delicious Cajun meal component!

[Sixgun]

I've used rice, beans, rolled up flannel shirts, my hat, tailgates of pick up trucks, but nothing in the "mobile" dept. comes close to equally sand for that steadiness and solid feel, with repeat position shot after shot. Of course, this is for precision shooting with high powered scoped bolt guns. Near anything works for the type of shooting most of us do, but in my semi-old age, I don't play around, so I use sand. This is just part of the equation of eliminating human error that helps me know what shoots and don't shoot.

A good friend and a half dozen associates of mine do the 1,000 meter games. They all use sand. ------------6

[Chuck 100 yd]

My serious BR bags are filled with zircon sand ( twice as heavy as silica sand,also 10 +times as expensive). My play bags are filled with (NEW, not USED ) Kitty litter.
You are all set to go.

Keep us informed on your "bolt thrust" experiment.

[Griff]

My serious BR bags are filled with zircon sand ( twice as heavy as silica sand,also 10 +times as expensive). My play bags are filled with (NEW, not USED ) Kitty litter.
You are all set to go.

Keep us informed on your "bolt thrust" experiment.

I'm sure that any grains of that zircon sand that landed outside the bags was a cause of distress... however, at $3.58 per 50 lbs... we spilled it gleefully!

So, at the range, your station is the one that smells like the old "cat lady's" neighboring house!

[rogn]

I use the cheaper black sand, at about 1.8 times as heavy as play sand. But the nearest range I shoot at is only 600 yes. About 15$ for 18 # or the other way around. Shipping is unkind however.

[Rusty]

One of the plants I go to to pick up product makes plastic bottles. I've been thinking about trying to get some of the little plastic beads they extrude the bottles from to stuff inside some bags. If I use rice down here we end up with little tiny black bugs in the rice, not a good thing.

[vancelw]

I use coarse sand (have to get it from the river bed...everything else is too fine) but my buddy uses crushed walnut shells (like polishing media) and it works great. Lightweight and holds the shape you squeeze it into pretty good.

[Molasses]

One of the plants I go to to pick up product makes plastic bottles. I've been thinking about trying to get some of the little plastic beads they extrude the bottles from to stuff inside some bags. If I use rice down here we end up with little tiny black bugs in the rice, not a good thing.

Used to use cut-off blue jeans legs that my Mom sewed shut, filled with sand from the little quarry on the farm. Goodness, that must've been at least 35 years ago and she's been gone nearly 15 of 'em. Wonder where those bags are nowadays...probably buried under geological strata in the gun room. Prolly find oil or at least coal if I start digging in some of the corners.

At some point after getting married, I decided I should have a "proper" set of leather shooting bags. Sweet Tooth worked in a fabric store and dealt w. quilters and crafters and suchlike all day long. So, when I got some bags and started mulling over where to get sand to fill 'em within her hearing, she suggested "Poly Pellets". Plastic beads sold for filling stuffed animals, the beanbags meant for tossing games, that kind of thing. They aren't remotely close to being as heavy as sand, but I'm not a serious benchrest shooter and the lighter weight just means less grunting and groaning on my part while setting up. On the other hand, that hurts my excuse that the groups look like shotgun patterns because I'm still shaking and out of breath from carrying all that stuff up to the firing line.

[rimrock]

Sand, Sand in Texas for my gun bags? Why worry about it when there's plenty of ol' honest to goodness b.s. (no --I mean real b.s. as in from a bull) for FREE!!!!

[Canuck Bob]

My jacket on the hood of my TJ is looking a little low tech! Of course I can always say with satisfaction that the groups are real good considering ... !