We all know to dry fire (most) guns some to wear-in the action on a new one, to smooth out the moving parts and have them mate well, slicking up the action.

But I sometimes think that a gun wears-in faster from shooting live ammo.

I have an idea that some of the burned gunpowder gets into the action and works as a fine abrasive and smooths the parts. Maybe it and oil make a sort of polishing slurry?

I know that a bolt action rifle will seat the locking lugs better into their receeses with the stress of real firing, which probably also work hardens the recesses in the receiver.

For revolvers, I just put a couple of drops of Break-Free down in front of the hammer and dry-fire to distribute the lube and let it smooth up with use. I think this works about as well as letting most "gunsmiths" get into the gun and polish it. Some of them are downright unqualified.

What do you do to slick up a new gun? Does my gunpowder in the action theory seem reasonable?

I've picked up more than a few old guns that I had to dismantle and cleaned out the built up residue from years of use without cleaning. I can see where you could get that idea. I don't think it would actually add much to smoothing the action though. Simply shooting several hundred rounds through a new gun always seems to smooth them up and they usually don't have all that much residue inside them when I clean them. Dry-firing modern revolvers a hundred times or so seems to work as well for me as using live ammo. Auto pistols I just shoot and clean, most of the residue is confined to the breech area, never very much in trigger linkage or the hammer/sear area. I don't bother with action jobs, if a new gun is so rough that dry fire or shooting won't smooth it up I'm going to be having a talk with the customer service people at the factory.

Some firearms don't take so well to dry-firing...some guns it really does no harm. Snap-caps might be a good idea if you don't want to break a firingpin...

No, I do not think dry firing after put some lube in the internals will do anything, Actually it may do less. The lube makes the parts glide on a film of oil, Teflon whatever so the metal really is not touching as much.

If you take a brand new gun and fire it a few times, either live or dry and then take it apart (talking revolvers here) you will see spots that have wear. Those can be polished. change a few springs and you have a good trigger job for free.

Some folks like to use snap caps and dry fire a thousand times which to me is crazy.

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Still Running Against the Wind

I prefer.............Firing live ammunitions.

Four fold...Practice, Function & Reliability, Break-in.


Su Amigo,
Dave

P.S. Snappin' is for cap pistols

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"IN GOD WE TRUST"

a thousand? 20-30 thousand+ on my rugers. one broken transfer bar in 2 years, starting to see peening in cylinder stop notches ,most people think theyve had an action job done on them they are so smooth
i dont beat up my smiths like that though .

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the rules? there are no rules

That's kind like a "gun break in period" keep trying to fire a malfunctioning gun and soon it will fix itself and start working

Kahr come to mind.

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Still Running Against the Wind

Kahr never comes to MY mind! I stick to major, time-proven brands, and was glad to see Ruger come out with their little .380, which I gather is more reliable than the Kel-Tec that probably inspired it. You probably know that our governor, Rick Perry, used his to shoot a coyote that was after his daughter's dog. It worked fine, although I don't normally think that a .380 is a good coyote gun.

However, it is true that just firing will smooth out many auto pistol issues, and I don't like to carry an auto that hasn't been broken in by firing a couple hundred rounds.
But I must say, both a CZ-75B and a Beretta M-92FS were flawless in function from the outset. Both were bought new.

I disassemble a new auto and clean off any factory lube and add Break-Free before the first range session. I think that helps function on a new gun.

Live firing, if you can afford it, is far better. As Keith44SPL said, not only are you conditioning the gun, YOU are getting conditioned.

I only dry fire to get acquainted with the trigger. All break-in for me is using live ammunition.