Hello all, New shield plus PC 4" on its way. I usually manually rack the slide on a new gun several hundred times and cleaning it a few days before actually getting to the range. But am always reluctant to dry fire much being old school and dry fire was always a no no. Is dry firing on an empty chamber ok with the new guns of today?

Thanks and stay safe,
Rich

Yep, its safe.

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“What you got, ain’t new.”

Other than m y rimfires, I've dryfired the begezus out of my firearms for years with no negative side-effects. I'm sure others will disagree, recommend using snap-caps, etc. But I have never experienced any damage to any of my firearms that I've dry-fired. Revolvers, bolt-action, semi-autos, pump-action, and so on.

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SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS

For hammer-fired semis, if I do a bunch of dry fire, I put an O-ring from a faucet rebuild kit around the firing pin, so that the hammer drops on the O-ring.

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Slava Ukraini!

No problems dry firing a striker-fired semi-auto.

100% agree with the others.. It's OK to dry fire..

Rimfire calibers = no.
Centerfire calibers = yes.

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VCDL, GOA, NRA

Snap caps are cheap insurance . Azoom sell a striker fired rimless snap cap that lets you cycle the slide without ejecting.

If you dry fire a 1911 a bazillion times, you may work harden it and eventually break it firing pins are cheap and easy to change.

I could never dry fire hundreds of times. More like tens of times.
I do it to practice follow-through; Are my sights still on target after the hammer/striker falls?

I dry fire but my guns aren't hand grip exercisers.

Enjoy that plus PC. I got one a month ago, love the capacity, the look, and everything about it. Not using the CT red dot though .


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For a hammer fired SA one can fabricate an external hammer fall buffer out of a strip of leather or perhaps neoprene. Hammer blow will be noise deadened, firing pin/breech face won't take wear and there is no chance of an accidental discharge. Yes, firearms should always be fully unloaded for dry fire but what if you forget? That fall buffer is an external visual cue that firearm is in dry fire use. Also buffer will usually fall out when the slide is racked.

Some striker fired SA's have a thin breechface that doesn't take kindly to lots of dry fire without a snap cap in place.

It depends upon the rimfire. It will damage most older rimfires for sure, but several companies say it does no damage to their modern guns. I believe Henry and Browning (the modern ones), and several other companies say it causes no harm. I believe S&W says it's a no-no with their guns.

It is true that some rimfire designs do not allow the striker/pin to ever hit the edge of the chamber, but so many do allow this to happen, so my blanket advice is to not dryfire rimfire weapons without something to absorb the impact of the striker/pin.

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VCDL, GOA, NRA

Dry firing is no problem with almost any gun.

Think about it...if it can handle the stresses of firing live ammo, of course it can handle cycling it's fire control parts with no ammo.

The best way to get really good with your gun is to dry fire it, since you can do that a whole lot more than shooting live ammo out of it.

But if you think about this...the breechface is strong enough to handle 35,000 + psi from live fire. You really think it wasn't designed properly to handle the striker hitting it?

And whatever snap cap you use has to be made of something softer than the firing pin, otherwise you'd peen the pin. Because of this, you peen the "primer" in the snap cap! So after about 100 strikes, you pretty much have a hollowed out snap cap anyway that doesn't provide any protection.

If you could shoot out a breech face from dry firing, I don't want to shoot that gun!

We all did this many years ago...****nning around the house snapping the trigger....it never seemed to smooth the trigger any. I don't own any of the guns that I used back then. I'm not sure that anybody even makes caps anymore. {or even if Mattel makes guns anymore} But it was fun, not sure I would want to get in the habit with anything I own today. We were usually told to go outside so maybe it is a lot the same if you never lived thru that phase of the world.

I would be a little careful running around the yard and yelling bang bang your dead with a 38 or even a 22 {YMMV}

It isn't strength so much but repeated hammer or striker drops without a primer to cushion the fall. You can crack the breech face on a Glock with an extreme amount of dry fire. That's the purpose of a snap cap. User needs to monitor the condition of the cap and replace/repair when it no longer functions.

The strip of leather or neoprene in the slide hammer slot on hammered semi-autos will last near indefinitely.

I posted the above because I watched a gun review the other day.

The reviewer had probably been running around with his new gun and doing the exact thing as proposed in the original post.

During his review of the pistol, he couldn't even pick up the gun without running the action and then not de-cocking he proceeded to wave the firearm around with the hammer cocked and the firearm in single action mode. {did this with multiple pistols , all were DA/SA} And then kept putting his finger on the trigger.

The barrel was pointing in an unsafe direction several times during the video and he had his finger on the trigger.

