Dry firing SAA: MY BAD

[George Seashock]

Hi guys, I've been a ruger single action fan for most of my 40 years of buying "good" guns and never had a problem except for the occasional not so hot trigger, but nothing that turned me off to them.
As I got older I became a little more of a purist and for some reason the transfer bar kind of turned me off so I bought a USFA Rodeo which was near perfect, but it had a sharp spot where the grip frame mated to the main frame on one side. That, and the matte finish kind of put me off but it was obviously very high quality and a great shooter. When USFA went out of business I sold it for a very nice profit, but the SAA bug bit me again so I bought a used Uberti without a transfer bar quite inexpensively. It was beautiful, glossy and shot to point of aim. I was obsessed, and could not resist shooting (dry firiring) at all the bad guys on Gun smoke.

Eventually I noticed that the cylinder started to get hard to turn (cocking the gun) at the range. I thought what could have
gone wrong. Well a quick inspection revealed that from dry firing the steel around the firing pin had peen out slightly, causing the cartridges to drag on said peemed pin hole. It was an easy fix with a little emory cloth and elbow grease but I learned my lesson and will NEVER dry fire a non-transfer bar revolver of any sort again.

I know most of you know this but for those wondering if it's ok to dry fire your hammer-mounted pin SAA I say absolutely not.

The thing is I always see guys including Hickock 45 dry firing on the empty 6th chamber. I don't get it.

 

[glockgod]

That's a new one on me! That's a lot of dry firing

 

[Cowhide Cliff]

That is not an uncommon thing to happen on Uberti SAA. They don't have the hardened bushing like a Colt. I've personally never had one do it but then I seldom dry fire one either.

 

[Ru4real]

Use causes the burr in revolvers without a hardened bushing and a hammer mounted firing pin.

Firing + Dry Firing = Use

 

[Jim Watson]

Skeeter Skelton wrote of the same thing maybe 40 years ago.
Letting the hammer be stopped by the firing pin seems not good practice.
Maybe somebody here has dryfired a real Colt or accurate copy enough to to tell.

 

[jmr40]

There are a few guns where dry firing might cause problems. And to be honest I simply don't know anything about this gun. But 99% of the time if anything breaks from dry firing, it would have broken at exactly the same round count if it had only been live fired.

I'm a firm believer in dry fire practice. If you choose to only live fire your guns you will never be able to afford the ammo to get really good. The money you saved with a ton of "free" dry fire practice will be enough to buy another gun if you do wear it out.

 

[Mr. Mosin]

You will "snap" the firing pin off the hammer if you dry fire enough; whether it's a Smith double action or a Colt single action (or copy). Buy some snap caps. They're cheap and protect the firing pin.

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

Buy the expensive snap caps with the spring-loaded "cap". They're like a suspension for the firing pin.

Todd.

 

[RevolvingGarbage]

Carefully utilizing fired cases in place of snap caps is also a good option. By carefully I of course mean making absolute sure that live ammo isn’t making its way into the gun and that each fired case only sees a few dozen strikes before you switch to a new set of fired cases (this is because the spent primer will eventually be smashed beyond the point of cushioning the impact of the ignition system).

 

[George Seashock]

Maybe the steel wasn't hard enough?

Use causes the burr in revolvers without a hardened bushing and a hammer mounted firing pin.

Firing + Dry Firing = Use

Actually the hammer/pin strike the revolver steel with more force when over an empty chamber as opposed to when over a cartridge or snap cap so it seems to make perfect sense.

 

[wiscoaster]

The thing is I always see guys including Hickock 45 dry firing on the empty 6th chamber. I don't get it.

I think they're firing on an empty fired cartridge just in case they counted wrong, and it's not dry firing as the hammer is hitting brass.

It's usually considered as "good practice" when firing a revolver.

If you're shooting a SAA with one chamber empty, then your procedure may need to be altered. Though that "good practice" of leaving one chamber empty is really only relevant to carrying the pistol loaded. You don't have to do that when practicing at the range. If you really have to shoot it in self defense while carrying I don't think you're going to be too concerned about dry firing on one chamber.

That being said, doing things one way at the range and another way when carrying opens up another whole debate.

 

[Jim Watson]

The thing is I always see guys including Hickock 45 dry firing on the empty 6th chamber. I don't get it.

Can't count to five?

 

[Pat Riot]

I do not dry fire a revolver unless I have snap caps in place and even then I do it sparingly.

Murphy rides my left shoulder. If it can break it will break for me. I prefer to do what I can to keep Murphy and his law at bay.

 

[George Seashock]

I think they're firing on an empty fired cartridge just in case they counted wrong, and it's not dry firing as the hammer is hitting brass.

It's usually considered as "good practice" when firing a revolver.

If you're shooting a SAA with one chamber empty, then your procedure may need to be altered. Though that "good practice" of leaving one chamber empty is really only relevant to carrying the pistol loaded. You don't have to do that when practicing at the range. If you really have to shoot it in self defense while carrying I don't think you're going to be too concerned about dry firing on one chamber.

That being said, doing things one way at the range and another way when carrying opens up another whole debate.

No,they load one cartrige, leave the next empty then load 4 more as per standard safe carry of a non transfer bar single action revolver. Therefore the 6th trigger pull is a dry fire.

 

[George Seashock]

I think they're firing on an empty fired cartridge just in case they counted wrong, and it's not dry firing as the hammer is hitting brass.

It's usually considered as "good practice" when firing a revolver.

If you're shooting a SAA with one chamber empty, then your procedure may need to be altered. Though that "good practice" of leaving one chamber empty is really only relevant to carrying the pistol loaded. You don't have to do that when practicing at the range. If you really have to shoot it in self defense while carrying I don't think you're going to be too concerned about dry firing on one chamber.

That being said, doing things one way at the range and another way when carrying opens up another whole debate.

Yes that is a good point and exactly what I do.
I apologize for not reading your complete response before replying.
George

 

[BobWright]

That condition develops whether dry firing or live firing. Had that happen on a 1975 vintage Uberti Cattleman. Stoned down the "pucker" or crater and never had another problem with the gun. Colts do have the hardened firing pin bushing.

Bob Wright