How do you dry fire a striker fired gun?

nope. fire, rack, fire, rack, repeat......

You can partially rack my guns to where it resets the striker, but doesn't eject a round.

I don't know about your PPS but my M&P only requires about half rack to reset the trigger and doesn't eject the snap caps.

My XD takes less than half an inch of slide movement to reset the striker. Just a little tug and you're ready to dry fire again. No need to bother with snap caps either.

I always recommend using snap caps while dry firing.

Some guns don't like empty dry fire. Examples:

Kel Tec makes.

XDm. The roll pin can break under dry fire with an empty chamber.

Rake the slide just enough to reset the trigger. For a Glock that's about 1/2"; maybe a hair more. If you use a snap cap this motion will not eject it.

How much danger would there be in training your muscle memory to only rack the slide 1/2 inch and short racking it when you need it.

I doubt that would be a problem.

How much danger would there be in training your muscle memory to only rack the slide 1/2 inch and short racking it when you need it.

Click to expand...

I think a little too much is made over "muscle memory". I dry fire using the 1/2" stroke for at least 2-3 hours each week (spread a little over different days). The few times I've had an FTE with my gun I've just as naturally done a full rack when needed (several of those happening in competition on the clock so there was a level of stress involved - not just a calm range session when I stopped to figure out what went wrong).

I've always felt that I got a lot more out of revolver dry firing practice then with autos. No matter what the variant; striker fired, single action or DA/SA are all a bit of a pain to dry fire with.

move the slide enough to reset the striker, the exact distance will be dictated by the striker design

it isn't that hard, if you take a good look inside at the works of a striker-fired gun it is pretty obvious, even

What kind of trigger does the PPS have? My P99 is DA/SA, so it's no different than a hammer fired gun. You do have to pull the slide back slightly to cock it into single action though.

the PPS is a fairly nice rendition of a striker-fired gun with the striker partially pre-cocked by the action of the slide.
Some would call it "Glock like", some would compare it to the P99qa or PPQ.

Longer than an XD's trigger pull, but still not entirely double action - I like mine, but it isn't the P99 trigger you describe, which is the P99as variant.

Not all striker-fired pistols need snap caps. I was told to get them for my M&P and I did. The manual said it was not advisable to dry-fire it. The manual for my Ruger SR40c says it can be dry-fired as much as you want.

Not all striker-fired pistols need snap caps. I was told to get them for my M&P and I did. The manual said it was not advisable to dry-fire it. The manual for my Ruger SR40c says it can be dry-fired as much as you want.

Click to expand...

Can you point me to the page in the Smith and Wesson M&P pistol manual that indicated dry firing was not advisable? I have three M&P's and just went through one manual trying to find this and was not successful.

It is perfectly fine to dry fire hammerless striker fired pistols and even some with hammers. If the manual says nothing, go for it. I have dry fired my Glocks, Kahrs, and M&P's many times (as in the thousands) and all is well with them. Remember, a hammerless striker fired system has nothing hitting the striker. It is released and moves forward under spring pressure.

How much danger would there be in training your muscle memory to only rack the slide 1/2 inch and short racking it when you need it.

Click to expand...

This is training for trigger manipulation, not practicing a tap-rack-bang drill. There won't be a danger....


ETA: It also takes more refined motor skills to only rack a slide a half inch or so as opposed to sling-shotting it as you would after a reload or during a malfunction clearance. This again means that when in stress, chances of short-stroking the slide are slim to none, especially with the extra strength that comes from a boost of adrenaline.

Hunter125 said:

How much danger would there be in training your muscle memory to only rack the slide 1/2 inch and short racking it when you need it.

Click to expand...

None. Either you reset the trigger or you don't. If you don't, do it again. If you rake it a bit past what is required you might partially eject any snap cap but it'll go right back in when you release the slide.

I make my own snap caps (dummy rounds) by assembling a no powder cartridge with a spent primer. I find these easier to re-chamber if I drag one partially out and these all metal dummies last longer than plastic ones. I'm still using dummies I made a much as thirty years ago. Epoxy the bullet in place and setback is totally eliminated. Not that that matters much.

I do the partial-rack thing with my PPS all the time, using a snap cap. One other thing I do, when I load the snap cap, is push hard on the back of the extractor on the outside of the slide, as I slowly lower the slide over the seated snap cap. That way, the extractor isn't trying to snap down over the cartridge rim, which can chip the extractor on some pistols.

I tried loading snap caps from the magazine once. I'll never do that again. Unless it's a brand-new snap cap, it probably has burrs on it from repeated extractions, and one of them dug a deep gouge in the follower of one of my brand-new magazines.

Well, I'm not endorsing loading the chamber directly on a PPS, it isn't designed to do that and a few gomers who made a habit of loading that way managed to break their extractor claws.

If your snap-cap has burrs, clean it up. If your mag follower has a scratch ... who cares?

I rack just enough to reset the striker, and use primer/powder free rounds to weight the magazines.

A quarter-rack will reset the trigger but not eject whatever is in the chamber. It will beat up the "case mouth" and extractor groove on anything that is in the chamber however. I dumped snap caps a while back as they are torn to pieces very quickly during actual use.

Short-stroking a rack during an actual malfunction has never once been a problem for me either.

Don't want to hijack the thread but what about using or not using caps to dry fire a Kahr PM9? The manual sucks