I attribute this to the handling around the house of a hopefully unloaded gun. It seemed just like we did with our made by Mattel guns in the past and it brought back many memories. When mentioned in this thread that this is the best way to become familiar with your new gun, I shuddered at what I had watched and the way the familiarity has evolved. Good gun handling is not learned firing your new gun at the bad guy on tv. {nor is marksmanship} Empty one time , for awhile and then loaded for awhile.

I prefer treating a fire arm as if it is always loaded I don't condone dry firing and fiddling with it all day long. Nobody would want to do a Baldwin. OOPs has a hollow ring after bang.

out of curiosity.

When you buy a new shotgun, do you dry fire multiple times? Run around the house running the action and dry firing? Or sit watching TV running the action and dry firing?

How about a Deer Rifle?

Sorry but I don't buy it. I think this is an old wive's tale. If the breech face can handle 35,000 psi, it can handle the striker hitting.

With the Glock, you have to dry fire it to field strip it. Surely they didn't design a gun that the field strip procedure causes damage. Imagine how many thousands upon thousands of Glocks have been dry fired thousands upon thousands of times and how few pictures you see of damaged breech faces.

a 3-gun shotgun, definitely.

A clay target / bird shotgun, no, but it wouldn't hurt it.

A deer rifle: maybe if you want to get practice with the trigger pull. Precision Rifle competitors definitely dry fire their bolt guns all the time....and they are many times just Savage, Remington, or Winchester actions.

If you treated it as if it was loaded all the time, how would you ever field strip it or stick a rod down the barrel to clean it?

Champion shooters dry fire. That's just a fact. You get better at handling a firearm by.....handling a firearm.

No problem with rimfires either.

Not only OK but recommended. Get after it!

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America First

Dry firing is not running around the house pointing it at people and pulling the trigger. Dry fire is a discipline that requires its own set of safety rules.
Id be in the poor house for sure if all my trigger pulls were live rounds.
Train safe and carry on..

My most recent deer rifle purchase was a Weatherby in .257wby mag. Put a Zeiss scope on it.

I have "killed" many squirrels, birds, etc in the back yard while dry firing

I use an ELMS laser "cartridge" for my dry fire practice now instead of a snap cap. Serves the same purpose, but you can actually score your shots if you want to. Fits right into the chamber and fires a laser burst when struck by the firing pin. Stays in place when you cycle the slide. Mine is for 9mm, but you can get them for other cartridges.

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John 3:16 .

When you dry fire a center fire gun the firing pin doesn't hit anything. Don't dry fire a rimfire gun. I also wouldn't dry fire a really old gun.

Scroll down to question #5.
FAQs | Smith & Wesson

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How many guns are too many?

Just a quick note that the Buckmark manual (I own one of these) states not to dry fire it due to possible damage.
But I don’t know if one can dry fire their 1911 style 22’s or not.
Just an fyi.

The problem with dry firing rimfires on MOST makes/models, is without a round (or some type of dummy round), in the chamber, the firing pin will strike the breech face causing 'ding/peen' marks in the breech face as well as damaging the firing pin.

Due to those reasons, the rule of thumb is to NOT dry fire rimfires just to be on the safe side.

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SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS

Dry firing cf pistols should always be part of the routine.

My general rule as well. I know there are some designs that do not allow the firing pin to hit the edge of the chamber, but most will allow contact.

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VCDL, GOA, NRA

RTFM, follow the recommendations there.

I know that certain Ruger semi-autos (SR9c) are recommended to not dry fire without an empty magazine inserted. This is because of the mechanism used to implement the mag safety. It stops the firing pin short and repeatedly dry firing without a mag inserted can damage the gun.

I know that this does not apply to the opening posters gun, but it's an example of a center fire pistol that has restrictions on dry fire. I know that there are others.

So - read the manual or other manufacturer instructions pertaining to the firearm in question, blanket statements may or may not be accurate for a specific firearm.

I never do that. I just shoot "em". See no point in wearing one in or out just playing with it.

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S&W Accumulator

I don’t bother dry-firing, never really have. But I will add that in addition to any “practice”, this is a hobby for me. Pre covid/supply issues, ammo was available and affordable to go enjoy the range. Once covid hit, ranges were limited or closed and we all know what happened to ammo.
So for downtimes the past couple years I picked up a laser cartridge/target system that uses an app. So at least I see instant shot placement which again can make indoor dry practice a little fun. And as I am home I can also get holster work in as well as “shooting” in different positions. None of which I can do at area ranges. But I still prefer to run ammo, just wont use as much each time.