Sparks from firing pin while dry firing?

Hope everybody read the OP's comment that: he was looking in a mirror, when he saw the sparks. I've had some unsettling thoughts about one of the brethren staring into the business end of a revolver while trying to see something. Brings to mind one of the basic rules: Never point a gun at something you are not willing to destroy". Let's all be safe. Rod
 
Why I also said it was unloaded; to me, trying to shoot with the offhand, it was much easier to see how well I could keep it steady. Besides, if loaded, it would have destroyed the mirror, not me!...:D:D
 
Wow. I'd never heard of this before. Interesting to see and to be honest, my reaction would have been "holy crap, something is wrong."
 
I have never heard of that happening. The video was quite interesting.

I would hate to think what could happen around a gas leak of some sort.
 
Perhaps a person could use this with some cotton balls to kindle a fire.
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Assuming you mean a survival situation. You could just remove a bullet from the cartridge and ignite a fire by shooting the "blank".
The slam fire link that someone posted is very cool. I just might try to make one of those little tools. Really fascinating from such a simple concept.
 
Hope everybody read the OP's comment that: he was looking in a mirror, when he saw the sparks. I've had some unsettling thoughts about one of the brethren staring into the business end of a revolver while trying to see something. Brings to mind one of the basic rules: Never point a gun at something you are not willing to destroy". Let's all be safe.
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You realize that the op was not really aiming/shooting at himself-he was dry-firing a revolver while looking at an image of himself in the mirror. And, as Big D noted, if the gun was loaded (it wasn't) the only thing to be destroyed would be the mirror (along with the op's image in the mirror :)).

I don't believe you can ever be too safe while handling any firearm but I fail to see how dry-firing a gun pointing at a mirror violates any of the basic safety rules.
 
I have seen that business about starting a fire by pulling the bullet, dumping the powder, then igniting it by firing the primer. Or not. When I tried it with a revolver, the blast either blew the powder away instead of igniting it or the powder flared up and went out without igniting the kindling. Plus it is not that easy to pull handgun bullets.

With a rifle there was not enough primer flash at the muzzle to ignite anything. Maybe it could be done with black powder or some gun I didn't try, but it does not seem a really reliable way to start a fire.

FWIW, I suggest a camper/hiker/hunter who might have to start a fire carry a couple of BIC lighters. Much better than the old match case and beats trying to ignite powder with a primer.

The "spark" from dry firing as described in this thread is not hot or long-lasting enough to ignite any kindling, and I doubt it would even ignite a flammable substance like methane or propane.

Jim
 
My new J-Frame made a very faint spark from the firing pin hole when dry firing when it was new. It stopped after shooting the gun a couple of times along with some dry firing.

Mike
 
I do have some snap caps coming by mid next week so I can practice some more with several of my K frame 38's (some have hammer-mounted pins) as well as this J frame.

Off topic a little but related to dry firing - I also recently picked up a K17, K22 Masterpiece, and for snap caps, I read where using the number 4 yellow dry wall anchors as snap caps work great while protecting the hammer/firing pin - just passing it along. You can get a 40 pack from Lowes for about $5
 
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