[greydog]

I'm a gunsmith with 35+ years of experience and have been target shooting for longer than that. I dry fire quite a bit and prefer to use a snap cap. I turned out some nylon "primers" which I seat into a case to cushion the pin. GD

[HockaLouis]

I'm one of those internet experts, and a High Power Service Rifle competitor. Lots o' non-coms who know everything, and not much right. Point in case like troll above who has neither been there NOR done that...

Some say they sit there for hours, in position, dry firing without snap caps or a cartridge in place, with their competition gun. Those are the losers and the liars. Intuitively, at least, the common-sense shooters eventually come to realize what they're doing to their guns.

And remember -- the .223 will never be a competitive Service Rifle round. Stupid, useless, mouse-guns. Da good ol' sarn' dun tol' me dat too...

LOL

[ScottA]

Great information here. Let's not make differences of opinion degrade into personal slanders.

[JTJ]

I have run some cases through my sizer/decapper die and they definitely fit. Fill the primer pocket with silicone or goo. You will have to replace the silicone every so often. Make a bunch with fmj bullets and they will feed through your mag. The nylon is nice but not many of us can turn it to fit. Mark them so you dont mix them up.

[drvsafe]

Originally Posted by Ranger-6

Buy a BB gun and practice with that, worked for me.

I was aware of some makers of bb guns that make replicas of actual firearms, theres a great replica of my P229 out there, but is the trigger pull exactly as the real steel? I don't think so. The best thing is to go by the manufacturers' recommendation regarding dry firing. If the manufacturer says you don't need them but you want to use snap caps go for it! But one way or the other it is in the gun owners best interests to be as familiar with their weapon as they can and dry firing is one method to be familiar with trigger pull, stages, any take up there is, etc.

[TekGreg]

When you dry fire, you are launching that firing pin into thin air, where there is no resistance and no place to transfer the energy. Ever swing full force in a fight and miss? How did your shoulder and elbow feel? That force, energy, stress has to go somewhere. Just because you have dry fired a gun hundreds or thousands of times and not had a critical failure does NOT mean you're not causing damage to the parts.

Besides, if you wish to cure bad habits with trigger pull, you need to be surprised by what the gun does when you pull the trigger. This can only be done by someone else loading the magazine with both live rounds and snap caps or reloads with no powder and the primer filled with silicone or the like. You touch off some live rounds and then a snap cap gets fed....*click*...you immediately evaluate if you jerked, close your eyes, or whatever the problem may be. A spotter is good for this as well as loading "trick" magazines. Anything less and you "know" it's an airgun or snap cap or whatever and don't respond the same way as a live round, although these are great for new shooters or those new to a new platform to practice with.

It's your weapon and as long as you don't mind wear and tear leading to a possible gunsmith visit, don't worry about it. But the laws of physics can't be ignored just because it happens in a gun chamber.

[locutus]

So I suppose all of the instructors at the miliary basic training facilities, all of the police academies, and even the FBI academy really don'r know diddly about guns. And to think, even the manufacturers don't know anything about the guns they make!

That's too bad. I really thought I had learned some good information from those folks.

[Dillinger]

Originally Posted by sputnik1988

No need for centerfire firearms, dry firing causes less wear than actually shooting. The firing pin doesn't touch anything.

What?

The firing pin on most boltguns has a shoulder that slams into the back of the bolt face if there isn't a primer to help negate forward movement.

Hence the reason the Snap-Cap has made such and easy move into the market.

OP - I would recommend investing in a Snap Cap and if you can't do that, rotate used brass through as you practice.

JD

[HockaLouis]

But, "they" said the firing pin doesn't touch anything!

Bang a hammer on an anvil hard and/or often enough and they'll break and go dead too. Internet experts abound. As for what instructors tell people, having been one in uniform for a decade, including instructing uniformed instructors, I can tell you that they are inconsistant and usually not the sharpest bayonet in the armory.

I had one national team shooter arguing with me about a new Turner sling. I was explaining the issue was it was just too spongy even though it'd been weight-stretched and dried. He was furious and though I was showing him to his face that the thing was elastic like a rubber-band he refused to acknowledge it, pretending it wasn't changing length by inches under tension. Typical -- someone told him Turner's were the best and therefore it could not be a problem. It would have been funnier if he weren't allowed to touch firearms and his X's didn't count...

[bigjim]

I can honestly say, I do not know if it causes harm or not. I do use a snap cap for dry firing in all my guns. If you do not have one, then take a used case, pop the used primer out and put a eraser from a pencil into the primer pocket and trim the eraser to the case. This will allow you to use this as a tempory snap cap till you can get one, or just use your home made one.

Jim