Is it harmful to...

P

Pond James Pond

New member
... dry fire a hammer-fired gun with the slide removed.

I sometimes like to dry-fire but the complaint at home is that the clicking noise carries around and risks waking the baby.

I thought perhaps going through the dry-fire action with the slide removed might be quieter. THis would not so much be fore aiming, but more for smoothing the action and strengthening my pull, although lots of movement in the slide would denote I need to steady my hands!

I thought of putting something soft between pin and hammer, but then it would alter the trigger reach.

So, would it harm the frame/hammer to have the mainspring loosing its energy that way, rather than on the pin?
 
From gunsmiths I have talked to it is a big no no. Without the slide the hammer can travel further forward than it would be able to normally and over time put stress on the action. I'm not sure if this is true of only one type of pistol or what. I'd recommend dry firing in a basement or as far away from the baby as you can if possible.
 
A zoom snap caps will quiet it down a little,it is not a good idea to dry fire your hammer fired pistol without the slide in place.
I usually do not dry fire my pistols with the family in close proximity anyhow,it tends to make my wife nervous.:)
 
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If i'm just clicking the sear in order to smooth out the trigger break, i just wedge my finger between the hammer and slide so that the hammer never drops fully. If you're practicing, put a little piece of rubber or something in the channel with the hammer.
 
parts break. unless it's a collectible or custom parts are cheap to replace. put the slide on it to prevent excessive wear. get snap caps if you want. replace things when they break.

some of you guys kill me. seems like you wouldn't drive your daily driver, given the option.
 
I'm going to ask from a mom's point of view here.. (Although my son is a teen now, I recall vividly his baby days...) How old is the baby? How far away from the sleeping baby are you dry firing? If you are in a different room with a closed door, a noise like that shouldn't wake the baby. And besides, babies aren't meant to be tiptoed around while sleeping. They need to learn to adapt to normal household noises, etc.
Have yall thought about putting an electric air cleaner (not humidifier or vaporizer, just an air cleaner with a filter, no water involved) in the baby's room? It provides a nice, soothing white noise and can mask noises outside their room to help them sleep better.
 
If you want quieter -- get some rubber o-rings and insert one of them in the notch at the rear of the slide, where the hammer would normally strike the firing pin.

That'll quiet things, and it'll also work as well as a snap cap -- except that the firing pin probably won't move at all. It will also be cheaper than a snap cap (or set of snap caps.)

A hardware store should have a variety of them, and you can find the one that best fits. Measure the gap and get a thick one a tiny bit wider than the gap.
 
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mechanically speaking, snapping the hammer without the slide in place is a poor idea. It induces stresses different from normal firing on the hammer, and could, over time (and a lot of snaps) lead to crystallization of the metal and failure.

Snapping it once in a while is no real concern. Doing it as a regular practice is hard on the gun, and while parts are cheap, failure at the wrong time could be fatally expensive.

your choice
 
There's no place for a snap cap to be with the slide removed.
If the baby wakes up because you were playing with your toys, it won't matter where you were or what you did. Management will be PO'd. snicker.
Dry firing is about practicing trigger control, sight picture and breathing, not smoothing the action. If the action needs smoothing, use the correct tools(no files or rotary tools) and do so. Trigger pulls aren't smoothed by dry firing either. That's done by polishing and changing springs. None of it is done without the slide anyway.
 
Plenty of ambient noise as far as out 18mth old is concerned, but particular noises disturb her and our flat seems to funnel noise in the bedroom's direction.

Either way, slide off seems to be a no go, so I'll forget that. The O-ring idea could work, although it would alter the DA feel which is what I particularly like to practice. If I can get my DA smooth, my SA should be all the better for it. Seeing as the reach on the CZ DA trigger is a bit of a stretch for my index finger, I am trying to get a bit more strength in the flex of just my finger tip to start the trigger pull with a good firm grip of the gun.

