Making Dummy Rounds

[walsh]

I was thinking about making rounds to load my magazines for practicing reloads as follows:

1- take twice reloaded brass that has not been tumbled to leave it dirty

2- paint a red stripe around each with enamel primer

3- leave the spent primer in

4- this is for a 9mm so use 147 gr and seat them clearly deeper and they have the blunt nose

5- keep them all in a red brass bag I have and in another room and never practice in a room with any live rounds even though I do not plan to squeeze the trigger in this drill

6- never use them at the range for practicing failure to fire drills

That sounds pretty safe to me. But I'm open to hearing about issues anyone sees before I make about 65 of them.

Thanks in advance,

Walsh

P.S. For making other rounds for drills at the range (other bag kept in car), does the spent primer act as anything for the firing pin? Or would I be as good to go if I knocked them out? Those would be tumbled brass so I don't know when I'm loading magazines which rounds are which.

[g56]

I make dummy rounds to check feeding, when I make them I don't have any primer at all in it, leave the primer pocket empty. Some people will drill holes in the case to mark their dummies.

[dcarter]

+1 on taking out the primer.

[kevin c]

Just an alternative perspective:

It might just be my own experience, but, when dry firing 1911 pattern guns with extended firing pins, the fp's tended to jam in the primer pockets of dummy rounds without spent primers in place. Locked up the action so that I had to take the slide off to unjam everything.

I shoot Production Glocks now. For whatever reason (perhaps a cushioning effect), I get a lot less mvt of the slide/FS/sight picture when the striker hits a snap cap or the dead primer of a dummy round than when dry firing with an empty chamber.

My dummy rounds are completely covered, bullet and case, in bright red marker ink. They all have fired primers in the cases, which were resized with the spent primers reseated. I only use them at home in my dry fire practice area, never at the range and never in/near live ammo or my range bag.

Edited July 21, 2011 by kevin c

[Sarge]

I was thinking about making rounds to load my magazines for practicing reloads as follows:

1- take twice reloaded brass that has not been tumbled to leave it dirty

2- paint a red stripe around each with enamel primer

3- leave the spent primer in

4- this is for a 9mm so use 147 gr and seat them clearly deeper and they have the blunt nose

5- keep them all in a red brass bag I have and in another room and never practice in a room with any live rounds even though I do not plan to squeeze the trigger in this drill

6- never use them at the range for practicing failure to fire drills

That sounds pretty safe to me. But I'm open to hearing about issues anyone sees before I make about 65 of them.

Thanks in advance,

Walsh

P.S. For making other rounds for drills at the range (other bag kept in car), does the spent primer act as anything for the firing pin? Or would I be as good to go if I knocked them out? Those would be tumbled brass so I don't know when I'm loading magazines which rounds are which.

I leave the spent primers in and use nickel cases since I don't reload nickel.

[Loves2Shoot]

I drill the primer pockets out and you can buy brass black at your local sporting-goods store. Just toss them in a zip lock baggie and let them get black, take them out and dry them off and you are done. I chose black, because there is no mistaking the black bullet and case.

[shooter57]

Don't seat the bullets any different than your normal loads. Then you will now the OAL is the same as reg ammo and the functions is the same.

[Bob DuBois]

I use a spent primer, load to the same length, that way I can check feeding or ejection. Mark the extractor groove with a red sharpie and keep them out of my range bag.

[a.roberts]

Another thing you could do is use a different bullet.

If you shoot jacketed, load lead or moly bullets in your dummies and vice-cersa.

[leftee]

Mark the extractor groove with a red sharpie and keep them out of my range bag.

I don't understand comments about keeping dummy rounds out of the range bag. How does one run ball and dummy drills if you can't bring the dummy round to the range?

[MemphisMechanic]

I don't understand comments about keeping dummy rounds out of the range bag. How does one run ball and dummy drills if you can't bring the dummy round to the range?

We keep them out of our range bags, because accidentally loading a dummy into a mag and walking up to the starting line is a lousy reason to screw up a run at a major match.

Also, ball/dummy drills are essentially useless for a seasoned competitive shooter. Once you develop a post-ignition-push that subconsciously helps drive the gun back onto target AFTER the bullet exits the barrel, you'll "fail" the vaunted ball-and-dummy drill just like a novice who *IS* actually flinching before the gun fires.

I know every other gun forum loves that stupid drill, but it ceases to be of use as your mind/body subconsciously take over recoil control. Most recreational shooters simply don't fire enough rounds to worry about it.

Surely you've seen a GM burn down a stage full of small steel, yet have his gun nosedive when a primer fails to ignite? He just went 1-for-1 on four mini-poppers at distance. I highly doubt he's flinching.

