otasan56
Member
I've been dry-firing my G17 since 1989. No problems.
Not just Glocks, but virtually any and every modern centerfire handgun can be dry fired as much as you want with no real damage.
Not true. Both my NAA Guardian in .32 ACP and my Freedom Arms Model 83 specifically state in the owners manuals NOT to dry fire since there is a risk of damage to the firing pin.
Dan
I agree with this answer in theory. Having said that, I'm not a big fan of dry firing weapons as I worry about something breaking.Dry firing (safely) is considered by many pistol shooters to be one of the best ways to develop proper sight picture and trigger squeeze techniques. Dry firing definitely does not hurt Glocks, or, I believe, any other modern pistol design. In fact, only type of firearm that dry firing is inherently damaging to is rim-fires. This is because the firing pin is situated at the edge of the chamber, and when there is no relatively soft brass rim to crush, the firing pin can be damaged on impact with the steel barrel face.
Also, there is a lot of work you can still do at home with either a blue or orange plastic gun without dry firing. Yes, you coudl substitue your real pistol for this but I tend to be paranoid about a ND.
Centerfire guns almost always ok to dry-fire. The firing pin isn't striking anything, so the only contact is coming at what holds the firing pin. In a 1911, this can mushroom the firing pin head after very repeated dry-firing, but is still unlikely to affect the function of the gun.
SOME rimfires are ok to dry-fire, but make sure you know first if they are. Otherwise use a drywall anchor.
Dry-firing a rimfire has the firing pin impacting into the chamber face. This can eventually peen the chamber and cause all sorts of nasty issues like doubling or difficulty feeding. It can also wear down the firing pin. Some rimfires have mechanisms to prevent the firing pin from striking the chamber face; the Ruger MK-series is an example of this; they have a pin that prevents the firing pin from contacting the chamber face. HOWEVER, enough dry-firing of a MK-series pistol and you may eventually deform this pin.
Ruger Mark I/II/III rimfire pistols have to be dry-fired for dissassembly.
It doesn't hurt it. In fact, it's required for field strip. I generally don't dry fire 1911s and never DF a .22 rimfire. Won't hurt the rest.
I'd say the use of snap caps is a lot more likely to cause some kind of damage that looks like that vs. not using one... are you saying that a striker moving through the channel internal to the slide can somehow cause scratches several mm away from the firing pin hole?