Is dry firing bad for your gun?

[K45]

I was just wondering if dry firing was bad or not. I know people who wig out if their pistols are dry fired. I personally don't have a problem with it, but know I wonder about it.

So whats the deal?

[Jake Di Vita]

No it's not bad.

I bet those shooters that wig out when their gun is dry fired aren't very good are they.

[AlamoShooter]

You can end up with hair on the Palm of your hand, but the gun will be fine

[G-ManBart]

I was just wondering if dry firing was bad or not. I know people who wig out if their pistols are dry fired. I personally don't have a problem with it, but know I wonder about it.

So whats the deal?

It's not good for rimfire guns (.22s) but pretty much any centerfire handgun will be fine. It's possible to eventually wear some of the parts, but it's really not a factor....heck, actual shooting wears those same parts.

[HoMiE]

You can end up with hair on the Palm of your hand, but the gun will be fine

I heard it makes you go blind. My eye sight is perfect, whatever!

[Johann the Horrible]

Because I dry-fire so much I remove the firing pin.(For some reason I worry about the firing pin)

[ChrisStock]

My snap caps have primer simulators with a spring inside so that they have a little give and the firing pin doesn't come to a screeching halt with every shot. You can learn quite a bit by videoing yourself dry firing at home. I can't imagine being competitive without it.

[gunsablazin]

Just do it!

[BSeevers]

Yea I understand what you mean about dryfiring being bad on a gun.

I only got around a million cycles in my guns and I am looking for them to go any day now.

Edited February 18, 2008 by BSeevers

[David Sinko]

The only problem I ever had is with a custom Ruger Redhawk. I wore out one transfer bar and broke two hammer links largely through extensive dry firing. It's definitely harder on the revolvers than on the autos.

Dave Sinko

[AWLAZS]

Yes its bad I dropped my trying to go warp speed on a weak hand transfer. It busted the glass in my c more

[Rojo]

I called S&W on my DA/SA production pistol. They told me, the more i pull that crappy trigger, the better it'll get.

[sslav]

When I started in practical shooting, I was absolutely certain that dry-firing would damage my gun. I have no idea how I came by this belief - I think some guy at a gunstore reacted violently to my dryfiring one of the pistols I was looking at. In any case it seems this is a misconception that I am not alone suffering from. I wonder how it came to be.

Slav

[SA Friday]

Yes its bad I dropped my trying to go warp speed on a weak hand transfer. It busted the glass in my c more

It wasn't the dry firing, it was the gravitational pull with a sudden stop that was bad

[AWLAZS]

Yes its bad I dropped my trying to go warp speed on a weak hand transfer. It busted the glass in my c more

It wasn't the dry firing, it was the gravitational pull with a sudden stop that was bad

I think it was the second or third bounce.

[j1b]

What everyone else said is true. Nothing wrong with dryfiring a centerfire. Like others, I dry fire the crap out of all my guns and never had an issue.

Sometimes I like to think about it like this. Do you think shooting the gun is bad for it? Probably not right? So when you compare what happens to the gun (realistically every part on the gun) when you actually fire it versus what happens when you simply dry fire it I think the point becomes mute. If dry firing the gun is bad for it, how could firing it be any better??

Dry fire. You can't be the shooter you're capable of if you don't.

J

[MichiganShootist]

I was told by a very reliable person/instructor.... that the old single action revolvers (Colts and such) had very brittle firing pins (which were mounted on the hammer back then)..... so having a firing pin break when it hit the frame rather than the primer of a round was quite common.

Hence the advise to never dry fire.... which has been passed down for generations.

BTW--- at virtually every pistol class I teach ... at least one person raises the question of damaging a pistol by dry fire practice... so the folk lore lives on.

[shooter757]

Ok w/Glocks

[crsmn]

It would seem if dry firing is bad on the guns, we would hear plenty about it. Quite the contrary.

[XRe]

Yes its bad I dropped my trying to go warp speed on a weak hand transfer. It busted the glass in my c more

It wasn't the dry firing, it was the gravitational pull with a sudden stop that was bad

In a human being, we call that Sudden Deceleration Syndrome... aka, SPLAT!

[FranDoc]

Is the 'click' portion of 'beep, click' always necessary? I believe that Anderson addressed this earlier.

If dry fire is used to acquire, refine and accelerate the kinesthetic skills -- draw, turns, transitions, movement, etc -- a good sight picture may be more important than the actual 'click', unless you're working on the trigger press (not jerking).

The trigger on my XD will move without the gun being cocked, so it rarely goes 'click' in practice. I know that Micah has previously detailed (with photos) a way to keep a Glock slightly out of battery so that the trigger continues to move after the first 'shot'.

I've been yelled at by good ol' boys at gun shops for dry firing the merchandise - 1911's & polymer Production guns. Myth dies hard.

[Sam]

A collector honors guns by preserving them and a shooter by constantly employing them. I depends on the man and the gun.

[tpcdvc]

This notion of dry firing a gun being bad for a gun is rooted in truth but does not apply today. My uncle was a gunsmith and replaced a ton of firing pins and related pieces in old rifles center fire or not. The metal in years past simply couldn't handle much dry fire. But those days are long gone.

[Conqueror]

Here's the skinny on dry firing:

As tpcdvc mentioned, the legend is rooted in truth. Old guns with firing pins made before modern metallurgical methods have firing pins which are more ductile. That means the metal is more prone to stretching, and it will lengthen a tiny amount each time it is dry fired. Eventually it will become so stretched that it either breaks or starts puncturing primers, either of which is obviously bad. However, modern metallurgy has rendered this a non-issue, and no modern centerfire pistol sould have issues with dry-firing. That said, there is no harm in using snap caps, so if it makes you even 1% more comfortable, go for it.

The one exception is certain rimfire weapons. Because rimfires work by crushing the cartridge rim against the face of the chamber, the firing pin can strike the edge of the chamber face if there is no cartridge present. Over time this can peen the metal down into the chamber entrance, causing feeding/extraction problems and ignition failures. Some weapons, like Ruger pistols and rifles, have a built-in firing pin stop which prevents this damage, and therefore they can safely be dry-fired. However, it's best to contact the manufacturer of any rimfire weapon you wish to dry fire and ask about the safety of doing so with your rimfire weapon.

[19852]

Question: How about Colt series 80? I was dry firing recently getting ready for a match when the firing pin stop just falls out when I lock the slide open. The firing pin is jammed forward , so I release the FPB and the pin comes out. I inspected the spring and pin; no visable damage to the pin but, metal shavings or broken coils come out also. I replaced the spring with a Wolff XP and I ordered a Wilson bullet proof pin [just to be sure]. So, can I continue dry fire w/o a snap cap? Has this happened to anyone else?