Quote:
Originally Posted by Walt Sherrill
That's a broad statement and wrong in part.
The Beretta Tomcat, a modern center-fire weapon, doesn't warn against dry-firing in the manual I found online, but when I bought one new, I didn't see a warning in the Owner's Manual and dry-fired away. I quickly broke a firing pin even though I had always used a snap cap! The Tomcat firing pin hits so hard it will eat up even good-quality snap caps quickly, and I didn't notice the damage to the snap cap until it was too late! (I've heard from others with similar experiences with their Tomcats.) I think all Kel-Tec owner manuals warn against dry-firing without snap caps (and present it as a GENERAL statement for all handguns.)
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I broke off TWO firing pin tips, dry firing (without snap caps), in a new AMT .40 DAO Back Up, when they first came out (1996?). The mainspring on that pistol is
s t r o n g, no doubt contributing to high pin velocity...
A lot of the Kel Tec's use a notched firing pin and set-screw type arrangement, to both retain the pin in the slide, and limit its breechface protrusion. The speculation is that excessive dry firing can peen the set screw tip, which can make removal difficult, and possibly kick up enough burring to impede firing pin travel.