Dry firing

[BluesBear]

Another thread got me wondering about our dry firing habits.

All of my life I have I dry fired my S&W, Colt, Taurus and Ruger double action revolvers and Ruger Single LOT. All WITHOUT snap caps. I have NEVER had a problem.

I did break a firing pin of a 1980 vintage Colt Sheriff's Model on the FIFTH dry fire but it turned out that the firing pin was too ling anyway and it would have eventually broken firing live ammo too.

So how many "rounds" do y'all dry fire?

 

[stormyone]

I've gotten into the habit of emptying my revolver at the end of the night and dry firing it between 50-100 times... Might seem strange, I know, but I wanna make sure it functions with no doubt in my mind you know? Plus I figure its smoothing up the action so what could it hurt?

 

[Marshall]

I dry fire less than the lowest number on your poll, no snap caps though. So I didn't vote.

 

[Kamicosmos]

I generally try to always use snap caps or at least some spent cases when I dry fire.

That said, I voted for a dozen times cause I'm always fiddling with one gun or another and it invaribley gets aimed at the target on the far wall at some point.

 

[BluesBear]

I dry fire less than the lowest number on your poll,

I knew I'd forgotten something.

I meant to say a dozen or less. :banghead:

 

[Kevlarman]

If I'm in my room and the TV is on, my Glock is right besides me (empty!) and I probably "shoot" more than 1000 rounds a week with this one gun alone!

 

[happy old sailor]

decades ago, i dryfired my target 1911 many thousands of times. have no idea how many times daily. on my way to 2600. finally, the firing pin retainer split from top to bottom, through the hole. i did not use snapcaps. i was learning trigger control. worked. tried this with my .22lr. peened in a spot on the chamber mouth.. this is a real no no. i was a youngun and there was no THR to go to. what a blessing this forum is to inexperienced shooters, and to old fogies like me, who will never know it all.

those of you dryfiring are doing a good thing. no matter how well you do everything else, if you fudge on the trigger, the muzzle will point somewhere else and a gun shoots where you point it. if your shots are splattered all over the target, take up dryfiring and pay attention while doing it. pay close attention for you do not want to merely reinforce bad habits. this is all a matter of muscle memory, like typing, which you must develop. is this difficult? naaah

 

[one45auto]

I'm with happy old sailor on this one, because you can improve your shooting skills quite a lot through dry-firing.

That being said, I never dry fire without snap-caps. Just my personal preference.

 

[ChristopherG]

I work at home and usually have a revolver--an empty one--on the desk. I dry fire countless times when doing one-handed work or between work or, frankly, when I should be working. Over a thousand times a week, no problem. Done this with guns that have the pin on the hammer, and those that have in in the guts; n-frames, k-frames, and j-frames; never owned or used a snap cap. Superior ease of dry-fire is one of the attractions of wheelguns, frankly.

 

[10-Ring]

I have invested in enough snap caps over the years that all 95%+ of my dry fire practice is w/ them...I do very little w/o them just because I was taught not to dry fire firearms.

 

[R.H. Lee]

I confine my dry fire practice to the range. For whatever reason, I don't want to get into the habit of dry firing at home. Too many loaded firearms around and I'm wary of engraving 'aim and fire' into my biological RAM.

 

[MP5]

I'll dry fire my S&W wheelgun with no snap caps. S&W said it won't harm the gun, but the local gun store of course tried to convince me to buy some overpriced caps I won't dry fire absent-mindedly or casually, though. That sounds like an accident waiting to happen. I try to always remain mindful around guns.

 

[Dienekes]

Most of the time when I fire revolvers I "skip load"--so 50% of my hammer falls are on empty chambers. After the first 3 I reload with 3 more; so half of the time the hammer falls are cushioned by empty cases and half are not.

Best practice I know of.

About the only guns I do not dry fire at one time or another are striker-fired centerfire bolt actions or pre-WWII revolvers. Plus a 1996 vintage BHP that has the very heavy mainspring to ignite hard military primers.

Have never had a breakage from this practice in some 40 years.

 

[wanderinwalker]

About the only guns I do not dry fire at one time or another are striker-fired centerfire bolt actions or pre-WWII revolvers. Plus a 1996 vintage BHP that has the very heavy mainspring to ignite hard military primers.

Okay, the BHP and pre-WWII revolvers I understand. But why not the striker fired bolt actions? (Which is ALL of the bolt actions I have.) I dry-fire my S&W, Glock, AR-15 and numerous bolt actions plenty. The bolt actions are the ones I have the least worry, followed by the AR and Glock then S&W. All of the bolt actions I've disassembled have striker assemblies I could safely (and accurately I might add ) shoot through a bottle of Hoppes, recover, clean and reinstall. (Don't worry, it only happened once when a striker-spring got away from me.)

 

[MoeMentum]

I never dry fire, unless i can't help it, (cleaning etc)