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Is It Safe To Dry Fire Your Gun

Keystone19250 said:
The owners manual for Every SA firearm I’ve purchased says not to dry fire. Now the hypocrisy of that is you need to dry fire “pull the trigger” on all the XDM models in order to remove the slide for cleaning.
Also as mentioned the HellCat has been known to break the firing pin during excessive dry fire.
Good article @Annihilator
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The Hellcat also requires a dry fire to disassemble...
 
SimonRL said:
Actually, the TX22 can be dry fired. It also requires a trigger pull to disassemble.
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I've been seeing this more often with modern .22 LR firearms. The manufacturers claim that not only the Taurus TX22, but also the Ruger LCR and Ruger LCP II LR can be safely dry-fired. I'm still use snap caps in the LCR, but that's mainly just because I'm old and can't change my ways after the use of snap caps for .22's was drilled into my head for so many years.
 
I don’t dry fire my TX22 because it is such a beautiful, light pistol to shoot that I’m not sure that dry firing it gives me any real benefit. My TX22 has a green dot on it and I can shoot it with surgical precision. It’s a real guilty pleasure. I’d just as soon dry fire a similarly sized 9mm like my IWI Masada where I get a real benefit.
 
SimonRL said:
I don’t dry fire my TX22 because it is such a beautiful, light pistol to shoot that I’m not sure that dry firing it gives me any real benefit. My TX22 has a green dot on it and I can shoot it with surgical precision. It’s a real guilty pleasure. I’d just as soon dry fire a similarly sized 9mm like my IWI Masada where I get a real benefit.
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Nice! I've been looking at the TX22 for my wife to have fun at the range. Just gotta find one for a proper price now.
 
Someone mentioned above that the Hellcat had an issue with the firing pin breaking from dryfiring. Is this still accurate? I also have a SA 911, hammer fired. Is there an issue with dryfiring this as well? I looked in the owners manual for both and found the same warning:

NOTE: Extensive dry firing can accelerate component wear/stress. Use snap caps if dry firing on a regular basis.

Is this just a standard warning for any firearm? In any of your opinions, what constitutes "extensive" dry firing? There was another thread on the the Hellcat hitting low and left. I had done some reading prior to this thread and had been doing some dry firing with the purpose of making sure POA does not move with trigger pull. I adjusted my grip a little and I think it's better, but now this dry firing issue is in the forefront.

So, is dry fire with the Hellcat or 911 OK? Or is it something that will wind up breaking something? Dry fire OK as long as it's not "extensive"? If so, what is "extensive"?
 
uspatriot1960 said:
Someone mentioned above that the Hellcat had an issue with the firing pin breaking from dryfiring. Is this still accurate? I also have a SA 911, hammer fired. Is there an issue with dryfiring this as well? I looked in the owners manual for both and found the same warning:

NOTE: Extensive dry firing can accelerate component wear/stress. Use snap caps if dry firing on a regular basis.

Is this just a standard warning for any firearm? In any of your opinions, what constitutes "extensive" dry firing? There was another thread on the the Hellcat hitting low and left. I had done some reading prior to this thread and had been doing some dry firing with the purpose of making sure POA does not move with trigger pull. I adjusted my grip a little and I think it's better, but now this dry firing issue is in the forefront.

So, is dry fire with the Hellcat or 911 OK? Or is it something that will wind up breaking something? Dry fire OK as long as it's not "extensive"? If so, what is "extensive"?
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So, I asked this question a while ago. I believe I saw someone saying more recently that their firing pin broke on their Hellcat and it made me start thinking again.

Anyone have an answer to the questions in my last post? As stated earlier, you do have to dry fire the Hellcat to disassemble. And when I get home and take the round out of the chamber, I like to have the trigger pulled so I know there is no round in the chamber (I know there’s a loaded chamber window and I know I can leave the trigger in the ready position, I’m just kind of weird about that). But now I worry if I dry fire too much for disassembly or just having the trigger depressed as an indicator, will my firing pin break? AND, I’ve never broken a firing pin before. Is this something you will know when it happens or will the gun just not fire at a crucial point in time?

Experienced advice and thoughts would be appreciated.
 
uspatriot1960 said:
Looks like no one wants to take this question on... Oh well.
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It is (I) that made that post and the information I posted comes from information I’ve come to learn on this forum and other online sources.
No I don’t have any more information on whether the firing pin breaking during dry fire is still an issue and I also don’t own a HellCat. My suggestion is to you and other’s that want to know more is Google that question.
 
