Rimfire - dry-fire .......

[P95Carry]

Always a problem because of firing pin impinging on breech face .... and so ''peening'' problems.

This can be overcome on some revos if they have the plastic disk that you insert on rear of cyl .... but otherwise .. who does what?

I have a few of the plastic snap caps for .22 but they do not last well ... I also have used spent cases for a few ''shots'' .... but, particularly for auto's .. this is something of a problem, finding a good method.

THR guru's ... over to you ......

 

[spacemanspiff]

i dry fire my walther p22 with the safety on. the hammer doesnt come into contact with the firing pin that way.

 

[Dorrin79]

Ruger states that you can dry fire the MKI/MKII .22 autos all ya want.

But in general, dry firing .22s is not something you should do regularly.

 

[Owen]

dry fire plugs

Larry Carter of Larry's Guns sells Hammerli dry fire plugs. They are safety flags/empty chamber indicators that are cut so the extractor won't pull them out. I can usually get 2 or 300 snaps on one before i need to replace it.

Larry's Guns

owen

 

[Dave R]

I use spent .22 brass in my revolver. You're right. Won't help an autoloader.

 

[P95Carry]

Owen .. thx for the Larry's link .. was not aware of those ..... look well useful.

 

[MikeK]

The Hamerelli plugs work well on semi-autos and bolt actions. For revolvers and (any other type of .22 if you don't mind catching them) those YELLOW plastic screw holders for drywall work great. If you buy them in bulk (or even smaller quantities) they're a lot cheaper than the Hamerelli or other plastic plugs.

 

[Jim K]

Hi, P95 carry,

Most modern .22 RF guns can be dry fired until kingdom come without damage. What gun do you have that the firing pin is peening the barrel? Could it be defective in some way?

Jim

 

[P95Carry]

Hi Jim!

It ain't that it's happening ... it's the fact that it might!! I guess over countless years - many of which in early days were smallbore shooting ..... it was always discouraged and .... lookin at the mechanism ..... it has always struck me as undesirable.

The rationale ... mine anyways ..... is, that if a rim has to be whacked by a firing pin against some sorta anvil .... the breech face of course ....... then it seems likely that over time either that itself will suffer slight depression and/or, the pin tip might peen and become less well defined, with dry-fire .

Outcome? .. maybe eventually FTF's ...... and so I feel better if pin can impinge on something other than breech face.

Do you reckon this is paranoia? My engineering background tells me it ain't ..... but then maybe I am being overly cautious? Of course ... the exact metallurgy (good, bad, indifferent) of any given piece will affect the rate of change I envisage.

 

[Standing Wolf]

It ain't that it's happening ... it's the fact that it might!!

You're right. If guns cost only $3.98, I wouldn't bother to take care of them and reduce the potential for damage.

 

[Jim K]

Hi, P95carry,

This concern mostly arises because most of us have seen old falling block and tip up .22 rifles that have badly battered chamber faces. But those guns were sold for all of $.50 at one time, the parts are soft iron, and thousands of them had their firing pins replaced by nails. They are not good indicators of the state of the art in modern rimfires.

I think your concern is unnecessary, because in well made rimfire guns the firing pin is stopped well short of the barrel face, in fact usually by about 1/2 the thickness of the rim. This is easily checked by using a little dykem blue to look for contact, or by measuring firing pin indentation in wax. For example, a K-22 frame-mounted pin simply cannot reach into the countersink far enough to hit the edge. A Ruger standard model auto firing pin is stopped by a thick crosspin, well short of the chamber edge. Other guns have similar setups.

Can extensive dry firing ultimately batter or break something? Maybe, but in practical terms that doesn't happen. For example, I have "fired" a K-22 in DA practice for at least 10K "snaps" with no damage. I probably have "snapped" an S&W M41 and a Ruger MkI each half that, at least, again with no damage.

This issue usually comes up in the form of a question on whether a gun should be left cocked after a shooting session to avoid dry firing. In that case we are talking about so little dry firing that no damage could possibly result.

So, if you are going to be doing long term dry firing, hundreds of "shots" a day, your concern might be valid, and I would keep a check on the gun. But if you are worrying about an occasional dry fire to let a hammer down, or a few "snaps" for sight alignment practice, you could be just a bit paranoid.

Jim

 

[Graystar]

And don't forget...there's a 20 dollar tool you can get from Brownells that will fix a dinged .22 chamber.

 

[P95Carry]

Jim . thx for your comments ... on reflection they make a lot of sense.

I am maybe partly influenced by the ''old days'' a bit .. I used to have a MkII BSA ... Martini action falling block .. for target work .. and that was never recommended for much dry fire.

I have not actually (tho will now outa interest) ... looked closely at how far the pin projects ..... and of course if it is maybe only half the rim thickness as you mention, then not much prob - well, for the breech face anways.

I had tho also thought (possibly erroniously) that there had to be some small amount of ''over-travel'' to ensure good rim deformation ....... and thus potential for a breech face strike when chamber empty.

You have succeeded in getting me to rethink this.!!