Dry fire a "Pre 17" 22 5 Screw ??

[Rifleman200-10X]

It doesn't appear it should hurt anything, the firing pin in my 5 screw 22 doesn't hit the cylinder with an empty chamber, but I get conflicting opinions. I seem to recall seeing a statement that "you'll wear out you finger before you hurt the gun". What say you?

 

[HughD1]

I was always told it would damage the cylinder.


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[CH4]

Half of my gun buddies say don't do it; the other half say they've been doing it for decades without issue. Erroring on the side of caution, I use spent 22 cases if I have the urge to dry fire my rimfire revolvers.

 

[murphydog]

The factory will tell you not to do this, and twice on Sunday.

It is easy to use spent casings, or yellow #4 wall anchors, to prevent any problems from dry firing, especially with a rimfire revolver.

 

[handejector]

Actually, at least as far back as the 70s, S&W stated any of their guns could be dry fired.


If ALL else fails, we could read The Instructions!

Keep going down and read the part outlined in red---

The area in the red box above-----

 

[Dale53]

I will tell you without fear of being wrong (I'm NOT) do NOT dry fire ANY handgun without snap caps. Use the recommended wall anchors for .22 rimfire. If you want to look at a Ruger Single Six with a damaged cylinder, just ask. I broke THREE S&W firing pins dry firing (center fires, hammer mounted, factory original). Just so you know, I am NOT speculating. I have personal experience!

DO NOT DRY FIRE WITHOUT SNAPCAPS IN ANY HANDGUN!

End of story!
Dale53

 

[Rifleman200-10X]

Well, I can't dispute your own personal experiences, however, I have a 5 gallon bucket full of centerfire handguns that have been dry fired a "Brazilian" times with no ill effects. But I was mainly concerned with the rimfire K frame, since I have always shied away from dry firing any 22s. I have seen quite a few with damaged chambers from firing pin contact. But it would appear that S&W says to go right ahead.

 

[Rifleman200-10X]

And again, I was mostly concerned with the K22, and yes, many rimfire rifles and handguns can be damaged by dry firing. I recently saw a Model 18 advertised on Gunbroker as "parts only" that had a severely damaged cylinder with firing pin strikes nearly 360 degrees around the cylinder, EXCEPT at the chambers. Obviously out of time, probably a broken hand or handspring. A good example of a 22 that is Ok to dry fire is a Ruger MkI, II, or etc. You HAVE TO DRY FIRE IT to disassemble it.

 

[H Richard]

Only the .22RF revolvers should be "cautiously" only dry fired with spent shells, dry wall anchors, etc. because the firing pin could hit and damage the chamber rim. S&W's have historically said you can dry fire them safely, but numerous other manufacturers don't put the precise fitting that S&W does. Cautions from numerous other companies have carried over until it gets universally stated, "Don't dry fire".

 

[handejector]

Sir
I sold this gun on Sat at a gun show. Guy brought it back Sun and wanted his money back. He had dry fired it a lot.
I gave him a choice between two other K22s I had. They were not near as nice, but.
I explained the problem of high speed dry firing to him. Suggested he use snap caps the next time.
Bill@Yuma

I'm curious how snap caps would have helped here???? There are no dings where snap caps would have been.
This pic actually proves dry firing a K-22 does no harm. The red/yellow circles show the spot aligned with where the pin strikes, but inside the recess of course. There is no damage where the pin would normally strike.

That idiot was not qualified to own a K-22. Anyone dry firing one that much should notice when the cylinder is not indexing.
FYI- I don't know why, but many early K-22s have that problem. Does it index properly? Could it occur from the cylinder rolling buy the cyl stop when fired very rapidly? As I say, I can't explain it, but I've handled numerous early k-22s that had those dings, but seemed to function perfectly when cycled slowly. All these dinged guns I have seen were below K20000.

 

[DARE]

Interesting

Interesting conversation. My dad who was an engineer thought dry firing was ok.
Here is a pic of the cylinder of my pre-war K-22. No idea how much it has been dry fired, if any.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

I use No. 6 drywall screw anchors in my rimfires, at $5/100 they are easy to replace, bright yellow, easy to see.

 

[Green Frog]

I use No. 6 drywall screw anchors in my rimfires, at $5/100 they are easy to replace, bright yellow, easy to see.

What he said! Cheap insurance, and I'm in the "Better safe than sorry" on this topic.

Froggie

 

[luvsmiths]

Actually, at least as far back as the 70s, S&W stated any of their guns could be dry fired.


If ALL else fails, we could read The Instructions!

Keep going down and read the part outlined in red---

The area in the red box above-----

This post right here should have ended the thread.... but go ahead. Read the VERY NEXT post. I dare you.

 

[mh51]

Brownell's sells a tool to remove chamber dents from rimfire rifles and pistols where they have been dry-fired. I have one, and have used it numerous times on repairs.
If it was safe to dry-fire all rimfires, no tool would be necessary.

 

[2152hq]

The Brownells tool removes or tries to remove the damage from a RF firing pin that is too long.
A FP that is too long damages the rim recess when that gun is dry fired by turning up the burr. The tool is used to burnish/push the metal back into place.

The FP should be short enough not to strike the chamber rim recess in the first place.
The tool is to fix the damage.
Then the next thing to do is to shorten the FP so it comes up a few .000 short of actually touching the chamber itself.
Don't do step #2 and the damage from #1 will just come back again.

You can only move that metal back into place so many times before it just breaks off. Then you have a small divot there in chamber right where the FP strikes and no support for the cartridge rim. The result is misfires.
So fixing the problem is as important as fixing the damage it caused.

The dents to the cylinder face inbetw the chambers cannot be avoided if the cylinder skips by the locking cuts and ends up in no mans land.
The firing pin will then strike the flat face of the cylinder.

It's just a (proper) length FP meeting the flat face of the cylinder instead of the chamber recess where it would have had clearance.
Doesn't matter if RF or CF.
You see it quite a lot on the N frames especially the 38-44 that get the
DA speed treatment.
I suspect that the heavy cylinder plus the weight of the cartridges put up quite a centrifical force (correct term?) when the trigger is yanked for speed in DA.
The cylinder just skips by the locking cut in the cylinder and the hammer/FP falls on the blank surface betw chambers leaving a punch mark,,sometimes lots of them.

Dry Firing,,,everyone does what they want to,,it's their gun.
I just don't recommend it. Use a snap cap or in the least a spent case in place.
The FP is about the most fragile part in a gun that takes the most beating.
They are going to break, crack, chip, deform at some point.
At just how many strikes,,who knows. Lots of variables and lots of different designs, shapes, steel types and heat treat.
They are certainly not all the same.

 

[sodacan]

Would you dry-fire this?

 

[gwpercle]

My Dad didn't care what the book said , his #1 Rule was : Don't Snap (dry-fire) rimfire guns ... if he caught you doing it you got "The Lecture" ... If he caught you doing it again ... you got to see his "Belt" ...
Young Gary didn't like the lecture or the belt ...the belt was less painful than the dreaded long lecture . He showed you how to ease down hammer or close action so you didn't have to "snap" it .
My Rule #1 - Don't Snap Rimfires ...old man knew what he was talking about . An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure ...trust me !

To answer the above posters' ( sodacan) question " would you dry fire this"
No ... but if you must invest in some quality snap-caps made for dry firing .
Gary

 

[AlHunt]

If the factory says it's OK, that's pretty definitive.

As a kid, I broke a firing pin in a 22 rifle by dry firing it so I have a strong aversion to the practice.

 

[Imissedagain]

We were raised to never to dry fire any revolver with the firing pin attached to the hammer.