A split Hopkinson pressure bar(SHPB) was appropriately modified to study the dynamic behavior of dry sand. A stable, incident, reflective, and transmitted waves under the strain rates of 10²~10³ s^-1 were obtained and a rubber membrane barrier was found to facilitate transmission of the pressure wave. The results showed that strain rate effect can be ignored for dry sand at high strain rate. For sand samples of the same thickness, the strain rates were increased as the load increased. The experimental results suggested an upward trend in strain rate. Under the identical loading conditions, as the thickness of sand samples was increased, the resulting strain rate decreased.