Do Snap Caps help "break-in" a Pistol. please?

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G'mornin'.

The title pretty much covers it..."Do Snap Caps help "break-in" a Pistol. please?"

I mean, I read all the time that it takes, you know, "a couple hundred", or "500" - or whatever number or rounds having been shot through a firearm - to have it performing accurately...

Do Snap Caps help in this way also, or are they simply to practice "form" (technique) with?

Thanks in advance,
g...
 
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I'm not sure a pistol really even needs to be broken in but that's another debate....

With that said, live ammo that actually cycles the gun would do a better job "breaking in" the gun than snap caps.

Now, if you a have a gritty trigger (like I had on my Ruger SP) snap caps or simply dry firing will help to smooth out the trigger but that's about as much credit as I'd place with snap caps.
 
I agree with Kreyzhorse -- I think any pistol that requires 500 rounds to "break in" should be left on the shelf at the shop. That said, dry firing with snap caps only works in the trigger and related parts. The alleged "break in" period is to work in the slide-to-frame fit and barrel lockup to alleviate (supposedly) feeding difficulties. Dry firing does nothing to wear in these parts.
 
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I think any pistol that requires 500 rounds to "break in" should be left on the shelf at the shop.
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Absolutely. If anyone has to shoot ten boxes of ammo to get the gun to work right, they bought the wrong gun.
So...the answer about the snap caps is no.
Pete
 
On a revolver it would be good to use them for dry firing trigger practice and on a new revolver it will help work the action...might smooth it up a bit
 
If your gun needs a trigger job the best thing to do is go to a good gunsmith and get one done. Spending the money on hundreds of rounds of ammo to try to smooth out the trigger is, well, a waste of money. You might not, and probably will not, end up with a good trigger after wasting the money on shells. I think most people who believe this helps the trigger just get used to a crappy trigger after 500 rounds.
 
On any modern pistol of revolver, snap caps are a waste of time and money. Modern guns are designed to be dry fired endlessly with no damage.
 
I like snap caps for dry fire practice. Use tends to smooth out trigger action a bit.... I don't know I'd call that break-in but someone might.
 
Dry firing breaks in the shooter more then the pistol. I don't know about snap caps, don't really need them. Your owners manuel should tell you if you can dry fire it or not.

The owners manual for my Beretta 92FS does say to use them. Thats the first time I've seen that.

Personaly I've found that once you got a gun sighted in, its broken in.
 
I like snap caps for IAD's on the range, and for safety reasons while dry firing.

By using them, they force you to verify the gun is clear before you start, and you cant have a live round and a snap cap in the chamber at the same time, no matter how hard you try.
 
I would agree that dry-firing is probably more beneficial to the user than the firearm and using a snap cap for that purpose certainly does not hurt anything and may be a prophylaxis for firing pin breakage. I am not sure how snap caps constitute "a waste of time."

I agree that a firearm should be good to go and mechanically accurate straight out of the box. With that being said, dry-firing and live use "wear in", "break in", or "mate" the moving parts together and smooth out the action. It is the smoothing out that "increases" the accuracy for the shooter because the gun is easier to keep on target while firing. A lot of what goes on in a trigger job, custom gun build, polishing, etc., is accelerating the "wear in" of the moving parts so that you end up with the smoothness of a worn in gun (but obviously with more intent and control).

For instance, my S&W 642 is no more accurate today (after lots of dry fire and about 80 rounds) than the day that I bought it, however I can shoot more accurately with it now that the action has smoothed out. There has been a huge difference in this gun.
 
After putting about 500 rounds through my XD9SC it did smooth out the trigger, not sure if this is considered "breaking in" rather than "mating" the parts as said above.
 
