Dry firing- why is it bad?

[sbarkowski]

I have a savage .17 hmr, but I assume all the rimfire savages are the same. The firing pin is more of a blade than a pin. I looked closely at it and it looks like the top half of the pin makes contact with the side of the chamber before the second half of the pin (the part that would actually hit the rim of the round) would make contact with the barrel. Dont know if its designed like that to prevent damage during dry firing. Anyone else know?

 

[BADUNAME37]

I have found that most rifles, and some pistols can have the firing pin slowly "let down" by holding the trigger while closing the bolt.

I do that every time on my bolt action rifle. You can feel the spring tension lessen and once the bolt is closed, pulling the trigger does nothing, so you know it worked.

Whenever I do this, or even "dry fire" a weapon to put away, I ALWAYS aim at something that won't matter if it gets shot (even though I have double-checked to ascertain that the gun is in fact UNLOADED).

 

[Sam1911]

Dry firing is a very important practice technique and does absolutely no damage to most modern center-fire guns. Really won't hurt most rim-fire guns, either, but some older models could be damaged, so maybe avoid it if you have some gun that you think might fall into that category.

"Unload. Show clear. Slide forward. Hammer down." CLICK. That's dry firing, too. (In competition the hammer down command requires a pull of the trigger to drop the hammer on an empty chamber. No de-cocking allowed, so as to prove that your chamber is empty.)

Firing pins are pretty tough. And they're pretty cheap. If you break one after 10,000 or 20,000 dry-firings, go blow the $5 on a new one. You've EARNED it!

-Sam