Dry-fire practice without snap caps: Yes or No?

Do I NEED to use snapcaps for dry-fire practice?

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MCMXIautomatic

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This question has probably come up here at least a hundred times over the years, but I thought I'd go ahead and ask anyway.

When I dry-fire practice, should I be using snap caps, or does it matter? I've heard it said that you should use snap caps to avoid damaging/destroying the firing pin. But I've also heard people say that you can dry-fire practice without using them, and the firing pin will be fine. I've also heard that this is more of a concern with older firearms and rimfires, and not so much with newer centerfire firearms.

So can I dry-fire practice without snap caps and not risk damaging the firing pin? I practice primarily with Glocks, ARs, AKs, and a Mossberg 500. I've also got an M1 Garand.
 
If all you are concerned with is the firing pin during dry fire practice you are missing a large portion of the practice session. Of equal importance, loading & unloading, rendering firearms safe, using holsters and slings,magazine drills etc.
As we practice so we do in real life, I care not to have a mental position of my gun isn't loaded and just clicking away.
 
ilbob said:
Rimfire guns are the only ones to worry about
Click to expand...
That is not a steadfast rule.

Many semi auto .22 guns don't hold open on the last shot and get dry fired. Never seems to hurt them. You have to dry fire a Ruger MK to strip it.

You don't want to dry fire Colt King Cobras. Their firing pins have been know to break from it.
 
While I believe they aren't necessary, I use them whenever possible. Not so much to protect to the firing pin but to more mimic the normal functioning of the guns actions. i.e. malfunction drills
 
Older designs, no. If it's a model that I can't easily get replacement parts for, absolutely no. And some particular models like Star Model B have a propensity to break firing pins due to dry firing.

Modern handguns? Yes, all day long. Even if parts do break or wear, replacement parts are readily available.
 
Some centerfire revolvers with hammer-mounted pins also should not be dry-fired. Training on my Rossi M68 without them would be a definite no-no, but it would be okay with my Taurus 85, Ruger Service Six, or any of my Charter Arms Undercover revolvers.

Bersa Thunder 380? Good to go. Same for the Ruger P95 But the Taurus PT22? Uh, no.

Just some examples from my own lot. The poll lacks the choice I would have selected, so I could not participate.

All of the OP's guns named are good to go, though, for trigger training, at least. I agree with others here in that some benefit can be had from simulated load/unload practice, though.
 
I use them even in guns that are supposedly okay to dry fire without them. As per Strambo, you use them to practice ammo handling, and besides, I'm not altogether certain about some guns--whether they are okay without snap caps.

So I voted "Not necessary, but doesn't hurt" but always use them anyhow.
 
Put me in the "no" camp for most modern guns. I use them for rimfires and for my O/U skeet gun.

Most of the time when I'm dry firing, I'm working on index, transitions, and trigger control. I have no need for snap caps or dummy rounds for that. If I start to work on reloads or fast loading from empty, then I'll load up magazines with enough dummy rounds (not snap-caps, they have insufficient weight for my purposes) to at least approach the feel of "full" magazines.

But for pure dry fire? No. I want to take enough time to make sure the gun is definitely empty and then get to work. After that, any second spent fooling with dummy ammo is time that could have been spent on dry fire.
 
"...damaging/destroying the firing pin..." How? The FP hits nothing if you dry fire practice with a centre fire. Dry firing in a very old training technique for sight picture, trigger control and breathing using rifles or handguns. That's not about reloads and malfunction clearance though.
Military training with M1 Rifles consisted of a week or more of nothing but dry fire practice. Won't bother an M1 but it is kind of slow. Also requires you to put your fingers inside the action if you don't get the pull of the bolt just right, so be friggin' careful and do it right. Thumb on follower with the rest of your fingers outside in front of the op handle.
"...can't do it without them..." Sure you can. Make some DP cartridges, just like the military does.
 
Part of the problem can be "metal fatigue" more than the hammer/firing pin hitting the snap cap. The caps have a relatively soft insert in the primer pocket that slows the FP down in a controlled fashion. While I have never it happen to me (thankfully), I have been told by people that know metallurgy much better than I do that, without the caps, the sudden deceleration of the FP hitting the end of its channel can cause microscopic fractures. Over time, those microfractures can cause the FP to break.

IMHO, it's better to be safe and protect your investment than to have the FP fail at a critical moment.
 
ilbob said:
Rimfire guns are the only ones to worry about
Click to expand...
This is good as a general rule, but there are some centerfire pistols that you shouldn't dryfire due to fragile firing pins: Kel-Tec PF9 and some of the older CZs -- 52 and 70 -- are a few that I know about. I'm sure there are others.

Also, some rimfires can be safely dry-fired: Ruger revolvers and semi-auto pistols, for example. Check your manual to see.
 
I understand that Glock no longer recommends "excessive" dry-firing. That apparently means nothing beyond what is necessary to field strip the pistol. Maybe they don't trust their MIM parts. Just sayin'....

M
 
Last edited:
M1key said:
I understand that Glock no longer recommends "excessive" dry-firing. That apparently means nothing beyond what is necessary to field strip the pistol. Maybe they don't trust their MIM parts. Just sayin'....

M
Click to expand...
I hadn't heard about that. Got a link?
 
Not officially noted in their manuals as of this Glocktalk post from 2012 but Tech Support recommended against it back then.

https://www.glocktalk.com/threads/d...conversation-with-glock-tech-support.1451304/

Form your own conclusions. FYI, I am an armorer myself. None of my Glocks are newer than 2006. MIM parts are alleged to have begun showing up in January of 2007. Newer Glocks may not have an issue with MIM, however. Some are suggesting the change in the breechface may be the problem. Is MIM the cause or a change in breechface material or both?

Good luck

M
 
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I've never bought or used a snap cap in my life, waste of money as far as I'm concerned. One of those "solutions looking for a problem" as best as I can tell.

I don't dry fire rimfires, at least not intentionally.
 
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