Dry Firing the P226

[briang2ad]

Just got a red box 226. Little did I know that dry firing is not highly recommended without a snap cap. They, like OTHER hammer fired wpns eat up Azooms PDQ, and unlike my CZ, I cannot just use an o-ring. Anyone use something like an old piece of inner tube to tame the hammer and save the internals to the firing pin assembly? Thanks.

 

[tomrkba]

I have not had a problem with AZOOMs in my SIG P220. They're still going strong.

The old SIGs would break their hammer reset spring after a bunch of dry firing. I probably dry fired my first P220 10k times and it broke after 8k live rounds or so. The spring was redesigned to prevent that break.

Frankly, the only reason I'd use a snap cap in a P226 is for safety. It forces you to open that chamber up and clear it. You can google

 

[AK103K]

I used AZoom's in all my SIG's, and they lasted a good long time, longer than any of the others Ive ever used.

Its been that way with any other guns Ive used them in as well.

 

[briang2ad]

Gents: How many dry fires do you generally put into one snap cap - thanks!

 

[AK103K]

I use them until the rims are so tore up, they dont normally eject. Even then, they still work, and those actually work great for the "bad" type IAD's (double feeds).

The red plastic/brass based spring loaded types usually dont last all that long, and the "primer" usually gets stuck up inside the case, rendering it ineffective. I have yet to have the polymer primer on an AZoom fail. Over time, some may have a deeper indent than others, but I believe even they still do the job.

 

[JTQ]

I use them until the rims are so tore up, they dont normally eject.

My experience also.

...like OTHER hammer fired wpns eat up Azooms PDQ

Though with a hammer fired gun you can just cock the hammer and not rack the slide. Since you aren't racking the slide and ejecting the round, the rims don't get torn up as quickly, so I'd guess a hammer fired gun would be easier on snap caps, though I admit I don't have any striker fired guns.

 

[ny32182]

Yeah, all the damage to snap caps is done by chambering and unchambering them, not by the firing pin hitting them. Hammer guns are going to be easier on them overall since you can just pull the DA as much as you want, or cock the hammer to get SA, without moving them anywhere in the chamber... unlike a striker gun. When I switched from striker to hammer gun in January this year my snap cap wear lessened by an order of magnitude.

That said there shouldn't be anything wrong with dryfiring a P226... if you are practicing enough to be dryfiring 10s of thousands of times, you should have a few spare parts on hand anyway, and if you break a firing pin eventually, who cares? That is why they make spare parts.

 

[9mmepiphany]

On a SIG 226, just stick a foam hearing protection plug inside the slide opening behind the firing pin.

I'm not sure why you couldn't use an "O-ring". I've seen many people use them very successfully. The foam plugs were just handier for me

 

[tomrkba]

Gents: How many dry fires do you generally put into one snap cap - thanks!

Dunno...the red is worn from my 45 AZOOMs' rims. I've done thousands with them in my SIG and Glock pistols. I see no issues other than some of them have started to bind when I recock the Glock. This isn't a problem with the SIG.

 

[beamon]

Search YouTube for snapcaps and you'll find a video there with a guy comparing snap caps. He swears that Tiptons are the only way to go and does a pretty convincing job of it.

 

[stchman]

From Sig Sauer website:

It is safe to dry-fire our center fire pistols. You would want to use a snap cap or plug if extensive dry-firing is done. Always count your dry-firing in your live fire count to be sure all springs and pins are in top condition. DO NOT intentionally dry-fire any rim fire pistol such as the Mosquito, .22LR conversions or Classic Pistols.

I don't know what a "Classic" pistol is from Sig Sauer.

I also don't know what the magic number for "extensive" dry firing is.

Personally, I would not buy a center fire pistol that is not safe to dry fire.

 

[zoom6zoom]

Classic series are considered anything starting with P.
I'm a SIG certified pistol armorer. We were taught that it's perfectly fine to dry fire SIG pistols (other than rimfires) all you want. Snap caps not required.

 

[9mmepiphany]

DO NOT intentionally dry-fire any rim fire pistol such as the Mosquito, .22LR conversions or Classic Pistols.

I don't know what a "Classic" pistol is from Sig Sauer.

A Classic pistol refers to the SIG Classic P-series...220, 226, 228, etc...but...

That is not what they've printed. What the website reads is ".22LR conversions or Classic Pistols. " with ".22LR" also referring to "Classic Pistol". When read correctly, it basically means ...don't dry fire .22LR Classic Pistols

I also don't know what the magic number for "extensive" dry firing is.

Well, if a fairly serious shooter fires 15k live fire rounds a year and the normal recommendation is to take 7 dry fire snaps for each live fire one, that would bring you to 105k per year...that would generally be considered extensive.

I believe, since I don't know who wrote their manual, that they are referring more to per session usage. I think most folks would consider a couple hours of dry fire practice extensive. Most serious shooters I know only dry fire about 20 minutes per session to maintain focus

Personally, I would not buy a center fire pistol that is not safe to dry fire.

I wouldn't either. It isn't a safety issue as much as it is a wear issue