[TonyB]

Should I use snap caps?or just dry fire away....thanks

[WT]

Centerfire, no problem. Rimfire, use caps.

[Thirties]

Use snap caps.

[P95Carry]

I reckon caps are always ''kinder'', if good ones - they soak up just that lil' bit of hammer energy. Can't hurt.

And with .22's - even with newer guns that say dry fire Ok - a definite for me.

[J Miller]

TonyB,

In my 30+ years of shooting I've dry fired most of my guns quite a bit.
In these 30+ years I've replaced 1 (one) revolver firing pin, and had trouble with one other. Both of these were with frame mounted firing pins.

The first was an Interarms Virginian Dragoon in .45 Colt. It worked fine, I dry fired it to gain some skill with it, and the next time I went to the range to shoot it, well, all I got was click, click. That one went back to the factory.

The second one is on my Old Model Super Single Six. It was shot little, but dry fired a lot prior to my acquiring it. The firing pin retainer had been pushed out of the frame and was dragging on the cylinder. After shooting it with live ammo the firing pin retainer was reseated by the pressures of the fired round. Since then it gets NO dry firing.

I have never had a problem of any kind with dry firing my Smith & Wessons with the hammer mounted pin.

So now I just dry fire to verify function after a reassembly. For practice, I shoot live ammo. Weather the factory says it's OK or not, I just feel it reduces wear and tear on the parts.

Joe

[Onmilo]

A company called A-Zoom makes very decent aluminum snap caps that cost about $7.00 for a package of six in any pistol caliber you can imagine.
Cheap insurance in my opinion.

[mainmech48]

IIWY, I'd use snap caps. I had the hammer nose (firing pin) break on my 625 while dry firing with fired cases in a moon clip. Fixed under warranty, but still out of my hands for three weeks.

So far, no more problems after extensive dry-firing but that's all been with A-Zooms in a moon clip.

[ruger357]

Called S&W a few years back with that same question, and they said it was fine to dry fire a revolver with a hammer mounted firing pin.

[Standing Wolf]

Easy dummy rounds: six empty cartridge cases with primers removed and replaced with bits of rubber pencil eraser.

They're a lot less expensive than replacement parts and gunsmithing.

[popeye]

True story: I dry fired my Bangor Punta era brand new Mod 60 S&w 5 times in about '70 and the hammer broke off. Defective part? Obviously. Questionable period of S&W quality. I would say about the same as now. Anyway since then I try always to use snap caps.

[juneau803]

Go with the snap caps, why take a chance?

[TonyB]

I do plan on getting some snap caps,but was wondering in the meantime if I'd do damage.......the new gun I bought has a real heavy trigger and I'm going to dry fire the crap out of it....thanks..

[Master Blaster]

If you think about it, the hammer hits the frame when you dry fire or when you fire it with a cartridge in the cylinder, thats what stops the hammer's forward movement. If the firing pin is hitting the frame instead of going through the firing pin hole, it may break, but that would be true wether there is a cartridge in the cylinder or not. If the firing pin is stopping the hammer before it hits the frame the firing pin will break. So dryfiring a hammer mounted pin does not put any additional stress on the pin or on the hammer.

If the hammer mounted pin or the hammer breaks from dryfiring it would probably break when firing live ammo, and it better that it break durring practice than when you really need it.

A frame mounted pin is stopped either by the primer or by the retaining pin when there is no cartridge in the chamber, so the frame mounted pin is more likely to break when dry fired.

S&W says it fine to dryfire either except for rimfires for obvious reasons.

JMHO YMMV

[BluesBear]

I'd wager that THR members as a group dry fire millions of "rounds" each year without snap caps. Perhaps even a Billion?

I have started a poll in another thread (http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?p=1538615) to get an idea.

[MR.G]

I have dry fired revolvers for the last thirty years and have never broken a pin doing so. I feel that if a pin breaks while dry firing, it probably would have broke while firing.