Racking slide and dry firing new gun prior to actual firing

[fish hunter]

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

 

[sigp220.45]

Yep, its safe.

 

[Eric300]

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.

 

[bigwheelzip]

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.

Sent from my motorola one 5G using Tapatalk

 

[ZGrand]

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

 

[Harry Callihan]

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

 

[stansdds]

Rimfire calibers = no.
Centerfire calibers = yes.

 

[MikeR90S]

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

 

[epj]

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.

 

[max503]

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.

 

[eahicks]

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 .


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[minconrevo]

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.

 

[diyj98]

Rimfire calibers = no.
Centerfire calibers = yes.

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.

 

[stansdds]

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.

 

[smithra_66]

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

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.

 

[smithra_66]

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.

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!

 

[RoyM52]

We all did this many years ago....running 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}

 

[minconrevo]

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!

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.

 

[RoyM52]

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.

 

[RoyM52]

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?