Dry Firing an AR?

Dry Firing Your AR, would you do it?

  • Yes

    Votes: 89 94.7%

  • No

    Votes: 5 5.3%
  • Total voters
    94
  • Poll closed .
Dry firing is good practice. It is not going to harm the firing components of an AR any more than firing ammo in an AR will harm it. By that, I mean if a component is bad and it was going to fail at 5000 live rounds; it will fail at 3000 dry fires + 2000 live rounds.
 
MrBorland
Just in the interest of completeness: Never "dry fire" the lower if the upper's been removed. That will cause damage.
Click to expand...

Good call! As I was reading some of the initial responses, I was going to say this as well. This will certainly cause damage if performed numerous times.
 
There are many ways to skin a cat, some work better than others. You can choose the eighteen year old recruit method or the Olympic class method, I chose the later.

800Universal.png
 
I was forced to dry fire the M16 thousands of times doing some/washer drills. It improved my shooting while on active duty, I've slacked off in the reserves and my qualification badge has suffered from it. I don't see how getting a feel for your AR's trigger and practicing the mechanics/fundamentals of shooting is a bad thing.
 
101combatvet said:
There are many ways to skin a cat, some work better than others. You can choose the eighteen year old recruit method or the Olympic class method, I chose the later.
Click to expand...
Nice air gun, and air gun competition is great, but has zero to to with getting a feel for your AR. Getting real time practice with my AR is why I posed the question in the first place. ;)
 
I fully support dry firing as a method to practice. I too have slacked off and accuracy has suffered.
Now,
I'm also gonna throw the air rifle practice out there as well.
Air soft can be used inside with no damage, even if you miss.
Many actual air rifles/pellet guns can be fired inside with a pellet/BB trap.

Don't get a high dollar air rifle... But a cheap one with a crappie trigger. That's where air soft shines, crappie triggers but that's what you need.
Getting a good group with air soft is satisfying as well
 
Regardless of what some people think, there are skills you can learn dry-firing that you CAN NOT learn by any other method. Granted, most recreational shooters don't need or even consider some of these skills, but they do help. If you ask any top shooter in any discipline, they will tell you dry-firing is at least a part of their practice, some call it essential or the most important part.

But, dry-firing an AR won't hurt it any more than live fire, and actually less so.

Rimfire, Airsoft, BB guns and lasers can also good training aids if used properly.
 
johnwilliamson062 said:
I would, and mine is even a rimfire...
Click to expand...
Now that's where I draw the line.
I was taught to "never" dry fire rimfire guns because the firing pin hits the place where the rim seats and can damage the firing pin. :eek:
 
Getting real time practice with my AR is why I posed the question in the first place.
Click to expand...

I was trying to help you exceed on the learning curve. The pellet rifle is pneumatic and you don't have to reposition yourself to fire as you do with the AR. Of course you might be able to find someone to pull the charging handle for you. :D With a pellet rifle you might be able to get twice the practice time than with the AR in the same allocated time slot. Another added plus is in the results on target, you can determine for the most part what you are doing wrong, with the AR you can't do that, it's like reading a book in the dark. So good luck and plink on.
 
I was taught to "never" dry fire rimfire guns because the firing pin hits the place where the rim seats and can damage the firing pin.
Click to expand...
1. Many newer designs do not have this issue.
2. The money savings over live fire is such it would make sense even if I need to buy a new barrel.
 
With 22 rim-fires of any quality at all you need not worry.
In fact it must be remembered that most 22s are not made to lock open on the last shot. I do not speak only of autos either.
Bolt actions will not lock on the follower as many of the military rifles did in the 1890-1920 years.
The pumps do not lock open either.
Neither do the lever actions.
And MOST autos don't either
All were made to "click" when they are empty.
If it doesn't harm them to snap on an empty chamber after they are fired, it doesn't hurt to snap on an empty chamber before they are fired either.
Yes, some of the old ones and some of the poor new designs can be hurt by dry-firing.
Nothing we can do about the old ones, but any new gun that can't be snapped is easy to deal with
Don't buy one of those.
If they don't sell they will quit making them. For the most part that's already happened.
 
Just looked this up and found this article in the N.R.A. Family document. Bolding and underlining done by me to draw attention to the pertinent part of the article.
NRA Family said:
Myth 5: Dry-Firing A Gun Is Harmful
To be fair, this is sometimes true. Dry-firing most centerfire rifles and handguns is perfectly safe once you have made certain they are unloaded and pointed in a safe direction. However, excessively dry-firing a rimfire gun is a bad idea. The firing pin of a centerfire gun is designed to strike a primer located in the center of a cartridge's base. When no cartridge is present, the firing pin strikes nothing. With a rimfire, though, the firing pin is positioned to strike the soft brass rim of the cartridge. When no cartridge is present, the firing pin strikes the hard steel of the breechface. Repeated dry-firing of a rimfire can eventually peen the firing pin, dulling it and causing misfires. Dry-firing offers convenient, easy practice, but if you are going to dry-fire a rimfire gun, invest in some snap caps first. These dummy rounds will cushion the firing pin's fall.
Click to expand...
Source, http://www.nrafamily.org/articles/2014/7/2/five-gun-myths-exploded/
I think I will stick to my practice of not dry firing rimfire's. ;)
 
As stated, no harm in dry firing an AR-15.

And if you don't have an Oympic class air rifle for training, it seems like dry firing is probably a good thing to do. When I'm transitioning between air rifle and service rifle, dry firing is a GREAT way to get used to a 4.5 lb trigger again. The 40 gram trigger weight for an air rifle can really spoil you.

Jimro
 
Did anyone ever use that weird Video "duck hunt" like simulator thing with the linkage attached to the dummy rifle to simulate recoil? only used it a couple of times in the 90s in Germany.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sharkbite
"When your dog target appears!!"
Man, I haven't even thought about that phrase in years...

Semper
__________________
0331: "Accuracy by volume."
Click to expand...

"Reach out and grab ahold..palms down"

Lol...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top