Dry Firing

[champs]

I was always taught to never dry fire my rifle for fear of ruining the firing pin. Now I read a Western Sportsman article recently and it recommended dry firing for those times when you cannot get out and practice at the range. Anyone with knowledge care to help me out? Is it ok or not?

[brotherjack]

I dry fire my rifles pretty regularly, for just that reason (trigger practice), and it has never seemed to hurt any of them. Not recommending it or anything, just passing on my own experience.

[JeffR]

I woun't dry fire a rimfire rifle though, the firing pin hitting the edge of the empty chamber can damage both the pin and create a burr on the side of the chamber.

[champs]

oh i see... so perhaps i am just forgetting that my instructors said do not dry fire a rimfire rifle... makes sense. anyone else?

[steel_ram]

Most of us start of with rimfires where dryfiring can be harmfull to the firing pin since the pin actually impacts the steel of the barrel end, where the brass rim of the cartridge normally cushions thge blow. Centerfires your just striking at air.

[Gateholio]

Dry fire of centerfire= fine

Dry fire of MOST , but no ALL rimfires= bad.

Also,this should be in a different forum.

[Mark_S]

I ruined the firing pin on my P14 lee enfield dry firing it. "click" "pop" broken firing pin.


I do dry fire my remingtons and winchesters once in a while, still after having one break I am a bit leary of having another break.

[Wildfoot]

ive been trying to figure out if the firing pin / bolt on my gevarm semi-auto .22 can be harmed by dry firing. The pin cant break.. but i dont know if the ridge wear down?

[Walksalot]

http://www.pistoleer.com/azoom/

[Nalidixic]

Here is an idea if you want to dry fire your rimfire. Just take it out to the range and pop off a .22 and keep the expended shell. When you want to dry fire, just put the empty shell in the chamber to cushion the blow of the firing pin.

Mike

[sealevel]

I`ve killed hundreds of hockey players over the years. I found the best practice for me trigger pull and picking up objects with the scope was a hockey game on tv. so i have dry fired my remmimgton countless times. I think the old saying of no dry fireing came from the percussion muzzle loaders.

[Gun Dog]

With 22s the pin can contact the end of the chamber and break the pin or form a ridge that interferes with insertion/extraction. Better (i.e. target or competition) 22s are designed to be dry fired. Read the manual.

[Drachen Jager]

In the army they ran us through dry fire drills before going out to the ranges so we'd be habituated to not flinch as we pulled the trigger. It's really good for a beginner, just get them into a prone shooting position place a coin on the barrel (carefully balanced) and have them fire, it forces the shooter to be very still or the coin falls off, once you've done that a few dozen times you'll be rock steady when you shoot.

[SLIK]

I`ve killed hundreds of hockey players over the years. I found the best practice for me trigger pull and picking up objects with the scope was a hockey game on tv. so i have dry fired my remmimgton countless times.

Awesome, ya I do the same thing:smile: