Dry Fire?

[morgan1109]

I was always taught never to dry fire a weapon. When I was having trouble with my Savage I was told to dry fire it 15 times diagnose the issue. My buddy was getting some help aiming and shooting his handgun from a pro and he had him doing some dry fire exercises. So clearly there are guns that dry firing isn’t a problem. My question is how do i know WHICH weapons I can dry fire, and which ones I can’t.

I would assume any rim fire should not be dry fired? Wouldn’t that mess up the pinching of the rim? The pin would get mushroomed from impacting the metal frame with no “give” like the shell right?

I would assume any gun with a cocked hammer could be dry fired? The hammer seems capable of taking the direct blow and there is nothing to actually impact the firing pin.

Center fires? There’s nothing to impact the pin, but what about the spring in most bolt actions?
Shotguns?
Revolvers versus semi-auto hand guns?

[pposey]

On most modern weapons there is not an issue except with rimfires that should never br dry fired

[lwh723]

Oct 14, 2010 13:42:10 GMT -5 pposey said:

On most modern weapons there is not an issue except with rimfires that should never br dry fired

+1

[joe21a]

The only weapon I have ever dry fired a lot were hand guns (revolvers) . I was always told the any thing else should only be dry fired with a snap cap in place . I was also told that the firring pin striking the back side of the bolt face was the problem as it could cause the tip of the firing pin to snap off. Have never observed this happening to a firing pin, but also have never dry fired my rifles very often. This may have been a problem on older weapons and is no longer viable with the better steel used in todays bolts and firring pins. I do not think dry firing on an empty chamber once in a while will cause any damage to your rifle, but I also would not feel good dry firing a rifle as much as I used my 38 Combat revolver.