best way to make dummy rounds

I use #4 or 5 drywall anchors from Lowes for .22. I have snap caps that came with the 9mm. You can also use empty brass.

Don't know if its the "best" way, but you could:

Remove spent primer from case
Fill primer pocket with silicone
Press in bullet
Glue bullet in with superglue
Paint red with fingernail polish to identify.

Or just spend 12 bucks on snap caps.

Do you want dummy rounds?
Or do you want Snap-Caps??

They are not the same thing at all.

Action proving dummy's:
http://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-t...mmies/centerfire-rifle-dummies-prod40859.aspx

Safety Trainers:
http://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-t...artridge-dummies/saf-t-trainers-prod9923.aspx

Snap-Caps:
http://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-t...artridge-dummies/ammo-snap-caps-prod5176.aspx

If you want real snap-caps to protect your firing pin during dry-firing?
The best thing is to just buy some.

Dummy rounds can be made by reloading normal rounds without primers or powder.
And drilling some holes in the cases so you don't mistake them for real loaded rounds and take them to a gun fight or something.

rc

FWIW, the US Army has Snipers dry fire their M24's thousands of times, I assume you're more concerned about cycling and clearing jams etc, but you'd have to dry fire a whole lot to hurt your firearm.

Dummy Rounds:

I start by drilling holes in the cases making them easily identifiable as inert rounds.



Since the cases will be cycled in guns I make sure the brass has been sized to make sure it will chamber.



I trim the sized brass to make sure it is uniform length.



I seat the bullets in the sized and trimmed cases.



Finally I have my dummy rounds.



Not shown is the primer pockets can be filled with a liquid rubber. I have also noticed that hard mechanical pencil erasers can be purchased cheap and trimmed to length with a razor blade and inserted in the primer pockets with a little glue.

So pretty much as was mentioned, loading some rounds that are easily identified as inert sans powder or primers.

Ron

If your wanting to dry fire just do it, no need for snap caps

chaser_2332 said:

If your wanting to dry fire just do it, no need for snap caps

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I don't believe that is quite true. While a good many guns can be dry fired on an empty chamber over and over again without a problem there are many that can't. Dry firing will result in a broken firing pin or damage the barrel breech face as in the case of the below 22 LR barrel. Note the divot as a result of the firing pin striking. The pin eventually broke after a few strikes.



This is why they make snap caps.

Ron

Firing pins sometimes break, with or without snap caps. My general rule is "ain't much of a gun if dry fire breaks it!" but rimfire guns are the exception. The photo shows the reason.

Read your owner's manual as some (most newer designs) .22lr guns like the Ruger have a cross pin to prevent the firing pin from striking the breech face and thus are safe for dry fire. But this doesn't mean your firing pin will never break.

IF the gun is old and/or replacement parts are hard to find then its a good idea to not dry fire it or shoot it a lot.

I'll agree; Dry-firing is not an issue unless it's a rimfire. But as far as making dummy rounds, I think Reloadron has the right idea.

But as far as making dummy rounds,I think Reloadron has the right idea.

Click to expand...

I'm satisfied to simply make them up with no powder, no primer. Seeing an empty primer pocket is enough tell me its an action proving dummy -- I've never needed more than a few, its just not all that informative to manually strip dummy rounds from a magazine into the chamber, I've very rarely encountered a problem gun that had trouble doing this, the recoil and time scale matter a lot!

They do come in handy if you have someone else load your mags and sneak one in from time to time for tap-rack-bang training.