lawboy:
Supposed, if you read Charter's advertising materials circa 1968, to be impossible....
Seriously, mine (which I purchased new in 1968) was dry-fired to death about 40 years ago, with no problem. The gun's a little loose, though
.... (I can't hit anything with it, either, but that's not new.)
I watched a guy pop the tip off the firing pin on an S&W M10 or M15 - also 40 years ago, give or take, and I can't remember which. He had to finish his tour unarmed, but got a new one in the AM.
I'm not sure if the firing pin in the frame is a better choice, but you need a proper roll pin punch to swap the S&W's mounted on the hammer....
Just IMHO, but dry firing a 1911
may introduce some extra wear, but except for the Kimber Series II and other guns with the Swartz drop safety, shouldn't really hurt anything. If a Swartz safety system is "out of tune", the pin has a shoulder on it that can hit the drop safety block, and raise a burr on the bottom, which will rub on the pin and potentially reduce the firing pin's ability to pop the primer.
(I ran into this with a friend's Llama Minimax 40. Pretty easy to fix if you can get the rear sight off. The Llama was easy, but Kimber's are usually a problem.)
I agree on the rimfires - not a great idea. Some center fire guns are a problem, too - like the P3AT. The XD9SC can damage the firing pin because of a stop in there that the pin really isn't supposed to hit often.
My vote is to use the snap caps anyway....
Regards,