Dry Firing

[j0hn]

I'm just wondering if dry firing your competition gun is ok. I am about to order a Brazos High Performance Edge and wondering if I should dare to even dry fire it once it gets here. Is it a bad thing to do? Does it hurt the gun? Make it less accurate? Less Reliable? Does it do nothing at all and is ok to do? I have been dry firing one of my 1911's for ever and never had a single hiccup out of it and its accuracy remained true. I eventually got a Pachmayr bullet that you chamber and dry fire with. Would you recommend I do this with a Limited competition pistol? If not would it be ok to do it with one of those Pachmayr things?

Thanks,

j0hn

[Jake Di Vita]

Dry Firing is an absolute requirement to developing any real skill with a pistol.

It won't hurt the gun. Feel free to use snap caps if you want, but in my experience they have been unnecessary.

I have without exaggeration dry fired guns well over a million times.

[bkeeler]

Dry Firing is an absolute requirement to developing any real skill with a pistol.

It won't hurt the gun. Feel free to use snap caps if you want, but in my experience they have been unnecessary.

I have without exaggeration dry fired guns well over a million times.

+1

Dry fire w/confidence!

BK

[BSeevers]

I don't know. I am over 1 million DF and am worried something is gonna happen

[Catfish]

Just do it.

[Flyin40]

Go back to the forums home page and in the search box(click search at top right corner) put in dryfire. Start reading, you'll be amazed how much info you will find.

Short quick answer

Dryfire as much as possible. Take alittle time, do some reading and post some questions if your having trouble understanding anything. The people on here will be more than happy to help

Flyin

[Guy Neill]

Dry fire is important to developing shooting skill. It is hard on the firing pin spring. See my short article on the Wilson Combat website in Issue 3 of their newsletter that includes a photo of a couple of the springs subjected to prolonged dry fire.

Guy

http://www.wilsoncombat.com/enewsletter2.htm

Edited February 16, 2008 by Flexmoney
to add link

[warpspeed]

Very interesting.

[AlamoShooter]

I do it . but I talk very sweet to the gun after. Just don't let the slide slam on an empty chamber, + and empty mag may go past the mag catch and ding up the bottom of the slide with the mag lips at the back of the mag. So put a snap cap or a few dummy rounds in the mag to practice reloads.

I have some dummy's filled with two lead bullets so that they are heavy and I put 10 or so in the mags.

[Johann the Horrible]

Sometimes I think dry-firing is a misnomer. The way I do it the hammer only falls at the first shot. After that I only work the trigger as if I am really shooting. Actually very little wear and tear on the gun. I dry-fire as much as I can but know that it is very easy to practice junk so you need to make sure that your sight picture is perfect every time before you work the trigger. You need to watch your sights to make sure they do not dip(jerking the trigger)

Never dry-fire just to get it done, practice something specific every time.

I started off using paintings and light fittings as targets but now made myself small metric targets(that's what we shoot) and I am really trying to "take two Alphas" on every target before transitioning to the next target.

As my home has wooden floors I have to be careful where my mags fall so I set that up carefully as well. A well place cushion will normally do the job for me.

This works for me, use the search function and see what other, world class shooters that frequent thins forum, does.

[Rocket35]

Me thinks- dryfire good.

[kuh pahl]

I use a small piece of rubber insert that fits over the firing pin (with a hole cutout) to cushion the hammer as it falls. It has to be just thick enough that a hammer strike will not push the pin forward. I also use something of bright color so I don't forget to remove it in a match.

It's just another option over a snap cap, but without the wear and tear on the firing pin and spring.

Just my 2 cents.

[PINMAN44]

If I dry fired any pistol and it broke than I don't want it.

Dry fire as much as possible.

[Putty]

Dryfire is pure evil. ... ....<beep> click

I like the movement dryfire drills where I set up targets in the house and move through them end to end.

[CrankyCrash]

I try to dryfire at least 3 - 4 days week, 30 minutes each. I use the drills from Steve Anderson.

In just 4 short months of this I've gone from a low USPSA Production "D" class to a very high "C" class, so high in fact I think I'll be a "B" class very soon. I've also gone from a mediocre IDPA SSP Marksman to a Sharpshooter.

