Rangerrich99
New member
I'm not sure. I do have a 1911 that's about 32 years old, and by conservative estimate, I've dry-fired it more than 100,000 times. No issues yet. Maybe sometime in the next 30 years.
Dry Fire hammer pistol?
- Thread starter graywolf70
- Start date
All of the top shooters dry fire their guns far more than live fire. You cannot afford the ammo needed to get in enough trigger time to be really good with only live fire.
It is quite possible that something will break while dry firing. But if it does it will break at exactly the same round count regardless of whether or not it was all live or dry firing.
I have guns that I've owned 40 years that I estimate have had 100,000 dry fires. That is 2000 boxes of pistol ammo or 5000 boxes of rifle ammo. At $10/box that is $20,000 in savings with the pistol and $50,000 worth of rifle ammo I've saved. If the gun breaks I can afford to replace it and am a much better shot for it.
There you go. Any firearm designed with military service in mind has to be able to withstand untold thousands of dry fires and empty action slams or it is literally, unfit for service.
Even the basic function test involves a dry fire, and if there is any regular user, in any of our services that uses a snap cap, they're doing it on their own and out of their own pocket.
Now, using a snap cap doesn't hurt anything, and there are guns, including expensive guns where a snap cap is needed but anything suitable for military use doesn't NEED one.
Here's a tip, don't count on a snap cap to be a suitable dummy round.
bonus point for those who can tell us why....
Rangerrich99
New member
Nope. Probably I've fired the gun about 20,000 times. I guess I'm doing it backwards. I dry fire most of my guns a lot more than I actually fire rounds through them. You also have to take into account that for about 20 years I only had two handguns.
You do it the other way? I find it's a lot cheaper to dry fire than to shoot actual bullets, but maybe that's just me.
Yes I shoot more than I dry fire. I will typically test with a snap cap when working on a trigger. I also will sometimes use a snap cap just before shooting kind of a warm up. But I dont just dry fire all the time with a snap cap. I can see where it would be beneficial though.
other things I do
I use a grip strengthening device that isolate finger movement to only work on specific areas. This was something I had to start doing when I went to heavier trigger pulls IE keltec p11, VP70z, Partiot 45 etc. in order to become accurate with the loooong pull.
People will laugh but instead of dry fire I still shoot Airpistols a lot. Its how I learned to shoot pistols as a child and is innexpensive and can be done almost anywhere ....even indoors.
other things I do
I use a grip strengthening device that isolate finger movement to only work on specific areas. This was something I had to start doing when I went to heavier trigger pulls IE keltec p11, VP70z, Partiot 45 etc. in order to become accurate with the loooong pull.
People will laugh but instead of dry fire I still shoot Airpistols a lot. Its how I learned to shoot pistols as a child and is innexpensive and can be done almost anywhere ....even indoors.
HighValleyRanch
New member
HUH?? Aren't you the fellow that wrote:
So which one is it? Beneficial or bonehead?
I dry fire every day. Sometimes as little as 5 minutes, sometimes as much as 20 minutes. When I shot DA/SA predominantly I found that dry fire was really essential. Shooting Glock "safe-action" type triggers seems to not require as much practice, but in the weeks where I'm diligent I do notice a difference at the range. I use snap caps when I dryfire.
Cut a small piece of leather, rubber , plastic (or anything) to keep the hammer from battering the slide . Make it just large enough to stay in place over the firing pin .
Hitting metal on metal enough times will not do it any good. Metal can peen .
With the buffer in place , thumb cock the hammer for dry firing .
It may be perfectly OK to dry fire a 1911 , I'm rather anal OCD about dry firing anything, Why take a chance.
Gary
Hitting metal on metal enough times will not do it any good. Metal can peen .
With the buffer in place , thumb cock the hammer for dry firing .
It may be perfectly OK to dry fire a 1911 , I'm rather anal OCD about dry firing anything, Why take a chance.
Gary
Benefit to dry fire with a snap cap.
Bonehead to dry fire endlessly and not use a snap cap.
Not sure why this is so hard for people to understand. I just went through this not long ago with a friend of mine who was told he could dry fire his marlin 336 30-30 from a gun store clerk.....no problem right. Until deer season when his rifle did not fire and he missed taking a nice buck due to all this safe Dry Fire LOL.
Like I said ealier ... some designs can take more than others. A Ruger P89 can take A LOT of dry fire. Most other designs... not so much.
More examples...
Keltec p11....dru fire will cause the fireing pin to slam into the threads on the retaining screw and make removal difficult if not impossible without damaging the slide and having to retap... sometimes drill and tap.
Grendel p10/p12.... dry fire will snap the clockwork hammer spring making the gun inoperable and very difficult to repair
Raven 25 and almost any other zamak SNS gun (jennings, bryco, lorcin, davis, sundance etc.).... dry fireing will snap the tip off the cast striker... sometimes the rear as well. Hence the popularity of aftermarket machined steel strikers for these pistols since there is no LRHO feature and people tend to pull the trigger until they hear a click.
Tokarev.... dry fireing can snap the tip of the fireing pin. It can also destroy the fiering pin retainer jamming up the fireing pin in a positive position....NOT GOOD
SKS... dry fireing can cause the volcano effect spoke of earlier in this thead which can lead to slam fires. It can also jam the fieing pin forward in a positive position... again..... NOT GOOD
CZ 52,50,70..... dry fireing can snap the tip from fireing pins pretty quickly, useing the decocker is not advised either but thats another issue.
