If you're going to dry fire, get some snap caps first.

I dont know if the snap caps do anything to prevent this or not, but I figure they cant hurt.

I dry fire my one 17 pretty heavily, and pretty much daily, and have done so for the past 8 years or so. I do use snap caps (AZoom's), and this is one of the reasons why. The other is safety. You cant "accidentally" have a live round in the gun when the snap cap is in there. The AZooms last a good long time and are cheap enough.

I shoot this gun at least once a week, and considering its just passed 122000+ rounds this past weekend, and its easily got 10 times that in dryfire, and so far, the only thing to have broken has been a trigger return spring at around 90,000 rounds (the gun still actually functioned with it broken too), I figure I got my money out of it, and those AZooms still arent hurting anything. :)
 
No one has said snap caps would "hurt anything" I sometimes use them but my point is except with certain pistols they are not needed. As far as the safety aspect, true with a. Snap cap there will be no AD however make sure no loose live ammo is mixed with the caps.
With any rimfire I hesitate to dry fire, Azoom .22's are not snap caps but action proving cartridges and will be destroyed with just a few dry firings. I have not seen how the 17 cap is made So no comment.
 
That guy did an enormous amount of dry-fire practice.

On a side note, I was thinking of making my own snapcaps, but I figured I could just leave the spent primers in? Will that not work?
 
I sometimes use them but my point is except with certain pistols they are not needed.
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They may not be needed with casual handling, but I wonder about constant and heavy dry firing and use. I dont think that is something youre average shooter does, nor do the makers consider likely.

Over the years, Ive only had a couple of guns break parts due to use, and one of those was the firing pin in my one M1A that was used in competition. It too had a high round count and was constantly dry fired and shot. I didnt use snap caps with it, mainly because the AZooms werent available at the time, and the old "Tipton" type in .308 would not fit properly. Not that they would have lasted long anyway.

These days for those type rifles, they make a small dry fire device that eliminates the problem.

Snap cap there will be no AD however make sure no loose live ammo is mixed with the caps.
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I think thats a pretty obvious thing. I only use the one snap cap in the gun, and dont load the mag with them.

Ive actually quit using snap caps for failure drills with my hanguns since Ive found out how crappy Remington primers are. They offer random and constant failures, so its a lot more realistic. :p

That guy did an enormous amount of dry-fire practice.

On a side note, I was thinking of making my own snapcaps, but I figured I could just leave the spent primers in? Will that not work?
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It wont work long, and whats worse, you cant tell at a glance, that you actually have a snap cap in the gun. Everything looks like live ammo.

I tried making them early on, looking for a solution back before the AZooms were around. Those old red plastic "Tipton" type caps suck and were very short lived.

I tried all sorts of things in the primer pockets of decapped brass to help cushion the firing pin with poor to mediocre results. More apt to cause problems than help.

The AZooms are of a color you cant mistake and hold up very well to constant use.
 
On a side note, I was thinking of making my own snapcaps, but I figured I could just leave the spent primers in? Will that not work?
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You can make up a few dummy rounds. Old spent primers no powder. To be on the safe side I would color them so there is no chance of mistaking a live round for a dummy round.
 
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Snap caps made with primers of rubber, silicone, nylon or other plastics are useless-as are spent primers.
None of these offer enough resistance to make a difference. The tip of the firing pin simply penetrates the soft material.
Fired primers offer no resistance at all.
Get quality snap caps with metal primers.
 
Are there others besides the Tiptons that have a metal primer? I dont remember ever seeing any.

The AZooms have a hard, silicone/rubbery type striking surface, and so far for me, it has outlasted the aluminium cases that hold it. I dont ditch them because the striking surface is gone.

Besides fit, the main issue with the Tipton type for me has been, that brass "primer" usually gets stuck up inside the snap cap in short order, and renders it useless.
 
dgludwig said:
Taurus advises not to dry-fire their double-action revolvers-I have no idea why the reason(s) for said admonition but I'm not going to argue the point.
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I had, some years back, a late 80s vintage Taurus Model 66. After 10+ years of ownership, and much dry firing, it mashed a firing pin spring into uselessness. Taurus fixed it. And it (eventually) mashed the next spring into the same condition. At which point I fixed it again, and traded off the gun.

Just my experience.
 
If your hammer fired pistol has a inertia type firing pin AND employs a separate stop pin that rides in a cutout in the pin.....DO NOT dry fire. Spanish Star pistols are famous for breaking firing pins. I know there are others.
 
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The spanish star pistols in question are approximately 40 years old and used a design that was dated at time of manufacture. Series 0 and 1. Maybe series two also used.
Lots of older firearms have issues that aren't pertinent to decent quality modern firearms.

I'm not an expert on star pistols having only possessed one for a short period of time for familiarization purposes, but I am certainly under the impression the design was quite dated at time of manufacture, which is before my birth in most cases.
 
I have only 80+ Star pistols of about every style available in the US, shoot them often and keep a snap cap in the chamber. In all my shooting I have never considered the design "dated". Today's Sig, Colt and Kimber Micro pistols are Star DK design altered for today's production methods.
The other day I was shooting my Colt 1911a1 alongside my Star Model P (.45ACP) .....what fun!
 
Star semi's

Just picked up a Star 9mm,, I think it is a BMk, don't have it right in front of me,,I enjoy shooting it, nice heavy gun,
 
In all my shooting I have never considered the design "dated".
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I didn't say obsolete, I said dated. Second definitio, old-fashioned. The original 1911 design is also dated. Have any of those upgrades on the derivative pistols addressed the previous cited issue of the firing pins breaking? I've not heard that claimed about the modern derivatives you list, so I assume so. In the context of this issue 60 year old designs are dated as they were not designed to be dry fired. The quality brand modern designs can all be dry fired at least as many rounds as live fired.
I'm not an expert on star and don't claim to be, simply believe citing a 60 year old pistol design as an example does not contradict what I said about modern v. older pistols in relation to dry firing.
 
I use snap caps in my Mauser 1914 and CZ-27. Years ago an old time shooter showed me how he took a pice of rubber-from an old bicycle inner tube for example-folded it over, it cushioned the firing pine nicely.
 
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As I said earlier- rubber, hot melt glue, silicone, nylon, inner tubes, etc. WILL NOT cushion a firing pin. The tip of the firing pin simply pierces the material. Being soft, the material simply closes up around the hole.
Stop fooling yourselves- get real, high quality snap caps.....
Or, don't dry fire.
 
I have dry fired my Glock 34 over 10,000 times. I was assured by a Glock rep in SWAT training that it is perfectly fine to dry fire a Glock. The new recruits at the PD dry fired the heck out of their 23 and 27 Glocks. I never had to repair one due to damage.

The slide that failed was modified. We are discussing a slide failing that has been milled on?
 
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