So, is it worth the time and effort. YES!!!

Happy Shooting and SEMPER FI!!!

[boz1911]

Dry firing is essential for development in this sport. That being said I have been quite lazy about it the last 5-6 weeks. Now that I switched to shooting open that has to change. Drawing to weak hand with a dot can be interesting to say the least. It virtually cost me a stage win last weekend. We had 3 eight round strings of fire to 2 targets minimum per string. 1st string freestyle 2.6 seconds, 2nd string stronghand <4.0 seconds, third string weak hand 9.2 seconds! Talk about killing a stage!! So guess where my dryfire focus will be for while!

[bompa]

Don't mean to hijack this thread but I need so info that is related..

I just did a swap for a S&W M&P 9mm ..This gun has the Mass trigger,around lbs,and figure that dry firing would help to smooth out the pull..I find nothing in the manual on this topic whatsoever..I have a Sigma and have been told that dryfire does not harm it in any way so it has been dry fired like maybe a million times and shot quite a bit and the trigger did smooth out rather well..Still heavy but better..Was told on an other forum not to dry fire with out a snapcap..Must say snap caps are a pain in the butt and would prefer not to use them...I read that the M&P is getting rather popular and hoped that someone would set me on the right path..

Thanks

Bompa

[Paladin]

Oxygen: Good or Bad?

[Dalmas]

I've also shot +1M rounds in dry fire and still do for some techniques but I've also bought a custom airsoft gun because I want a receipt on my my training. Thus I can record HF etc. With a quality Airsoft and dry fire I get more quality than just dry fire alone.

[Duane Thomas]

See my short article on the Wilson Combat website in Issue 3 of their newsletter

Very interesting. I've never had a problem with my 1911 firing pin springs from dry firing; then again, I've always used Wolff recoil springs which include a new firing pin spring in the same pack, so when I've changed the recoil spring I've always swapped out the firing pin spring at the same time. I always figured I was being a bit anal retentive there. Apparently not.

[Neomet]

Absolutely do not dryfire, or for that matter practice at all. You will do much better against me in competition if you don't even take the pistol out of the safe until match day.

Just kidding of course. I think the belief is rooted in history. My dad, who was a master gunsmith among other things never, ever, ever agreed with dryfiring a gun. It wasn't the only thing we ever disagreed on but it was one of the few things I was actually right about. After thousands and thousands of drysnaps I have yet to see a single problem.

[ChrisStock]

I guess it's a good thing when you are dry-firing enough to break trigger return springs.

I firmly agree with dryfire, as witnessed by my trigger return springs being broken on my SP01. I spoke with Angus about this wondering why this was occurring, and apparently the springs overheat and shatter with multiple rapid DA pulls. The solution is to limit the fast DA pulls and keep the spring packed in the grease of my choice.

I won't stop dryfire, just alter the way I do it to keep my blaster in running condition.

[sherpa]

...... I spoke with Angus about this wondering why this was occurring, and apparently the springs overheat and shatter with multiple rapid DA pulls. The solution is to limit the fast DA pulls and keep the spring packed in the grease of my choice.

Hi. How much grease/oil? Won't this build more crud in there that would be difficult to clean? Thanks.

[ChrisStock]

I just dab a bit of slide glide #1 on the trigger spring with a q-tip and it is staying intact. Time will tell.

[Shoot-4-Ever]

This story may not mean much to you pistol shooters, but here is a good experience I had in dry firing.

Was shooting in a timed shoot-off match with rimfire rifle. Had some decent scores on first few targets, then went directly to hell. .

Because I had a few seconds to spare in the match, I carefully dry-fired three rounds at the target (with my rifle suited for dry firing) durring the match to try to find what I was doing wrong. Then I was able to complete the rest of the target with probably the best hits I have ever had on paper for a match shoot. I may try this trick again when having a bad day.

As for pistol, I dry fire often and have done so for about 30 years (with center fire pistols and revolvers) with no problems ever. It really does help to improve my skills. However, the wife gets sick of it after about 6,000 dry fires at the TV when we are watching a good action movie. I don't think she understands the need for it.

Bang-Away (click-click-click-click-click)!