And on and on and on.... its not just inexpensive guns that have issues...plenty of well tested military surplus as well. If anyone has dealt with a good amount of broken guns through the years knows damage from dry fire is not uncommon. I have had some hammer fired pistols dry fired to such an extent that the FP hole in the back of the slide was deformed in such a way that the FP was lock forward.....better hope it cant chamber a round because if it can you have a runaway.
Honestly I am suprised people are so bothered by this notion. Last time I saw this was advising people that cycleing live rounds was a dangerous practice when testing an action.
Snap caps and dummy rounds are popular for a reason.
Bonehead to dry fire endlessly and not use a snap cap.
Not sure why this is so hard for people to understand. I just went through this not long ago with a friend of mine who was told he could dry fire his marlin 336 30-30 from a gun store clerk.....no problem right. Until deer season when his rifle did not fire and he missed taking a nice buck due to all this safe Dry Fire LOL.
Like I said ealier ... some designs can take more than others. A Ruger P89 can take A LOT of dry fire. Most other designs... not so much.
More examples...
Keltec p11....dru fire will cause the fireing pin to slam into the threads on the retaining screw and make removal difficult if not impossible without damaging the slide and having to retap... sometimes drill and tap.
Grendel p10/p12.... dry fire will snap the clockwork hammer spring making the gun inoperable and very difficult to repair
Raven 25 and almost any other zamak SNS gun (jennings, bryco, lorcin, davis, sundance etc.).... dry fireing will snap the tip off the cast striker... sometimes the rear as well. Hence the popularity of aftermarket machined steel strikers for these pistols since there is no LRHO feature and people tend to pull the trigger until they hear a click.
Tokarev.... dry fireing can snap the tip of the fireing pin. It can also destroy the fiering pin retainer jamming up the fireing pin in a positive position....NOT GOOD
SKS... dry fireing can cause the volcano effect spoke of earlier in this thead which can lead to slam fires. It can also jam the fieing pin forward in a positive position... again..... NOT GOOD
CZ 52,50,70..... dry fireing can snap the tip from fireing pins pretty quickly, useing the decocker is not advised either but thats another issue.
And on and on and on.... its not just inexpensive guns that have issues...plenty of well tested military surplus as well. If anyone has dealt with a good amount of broken guns through the years knows damage from dry fire is not uncommon. I have had some hammer fired pistols dry fired to such an extent that the FP hole in the back of the slide was deformed in such a way that the FP was lock forward.....better hope it cant chamber a round because if it can you have a runaway.
Honestly I am suprised people are so bothered by this notion. Last time I saw this was advising people that cycleing live rounds was a dangerous practice when testing an action.
Snap caps and dummy rounds are popular for a reason.
Like I said......all guns are not designed the same. Some can handle it more than others. Some will be damaged with very few dry fires some can go a while. Some will show no signs of damage right up to the point of the firearm not igniting a primer.
Its a bonehead habit when all you need to do put a snap cap in the chamber. Kind of like its a bonehead thing to do to not clean and oil your firearm then complain when it does not function properly.
Also... no offense to folks here so nobody take this as a personal attack. People say a lot of BS on the internet. Firearms is no exception. I routinely read how people guns have never jammed.... feed empty cases....operate when soaked in superglue.....and produce 2" grouple at 35 yards in record time. Lots of talk and stories. I have a hard time believing statements like 100,000 dry fires with no wear or damage. Not only because thats a heck of a lot of dry fires but its just a heck of a lot of dry fires to remember over the course of 30 years or so. I guess its possible but that is some machine. Also.. competition shooters is a whole other area. Most serious comp shooters have personal armoror kits and are constantly inspecting for wear, performing maintinance etc. etc.
Most gun owners dont have armoror kits with spare parts for every gun they own. The serious gun owner might have kits for a few of the range guns but throwing around this notion of dry fireing doesnt hurt anything is pretty foolish. I have already listed some fairly popular models (other than the grendel).....theres a lot more than that. Then you can factor in rimfies.
Dont believe me though. Start buying or fixing up broken guns. You will learn all kinds of new do's and don'ts.
Tip on rimfires... the blue aluminum dummy rounds are not really snap caps and should not be used. Best to use a fired 22 case. A plastic wall ancor that fits the chamber can work in a pinch. You never want to dry fire a rimfire though.
Its a bonehead habit when all you need to do put a snap cap in the chamber. Kind of like its a bonehead thing to do to not clean and oil your firearm then complain when it does not function properly.
Also... no offense to folks here so nobody take this as a personal attack. People say a lot of BS on the internet. Firearms is no exception. I routinely read how people guns have never jammed.... feed empty cases....operate when soaked in superglue.....and produce 2" grouple at 35 yards in record time. Lots of talk and stories. I have a hard time believing statements like 100,000 dry fires with no wear or damage. Not only because thats a heck of a lot of dry fires but its just a heck of a lot of dry fires to remember over the course of 30 years or so. I guess its possible but that is some machine. Also.. competition shooters is a whole other area. Most serious comp shooters have personal armoror kits and are constantly inspecting for wear, performing maintinance etc. etc.
Most gun owners dont have armoror kits with spare parts for every gun they own. The serious gun owner might have kits for a few of the range guns but throwing around this notion of dry fireing doesnt hurt anything is pretty foolish. I have already listed some fairly popular models (other than the grendel).....theres a lot more than that. Then you can factor in rimfies.
Dont believe me though. Start buying or fixing up broken guns. You will learn all kinds of new do's and don'ts.
Tip on rimfires... the blue aluminum dummy rounds are not really snap caps and should not be used. Best to use a fired 22 case. A plastic wall ancor that fits the chamber can work in a pinch. You never want to dry fire a rimfire though.