Edited July 22, 2011 by MemphisMechanic

[astephenson]

I bent the firing pin on a 9mm 1911 by pulling the trigger with a primerless dummy round in the chamber. Not sure if the firing pin got stuck in the flash hole or against the edge of the primer pocket, but when I ejected the round it was obvious that something was stuck in/on something. The dummy DID eject with a little extra force, but the firing pin was bent in the process.

[leftee]

I don't understand comments about keeping dummy rounds out of the range bag. How does one run ball and dummy drills if you can't bring the dummy round to the range?

We keep them out of our range bags, because accidentally loading a dummy into a mag and walking up to the starting line is a lousy reason to screw up a run at a major match.

Also, ball/dummy drills are essentially useless for a seasoned competitive shooter. Once you develop a post-ignition-push that subconsciously helps drive the gun back onto target AFTER the bullet exits the barrel, you'll "fail" the vaunted ball-and-dummy drill just like a novice who *IS* actually flinching before the gun fires.

I know every other gun forum loves that stupid drill, but it ceases to be of use as your mind/body subconsciously take over recoil control. Most recreational shooters simply don't fire enough rounds to worry about it.

Surely you've seen a GM burn down a stage full of small steel, yet have his gun nosedive when a primer fails to ignite? He just went 1-for-1 on four mini-poppers at distance. I highly doubt he's flinching.

Interesting. Thank you for the clarification. Not sure I have seen what you describe with good shooters, but I'll pay more attention for it. I'm definitely still learning and have lots of room for improvement.

[walsh]

Thanks for all the replies.

Walsh

[noylj]

The only inert dummies I have are the two I make when setting up dies or starting to load a new bullet.

For practicing magazine reloads and what not, do you even need any inert rounds? If so, I would get snap caps for use. Your own dummies will start to suffer bullet set-back after about 3 trip from the magazine to the chamber.

[mcracco]

....For practicing magazine reloads and what not, do you even need any inert rounds?...

Sure, work with fully loaded mags to:

* bring mag up to real world weight

* feed mag with round protruding from mag lips

* force required to seat loaded mag much higher vs. unloaded

Myself, I see great benefit to practicing mag changes with loaded mags but no so much benefit to dry firing.

[Kyreb]

I drilled a hole through each case about midway and then deburred the hole. Left spent primers in place.

No way you can confuse them for loaded ammo.

[kevin c]

One thing worth mentioning, I think:

At least with my Glocks, repeated dry firing with a home made dummy round seems to beat up/peen over the case mouth against the lip of the chamber to the point that it causes binding on extraction of the round. When it gets to that point, I just run the offending dummy through the crimp station on my press to iron out the flanging.

[sqrlnts]

I have also heard of guys cutting down a pencil eraser to fill the empty primer pocket.

[Flatland Shooter]

I have also heard of guys cutting down a pencil eraser to fill the empty primer pocket.

And I've heard of folks filling the primer pocket with silicon caulk. I don't know how well that works but I might give it a try. All my dummy rounds have the old primer removed.

Bill

[walsh]

I drilled a hole through each case about midway and then deburred the hole. Left spent primers in place.

No way you can confuse them for loaded ammo.

I have a drill press and that is a GREAT idea! Not a chance to mistake that for a live round, and no round without a hole is considered to be a dummy round. Thanks

To some discussing primers, in my case all I am doing is loading the magazines for weight for mag change practice, but I appreciate all the thoughts given to my question.

Walsh

[GForceLizard]

I had bullet set back on my 45 ACP dummy rounds. A friend told me to load them corncob before seating the bullet. I setup my powerdrop and loaded them with a slightly compressed load of corncob. So far it's worked to prevent bullet set back.

[OUshooter]

The opinions presented are only mine and its free so you get what you pay for.

1) Dummy rounds are for die setup only.

2) The extra weight in the mags for practice is negligible next to technique.

3) Finger placement on the mag/bullet depends on division. I shoot limited and unless my fingers grow another 1" I will never be able to touch the bullet.

4) never and I mean never.....ever mix live ammo with "dummy" ammo. By mix I mean live and dummy should never be in the same range bag together. It only takes a split second to make a mistake.

5) dry firing an empty chamber on a modern centerfire weapon will have one outcome....better trigger control. my G35 and LR308 have 1000's of dry fire snaps.

Edited July 30, 2011 by OUshooter

[astephenson]

2) The extra weight in the mags for practice is negligible next to technique.

Most of what I've read tends to point otherwise.

[JimmyZip]

2) The extra weight in the mags for practice is negligible next to technique.

Most of what I've read tends to point otherwise.

I make dummy rounds for my limited gun because 21 rounds of 40 is a lot different than an empty mag. I found myself throwing mags around when I went to livefire practice when I would dryfire with empties. So now I dryfire with dummy rounds in my limited gun. Production glock mags? EMPTY. The weight is not an issue with reload practice.