@uspatriot1960 some information I found.

www.thearmorylife.com

Hellcat Firing Bins reported broken

There have been a few posts on Facebook about broken firing pins. I've seen three this week. I saw a post here about it being related to dry firing. Most modern handguns should be fine with dry firing, but now it looks it's not just dry firing. Any personal accounts of this? Any idea of what's...
www.thearmorylife.com www.thearmorylife.com


www.defensivecarry.com

Springfield Hellcat- broken striker

www.defensivecarry.com www.defensivecarry.com


 
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Keystone19250 said:
@uspatriot1960 some information I found.

www.thearmorylife.com

Hellcat Firing Bins reported broken

There have been a few posts on Facebook about broken firing pins. I've seen three this week. I saw a post here about it being related to dry firing. Most modern handguns should be fine with dry firing, but now it looks it's not just dry firing. Any personal accounts of this? Any idea of what's...
www.thearmorylife.com www.thearmorylife.com


www.defensivecarry.com

Springfield Hellcat- broken striker

www.defensivecarry.com www.defensivecarry.com


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Thanks Keystone. Sounds like some dry firing is ok as long as you are not doing a ridiculous amount. And it sounds like there’s not some inherent problem with the Hellcat specifically dry firing. Like any other piece of machinery, stuff randomly happens.

Doesn’t sound like I do enough dry firing to worry about it.
 
I don't have a Hellcat so take this with a grain of salt. I went back and forth with Springfield on dry firing an XDe. All over the internet, there are folks saying you can't harm a modern centerfire by dry firing. The person I was emailing back and forth went to engineering to ask them. They basically said what you have surmised: If you are planning to do a lot (no definition for a lot) of dry firing, you should use snap caps. I like to err on the side of caution, so I ordered snap caps and use them anytime I am dry firing. My question now is how long can you use an individual snap cap (I like A Zoom) before it is "worn out," and how can you tell when you should order new ones? By the way, they are not very expensive.
 
I don't repeatedly dryfire ANY centerfire handgun without a snap cap. Despite being more robust than a rimfire - they ALL have issues if you do it enough. It's the ultimate in cheap insurance - I don't know why you'd insist on doing it without one.

For context - I dryfire every day for 20-40 minutes. This regimin in the past broke parts on CZ firing pin block models in about a week. They're "Safe to dryfire" according to the manufacturer. A few times here and there aren't going to break the gun - but if you use dryfire as a form of practice - you will break your gun with enough volume.

If you get honest about a gun - it's got a bunch of springs - the springs fatigue with use - whether in livefire or dryfire. Using a snap cap reduces the travel of the firing pin - likely staving off some of the wear on the spring it'd have otherwise.

Now - more than ever - I modify dryfire to minimize the wear on the firing pin - keeping a dead trigger on an XDME or keeping the trigger cocked - but only prepping the trigger to fire in dryfire and not going all the way with the press. On DASA guns I will pull through the one double action pull then simulate single action. On SAO guns - the hammer falls once and then you just simulate trigger presses on a dead trigger.
 
TheHumbleMarksman said:
I don't repeatedly dryfire ANY centerfire handgun without a snap cap. Despite being more robust than a rimfire - they ALL have issues if you do it enough. It's the ultimate in cheap insurance - I don't know why you'd insist on doing it without one.

For context - I dryfire every day for 20-40 minutes. This regimin in the past broke parts on CZ firing pin block models in about a week. They're "Safe to dryfire" according to the manufacturer. A few times here and there aren't going to break the gun - but if you use dryfire as a form of practice - you will break your gun with enough volume.

If you get honest about a gun - it's got a bunch of springs - the springs fatigue with use - whether in livefire or dryfire. Using a snap cap reduces the travel of the firing pin - likely staving off some of the wear on the spring it'd have otherwise.

Now - more than ever - I modify dryfire to minimize the wear on the firing pin - keeping a dead trigger on an XDME or keeping the trigger cocked - but only prepping the trigger to fire in dryfire and not going all the way with the press. On DASA guns I will pull through the one double action pull then simulate single action. On SAO guns - the hammer falls once and then you just simulate trigger presses on a dead trigger.
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I agree, I always use snap caps when I do dry fire, but I rather go out and shoot live rounds, well, until now, since ammo is hard to come by.
 
uspatriot1960 said:
Thanks Keystone. Sounds like some dry firing is ok as long as you are not doing a ridiculous amount. And it sounds like there’s not some inherent problem with the Hellcat specifically dry firing. Like any other piece of machinery, stuff randomly happens.

Doesn’t sound like I do enough dry firing to worry about it.
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I think this is your answer ...... anything mechanical is subject to breaking at some point in time from over use, mistreatment, poor maintenance, improper use, and many other reasons. I think you hit it on the head along with Anni when you posted this from the text of the owners/users manual: "NOTE: Extensive dry firing can accelerate component wear/stress. Use snap caps if dry firing on a regular basis." I think "Extensive" is the key word and wouldn't think the times you have to dry fire to disassemble the firearm would generally cause a problem, otherwise the design would have been different.

Those who might sit around and play with the gun and continually dry fire are the ones most likely to have an issue. But that's not a fault with the gun, it's simply a case of over use and/or abuse. Get some 'snap caps' and use them if you're going to practice with any amount of dry firing, but if you're just disassembling it for routine cleaning, I don't think there's anything to worry about. Enjoy your gun! (y)(y)(y)
 
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