Just checked my Astra and it dry fires fine. Now the question becomes why won't yours? There are two possibilites. Either it isn't being "cocked" when you pull back the slide or the fireing pin isn't being released when you pull the trigger. The easy fix is the latter. When firearms are allow to sit over a long period, oil and dirt coagulate. This mixture can prevent the gun from functioning properly. When you "field stripped" it, how far did you go? Did you notice lots of old, dried oil and grease on the parts you cleaned? If you did, it may be that the spring is literally locked in one by the old, dried oil and grease. Try cleaning it more thoroughly and see if that doesn't solve the problem. Even if you don't want to go beyond a field strip, just take an aerosol can of a good cleaner that has one of those little tubes that lets you concentrate the spray, and spray it into firing pin hole. let it really run through there. You have to squirt in enough stuff to loosen the old grease, and then enough to rinse it all out. But be careful about the stuff you use. Some stuff will damage bluing and even some of the less potent ones will damage the grips. So be careful. If you get it all clean and see that the cleaning agent is running out nice and clean, and it still won't dry fire, I suspect that we have a broken part, either a firing pin spring or a part of the firing mechanism. Let us know what happens. Best of luck and good shooting -- Steve