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Releasing the spring tension by dry firing shotgun


Youngeyes

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Can't find this one. I have a 12gauge Citori trap. Should I release the hammers after takedown to relieve the tension on the main spring?

You should use snap caps if you dry fire a Citori.

I would leave them cocked when the receiver is separated from the barrels.

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I think the slight theoretical advantage of longer spring life is far offset by the number of AD's when the snap cap turned out to be a live round. I never snap my Brownings but my Perazzi yes because of the leaf spring and I can remove the trigger group and relax the spring out of the with it out of the gun.

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I snap my Citori only if it will be sitting unused for like a month(which is never now). Coil springs don't give much trouble.

Mine went 10yrs. and over 40,000rds. before I changed hammer springs. And I changed them because the locking block was being rebuilt.

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As mentioned, I would release the spring tension if your shotgun uses 'Leaf springs'.

Coil springs are pretty tough and I doubt you need to.

If you decide to 'snap' the FP's, then it is VERY wise to use snap caps.

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I take down my gun in a case to transport.I use the plastic side of a kolar tube hammer in place of snap caps and trigger both hammers.Everybody I see taking their guns down to put in cases leaving a shoot does too.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I'm not saying that its a good idea, and I sure don't do it, but an instructor that I know dry fires his Citori thousands of times for practice... just like we do with our pistols. His gun is about five years old, and no worse for wear.

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I think the slight theoretical advantage of longer spring life is far offset by the number of AD's when the snap cap turned out to be a live round. I never snap my Brownings but my Perazzi yes because of the leaf spring and I can remove the trigger group and relax the spring out of the with it out of the gun.

This. Good lord, this.

I've been in a crowded clubhouse when someone pulled the trigger on a live shell thinking it was a snap cap. Luckily, the barrel was pointed down but all the shot ricocheted up off the floor and hit the ceiling. You can still see the pellet holes if you look for them. You've never heard 200 people get so quiet so quickly. That gentlemen was invited never to return.

Also, I'll give $1,000 to anyone who has broken a coil spring and can prove it would have lasted longer if they had been relaxing the springs in storage. I'll go a step further and ask if anyone has ever even broken a coil hammer spring. I'll also give someone $1,000 who has broken a firing pin or hammer who can prove that it would have lasted longer with a snap cap (rimfires don't count for this wager).

I own somewhere around 35 shotguns. None of them are dry fired for storage, whether a pump, auto, O/U, or SxS. If you read the manual of some of the "race guns" of shotguns (Perazzi, Krieghoff, Blaser, Due Beretta and so on), I don't think you'll find any mention of dry firing for storage.

Edited by leftnose
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  • 2 weeks later...

Out of curiosity, is anyone else aware of competitors dry firing a shotgun repeatedly in practice, or is the instructor that I mentioned crazy?

Yes, but!

Shooting clays is nothing like shooting a pistol or rifle. There isn't a static target and trigger control is meaningless. So to sit and practice trigger control while pointing at a spot on the wall with a clays gun is pointless and possibly harmful because you're training muscle memory to aim your shotgun which is a big no-no.

You don't really hear about trap and skeet shooters dry firing for practice but for those people who are trying to learn to shoot low gun for int'l skeet, sporting clays or FITASC, you hear about people practicing their mount at home in much the same manner that a practical pistol shooter would practice his draw.

You mount the gun while swinging the gun on a line (say where the wall meets the ceiling) and fire. That's dryfiring for a clays shooter, not standing still, aiming, and practicing trigger control.

Me, personally? I've probably shot low gun 250K times at real targets so I don't really practice my mount anymore.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 years later...
On Monday, March 26, 2012 at 2:32 PM, Youngeyes said:

Can't find this one. I have a 12gauge Citori trap. Should I release the hammers after takedown to relieve the tension on the main spring?

I use snap caps and release spring tension

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