Dry firing is about practicing trigger control, sight picture and breathing, not smoothing the action.
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I agree all those former points benefit, but many have said that dry-firing improves the feel of the trigger on CZ75s and I've not read many disagreeing with that. Dry-firing also improves the strength in my forearm for longer stages as explained above.
 
Stop dry firing over your baby's crib. :p

Ain't no way that should bother junior if your are in another room. That and if you try to isolate the little tyke from noise now it's gonna bite you in the rear later. Our daughter will sleep through fireworks outside her window.

Don't dry fire without slide like has been said.
 
I agree all those former points benefit, but many have said that dry-firing improves the feel of the trigger on CZ75s and I've not read many disagreeing with that. Dry-firing also improves the strength in my forearm for longer stages as explained above.
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I think T.O'Heir was making a general statement and not expecting to be taken absolutely literally. His point is that if you need the trigger improved, do it right -- with an action or trigger job using the proper tools.

I'm not patient enough to wait for dry-firing to improve a CZ or Witness Trigger, although I have done that. (It'll help the DA trigger.) And it takes a lot of dry-fire pulls to induce the sort of "wear" that results in that smoother trigger.

The last NEW CZ I bought I just took it to the gunsmith and had him tweak it before I even shot it -- just as T.O'Heir suggested. It was a real pleasure to shoot, the first time out.

It's been a long time since I've bought anything new (except a marvelous PMR-30!!)
 
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Yup... can't treat babies like glass... not good for them.

Any thin semisoft material will work. The thinner the less affect it will have on the trigger feel. even something as thin as a piece of cloth can dampen the sound.


Your being in a country other than the US, makes parts and gunsmithing a bit more difficult. So dry firing may be the best course of action for you... You will need to dry fire DA and SA to smooth it out completely for both modes.
 
The baby has not been woken by my dry firing per se, but I've not tested too heavily. There are plenty of other noises here that occur that we can't control and by and large our girl sleeps through those.

However, just to point out this is more to appease my wife who usually ends up having to soothe the babe if she wakes up, although the little one does respond to me, mum is still favourite. Given that she has to try and calm the girl down, I do feel she gets the right to veto some stuff: I just dry fire at other times when the girl is up or they are out and about.

I think T.O'Heir was making a general statement and not expecting to be taken absolutely literally. His point is that if you need the trigger improved, do it right -- with an action or trigger job using the proper tools.
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I've yet to locate a gunsmith here and when I do, I can guarantee that prices will be stratospheric, not to mention I have no idea if they will be any good, so fixes have to be done oneself and pulling a trigger repeatedly is not so taxing.
I'm sure there are plenty of better ways to do some of the stuff I do or want to, it's just that here options are limited.
 
Pond said:
Is it harmful to...
... dry fire a hammer-fired gun with the slide removed.
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Yes.

I thought of putting something soft between pin and hammer, but then it would alter the trigger reach.
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??? How? Trigger reach is a function of when the hammer and sear are engaged. The trigger would never know you put a pad where the hammer lands when it falls.
 
I've yet to locate a gunsmith here and when I do, I can guarantee that prices will be stratospheric, not to mention I have no idea if they will be any good, so fixes have to be done oneself and pulling a trigger repeatedly is not so taxing.
I'm sure there are plenty of better ways to do some of the stuff I do or want to, it's just that here options are limited.
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If you haven't already done so, join the CZ Forum http://www.czfirearms.us/index.php?board=74.0

You can find very detailed (photo laden) instructions on how to do a pretty good trigger job yourself. It doesn't take special tools, and the things you don't have you CAN probably find where you live. The HOME GUNSMITHING area was where it was when last I participated there.

And as AQUILA BLANCA notes, putting something back there to soften the blow has NO EFFECT on trigger position. The trigger has to move a good distance in DA mode before it even engages the hammer, and the trigger itself is not affected by hammer movement after the hammer drops. If you doubt it, try it. Rubber O-RINGS are a cheap solution. A piece of pencil eraser (round and short, or cut from a larger eraser block) will probably work, too.
 
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