Hig.. You just bonded with your wonderful gun..;)
I have the same one and it took about 200 rounds(1 range practice) to bond.
Now that gun is an extension of my right hand.
I have never used snap caps,nor dry fired extensively,but I know that range/shooting time gets you a love/hate relationship with that weapon.
I feel only shooting it will get you where you need to be.
If you are unhappy with the trigger/get a trigger job.If there's anything else you don't like,then shoot more or sell it.
I almost traded off my S&W 4566TSW because I had trouble with the low and left POI.Then I got a boresighter to check the sights..It turns out that I am using the trigger differently than the other 3 pistols I have..I since corrected my issue and now will never part with it.
Just my .02
 
I feel only shooting it will get you where you need to be.
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This is an opinion I haven't seen mirrored many places. I (and many others) agree that dry fire is crucial to maximizing the benefit of your range time.
 
Man-alive...I don't know what it is, that some days just seem to cause more "edge" in more than just one or two guys...?

Perhaps a switch to Sanka, men.
 
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Some thoughts on break-in.

Break-in is a fairly hotly debated topic. I tend to let the recommendations of manufacturer of the pistol be my guide as to whether I give a pistol the benefit of the doubt during a "break-in" period. That makes things fairly simple--if I don't want to deal with a break-in period I can simply avoid purchasing guns with manufacturer-recommended break-in periods.

Break-in is a semi-auto thing. Revolvers don't need break in.

Break-in is a firing-cycle issue. A true break-in period requires actually firing the gun for the recommended number of rounds.

Some thoughts on dry-firing.

Dry-firing with snap-caps is a fairly hotly debated topic. I tend to let the recommendations of manufacturer of the pistol be my guide as to the use of snap-caps. That makes things fairly simple--if I don't want to deal with snap-caps I can simply avoid purchasing guns from manufacturers which recommend snap-caps. My CZ-75B actually came from the factory with snap-caps so I use snap caps in that pistol any time I dry-fire it.

Second, there's dry-firing and there's dry-firing. Most modern centerfire firearms will tolerate being dry-fired, but that's not quite the same thing as being designed to be dry fired endlessly with no damage. Dryfiring for disassambly or occasionally to check function or for some brief practice isn't quite the same thing as dryfiring endlessly. It's a matter of degree. I'm not sure why this seems to be a difficult concept, but maybe it helps to look at some analogies. Aspirin is perfectly safe, but not if you take a bottle a day. Cars are made to be driven but they can't be driven endlesssly without damage--wear and tear will eventually take its toll. Humans can eat safely and need to eat, but if they eat endlessly there will be problems.

When manufacturers say that their guns may be safely dry-fired that's not necessarily carte-blanche to dryfire hundreds of times a day without any sort of precautionary measures and then complain to the manufacturer if something finally gives out. I've seen reports of transfer bars broken in revolvers, broken firing pins, broken breechfaces in semi-automatics, etc. tied to excessive dry-firing.

If you dry-fire your gun occasionally you don't need to worry about snap-caps if the gun's manufacturer doesn't recommend them. If you plan to embark on a dry-firing practice program that will involve a large number of daily of dryfires then it's probably wise to employ snap-caps even if the manufacturer says their guns can be safely dry-fired without them.
 
I don't use snap caps much, though I see no reason not to use them if they make a gun owner feel better about dry firing. But I solved the dry firing problem for the next century or two when I came across some nylon rod in 3 foot lengths and just about the right sizes for large and small primers. When I need snap caps, I trim a short length of rod to the right size and chop off a few pieces of the right length to fill the primer pockets of fired cases.

Voila, as they say, snap caps! And they last about forever even with being pounded by firing pins. Like I say, I think I am set for a while.

Jim
 
So can you use already fired brass as snap caps or do you have to buy the" snap caps"?
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To a point you could. The firing pin will batter the primer to the point it wont be doing much good before to long though.

It also makes it difficult to confirm its not a live round in the gun if you get distracted.

Then you also have the issue of getting a case stuck in the chamber if it wasnt fired in the gun youre trying to get it to go into.

If you feel you want to use snap caps, they are cheap enough, and something like the A Zoom brand will last the longest, and wont cause some problems, like the red plastic type do.
 
Kinda makes you wonder what people would do years ago before snap caps to break-in a handgun. :rolleyes:

No not really, they just loaded up started shooting.

I asked my father what he used to break-in his colt 1911's one time. He replied "alot of bullets and beer cans son. How else would I have done it?"
 
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