Dry firing

[steveptrs]

I just recently purchased my first pistol. A ruger mkIII hunter. I would like to eventually shoot in a league. So I took it the range to see how well I would do. Lol. I am going to need a lot of practice. Which is fine, I like to practice, shooting is fun.
I have been doing some research and one of the techniques I have come across is to practice dry firing. Which makes sense you get to see flaws that the recoil and noise would otherwise hide.
My question is; if I were to dry fire my gun on a regular basis would I be doing damage to it? What parts would be damaged and would they be easily replaced. What could I do to prevent damage?
Thanks everyone for your help.

 

[Billsail]

I would not dry fire a .22. This repeatedly smashes the firing pin into the edge of the mouth of the chamber. You could break or bend the pin, and do damage to the chamber mouth. A centerfire firearm usually can be dryfired safely, but even then, I like to use snap caps. It takes away some of the shock the pin is subject to.

 

[taggart]

From Ruger's FAQ:

Can I dry fire my Mark III pistol?

Yes. The Mark III has a firing pin stop that prevents the firing pin from contacting the rear of the barrel and damaging the edge of the chamber. If you are going to dry fire the pistol extensively, the stop pin and firing pin will eventually wear and contact could occur, and we recommend replacing both the firing pin and the firing pin stop from time to time. You should also monitor the contact of the firing pin with the rear of the barrel.

 

[MisterHappy]

Well, if it's OK with the manufacturer, then you should be good to go.

Billsail's reply is correct, though, for most .22s.

 

[jasons]

I just recently purchased my first pistol. A ruger mkIII hunter. I would like to eventually shoot in a league. So I took it the range to see how well I would do. Lol. I am going to need a lot of practice. Which is fine, I like to practice, shooting is fun.
I have been doing some research and one of the techniques I have come across is to practice dry firing. Which makes sense you get to see flaws that the recoil and noise would otherwise hide.
My question is; if I were to dry fire my gun on a regular basis would I be doing damage to it? What parts would be damaged and would they be easily replaced. What could I do to prevent damage?
Thanks everyone for your help.

I've dry fired my Mark I thousands of times and it's just fine. If you're really worried about it you can put a spent .22 case in the chamber and just rotate it once in a while.

 

[45collector]

I've dry fired my Mark I thousands of times and it's just fine. If you're really worried about it you can put a spent .22 case in the chamber and just rotate it once in a while.

Some guys will tell you that's a very unsafe practice in that you could have a brainfart moment and accidentally put a live round in when you meant to put a spent one. However, I do the exact same thing with my MKIII upon field stripping it for cleaning and (knock on wood), I've yet to put a hole in my foot.

 

[jasons]

Some guys will tell you.....

We have a name for those guys: Morons.

 

[milktree]

Well, if it's OK with the manufacturer, then you should be good to go.

Billsail's reply is correct, though, for most .22s.

I'm not sure that's true, at least for modern ones.

in looking at mine[1] only one's firing pin moves far enough to contact the chamber, the rest have a gap, so there's never any contact.




[1] Ruger 22/45, S&W Mod. 41, S&W K22, Colt "new-line" 22, Marlin Mod. 60, Mossberg 44US, Savage (somethingorother), Ciener .22 AR conversion. The Savage has been dry fired a *lot* by its previous owner, and it shows. The rest have *zero* marks or damage from dry firing.

I haven't actually measured/tested the ToZ-35, but it has its own built-in way to dry fire it safely, so I do that.

 

[Deleted member 12999]

Dry firing is only going to get you so far... Because you know its not going to go bang. If you are anticipating recoil, get some dummy rounds (not plastic ones) and mix them in as random rounds in a magazine. Then you can observe bad habits when they occur naturally.

Sent from my ADR6350 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Billsail]

Something has to stop the firing pins' forward motion. Eventually that something will either wear out or break. This is true of any firearm. It only means the pin or other components have a finite number of cycles they can perform before failure. Dry firing will speed up their demise.

 

[milktree]

Something has to stop the firing pins' forward motion. Eventually that something will either wear out or break. This is true of any firearm. It only means the pin or other components have a finite number of cycles they can perform before failure. Dry firing will speed up their demise.

Right, in the same way that something has to keep the slide from going forward and flying off the front of the gun.

Everything wears out, eventually.

 

[milktree]

Dry firing is only going to get you so far... Because you know its not going to go bang. If you are anticipating recoil, get some dummy rounds (not plastic ones) and mix them in as random rounds in a magazine. Then you can observe bad habits when they occur naturally.

That depends entirely on what you're trying to accomplish. If you're trying to learn to not flinch or anticipate or push, you're right. But if you're learning to time your shot (like you have to when shooting standing in highpower or smallbore or bullseye) then dry-firing has a huge benefit.

 

[Deleted member 12999]

That depends entirely on what you're trying to accomplish. If you're trying to learn to not flinch or anticipate or push, you're right. But if you're learning to time your shot (like you have to when shooting standing in highpower or smallbore or bullseye) then dry-firing has a huge benefit.

Fair enough. I was making assumptions.

Sent from my ADR6350 using Tapatalk 2

 

[rojkoh]

Been a lot of years since I've handled a Ruger pistol. It depends on the caliber. If it's a .22, keep spent empty cases around and use them a couple of times to dry fire before you replace it with another empty. It takes the abuse you'd inflict on the barrel/chamber. For center fire pistols, you can get snap caps. The Berretta's cannot be dry fired, you will break the firing pin and that is directly from Berretta. 1911's? You will peen the firing pin, but they're easy to fix and/or replace.

Me? I'm a 1911 type and since I started shooting IPSC in the days of Cooper, Bob Weaver and so on, I dry fired my 1911's every night. When I first started I had one of Mike Horne's (a Cooper instructor and designed and ran the SOF three gun matches) SNICK Holsters. Since they were tricky, I dry fired out of it for months before I started live fire to make sure of muscle memory and making sure I never swept my weak hand coming out of the holster and into battery. The practice pays and to this day my muscle memory still holds up as well as my tactile feel for sear break. Don't ask about the trigger pull on my sidearms, I had a tuned Ruger Blackhawk for cowboy matches that only 2 people I knew could pick up and use without having an AD.

 

[rojkoh]

A man after my own taste, love 1911's. I used to have a Hi-Power up until 1976 I think it was when one of Jeff Cooper's gunsite instructor's talked me into a 70 series Colt. It was IPSC tuned with 30 line checkering. took me a bit to build the proper skill set with it, but I've never turned back from it. With a touch of luck, I'll be having Les Baer build me one later in the year. I have to talk to him since I like my .45's, my way chuckle. I love 1911A1 grip safeties with the 1911 hammer so people don't ask to borrow it, since it bites!

 

[Billsail]

Cool

 

[That Guy]

Just another anecdote from my own personal experience. I have been in the Army about two decades and seen tens of thousands of dry fires with M16s, M4s and M9s and not only have I never seen a single incident where the gun was damaged from dry firing, but I have also made it a point to ask armorers over the years and none of them have seen such a thing either (I was curious because I grew up being told that dry firing my guns would definitely destroy them).

The Army actually has recruits spend hours and hours doing dry fire drills (mostly washer/dime drills) before they ever get to put a live round in the chamber.

Personally, I dry fire all my weapons including the rim fires and I've never had a problem, but that doesn't mean there isn't some weapon out there that is going to fall apart from dry firing. But I wouldn't want to own such a firearm anyway.

 

[rangoon]

I've been dry-firing mine for years. No noticible damage. But I do use snap-caps.