Dry Firing...truth or myth?

[Bravo 4]

I dry fire the crap out of ever rifle I shoot. Some of my rifles have been fired dry thousands of times. I used to do it basically every day for about 10 minutes, I'm getting back into that groove. I've never broken anything. I have my students do it at the onset of shooting sessions and tell them to practice on their down time. I do it to warm up and to check my position before going hot. I was just at a friend's house whose daughter is an Olympic class shooter and she will sit on her couch and dry fire while watching tv, just to get used to the super light (2-3 ounces) two stage trigger.

 

[Deputy819]

she will sit on her couch and dry fire while watching tv,

Cool! I sometimes do magazine changes (empty) in my duty weapon (Glock 22 also empty) while watching TV just to keep the "muscle memory" up to snuff.

 

[Bravo 4]

Cool! I sometimes do magazine changes (empty) in my duty weapon (Glock 22 also empty) while watching TV just to keep the "muscle memory" up to snuff.

Yep the little things are taken for granted and often overlooked, but make the difference when it really matters.

 

[YZ-80]

I'm told that dry-firing is not a big deal. I don't do it routinely and never with my rimfires. I'm told that the real issue with dry firing is the fact that there is no resistance on the firing pin, a situation that is resolved by snap caps. Makes sense to me but using them is probably not necessary.

 

[jjmp]

Never do I dry fire my 22 rfr rim fire rifle , center fire rifles I dry fire but with a already shot case , this way no harm is done ,and the fired primer takes the firing pin blow ,which helps me make a smooth trigger pull till it breaks .

 

[BrentM]

Funny, in the military we used to do dime exercises on training M16's. Who knows how many times those things were dry fired, let alone fired. Never have had an issue with a modern rifle dry firing.

 

[Tangent]

I agree with the others here - I dry fire my centerfire rifles quite a bit and have never broken anything. I get out to the range about once a week and shoot +1,000 yards, but dry firing is just easy & free practice I can do at my house when I can't make the range.

 

[fightthenoise]

Fill the primer pocket of a spent case with hot glue and you have a snap cap.

 

[Greyfox]

I think it depends on the particular action design. With the recent popularity of PRS where very heavy dry firing practice is popular and done with high frequency. I have seen damage with the popular Remington700 and clones. The weak point is not the spring or firing pin. It is the shock imposed when heavy dry firing with no primer to the cross pin that connects the cocking piece to the firing pin. A diagram, cross-pin and new pin shown. Fortunately, its rare, easy to check for wear, and easy/inexpensive to replace.

 

[Bravo 4]

Fill the primer pocket of a spent case with hot glue and you have a snap cap.

I've seen that, or pencil erasers. But the glue is cheaper to replace.

 

[Msgt William Toprock]

I always use "Snap Caps" or I don't dry fire, S&W 629 .44 mag Mountain Gun, broken firing pin from dry firing. After that I don't take a chance, It's much cheaper to buy a couple "Snap Caps" than it is to pay for repairs !!!!!

 

[Liberator]

I use " shoe goo " an adhesive that stays flexible in the spent case primer pockets of my wild cats. I seat and crimp a FMJ. and color it red with a sharpie for a home made snap cap. The normal rifles, I just buy a snap cap for it.

 

[BountyHunter]

Most rimfire do not dry fire. Most rifles it will not hurt them.

A rimfire firing pin hits the edge of the rim which is on the face of the chamber rim. Without a case in the firearm it will allow the firing pin to hit the edge of the chamber and eventually bend it over causing failure to extract. That can be honed out by a gunsmith. I guarantee that will happen on ANY rimfire, rifle or pistol.

 

[Raysmith333]

From the time I was Six and up until last year (57 years) I was always told dry Firing was at the very least extremely hard on the firing pin, right up to...if you do that you will break your firing pin. Now on Wild T.V. I see folks dry Firing not once or twice but four times preparing for THE LONG SHOT! Albeit the question...truth or myth! Will it damage the action (pin) or not?

The firing pin will break after dry firing many hundreds of times. That is how I broke one on a Marlin 336. It broke at the junction where it changes diameters, the larger diameter of the pin stops and the smaller portion tries to keep going, a stress fracture occurs and the pin will eventually breaks. No other damage occurred. Replacing the pin was all that was needed to make the repair. I doubt that a few dry firings would cause harm but I suppose it could break after just a few dry firings if there was an imperfection in the firing pin.