Dry Fire

[Swifty Morgon]

Hi all. Might be a stupid question to some but am curious. I have shot semi autos all my life and am not to familiar with the single action pistols. Being a late bloomer I have finally got to a point in life I can partake in cowboy shooting. I have all my guns now, 2 Beritta Stampede 45 colts, 1 Ruger Vaquero Bisley, Rossi model 92 lever gun in 45. Stoeger 12 coach gun. Even have a 1911 so might do some wild bunch shooting (have had 1911's thru the years and really like shooting them). Anyway when I went through the police acadamy years back they harped at us constantly about dry firing out pistols, so we spent hours doing this and it helped consederable for those that hadnt shot much and us that thought we knew how.  Most of us carried Glocks to the range and all the dry firing in the world didnt seem to hurt them. My question, (those who thought I would never get to my question) is will the single action pistols take the dry firing as good. When I was a kid I remember all the old timers saying never dry fire your guns. Kinda laid up right now and have lots of down time. Pluss the high price of shells, I plan on doing lots of dry  firing drills. Pros Cons Thanks

[Camille Eonich]

Dry firing works wonders for building muscle memory.  For pistols I have been told by my gunsmiths to not put anything in the chambers.  Some will tell you to use zoom caps but again my smiths tell me that they do more harm than good.  I'm not that dedicated but I know people who dry fire every single day that have used the same guns for years without problems.


For my shotgun I use purple shells filled with corn cob brass cleaning media I believe.  The primer pocket is filled with clear caulking.  The reason for the purple shells is that I have never owned a live purple shotgun shell, someone else made the dummies for me, so if it isn't purple it not even worth looking at for me to dry fire with.  I did quit using my main match gun for dry firing the shotgun.  The extractors are made for extracting empty shells and even the light ones that I use for dry firing is tough on them. 

For my rifle I have an empty that has part of the rim filed off so that it doesn't get extracted.  The primer pocket is filled with the same clear caulking/rubbery stuff.

[Cholla Bob]

Wow! never thought of caulk in the cartridge, what a good idea.

[Cliff Fendley]

I've been told not to dry fire the Colt style single actions but you can dry fire a Ruger all day long and not hurt it.

I personally don't believe dry firing is nearly as bad as we were taught growing up. I had come to the conclusion the main concern would be rim fires until I recently read an article where a person was testing to see the effects of dry firing 22 rim fire rifles. He dry fired some guns something like 1000 times with no noticeable effect on the gun. I can't remember the exact guns but they were not all new ones either.

[Ten Wolves Fiveshooter]

   I dry fire my handguns and pistols too, but mostly my revolvers, and I've always used A-ZOOM snap caps, years ago I used the plastic spring loaded snap caps, that was before A-ZOOM, and this has been for years now, even my Rugers get the snap cap when dry firing, my smith told me years ago that this is the best way to dry fire and protect my gun at the same time, so I guess there is different thoughts on this, I use the A-ZOOM in my 12 gauge too. never had an issue with firing pins or any other related issue. Who knows maybe it doesn't make a difference, but I'll keep doing what I do.


                      Regards

                   tEN wOLVES 

[Swifty Morgon]

Thanks for the info folks. I figured that they could take it, but wanted some reasuring from those that know.

[Cabalero Chuck]

I've got a quite nice .22 LR single action that says Tanfaglio Gardone Model 7A766 on the barrel. 
The first time I worked with it I found that someone had been dry firing it and left some awful peckerhead dents on the edge of some of the chambers.
I had to file the dents out of maybe? 3 of the chambers otherwise you could not load them, or, the shells would be so stuck that the pusher rod wouldn't function to get them out.
Don't dry fire .22 rimfire revolvers without a practice round in place.

[Shotgun Franklin]

The only problem you might have is with the Clolt or Colt clones.  The hammer nose can push a bit of the metal around the firing pin hole outward. This can easily be filed down. Having said that, I use some kinda snap caps when dry firing.

[lonedog]

Think about it. How could it possibly be harder on the gun to dry fire WITH snap caps than withOUT? Answer: there is NO way. And he calls himself a gunsmith?

My Dad would have tanned me backside if he ever caught me dry firin'. To this day, I just don't do it. Way too boring for this chile. When I pull a trigger I want to hear gunpowder poppin', even if it's just a little rimfire pop.

[Camille Eonich]

Think about it. How could it possibly be harder on the gun to dry fire WITH snap caps than withOUT? Answer: there is NO way. And he calls himself a gunsmith?

Snap caps have springs behind them.


*shrug* Can you say for a fact it ain't so?  I do know that the smith does a LOT of dry fire practice, much more than I do...much more than I will ever do and he has the tools to measure the results with.


Either way there is no difference why waste the money on snap caps?

[Mad_Dog]

Presumably all this advice applies to cartridge guns, but not to percussion-cap BP pistols?

[Cholla Bob]

Presumably all this advice applies to cartridge guns, but not to percussion-cap BP pistols?

You'll ruin your "nipples"      if you dry fire a cap and ball