FAQ - 21 (Dry Firing)

Does dry firing a firearm hurt it? By the way, "dry firing" means to drop the hammer on an empty chamber. As I say in the video, " with nothing in it."

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• .44
• Magnum
• 629
• Dry
• Firing
• S&W
• Smith
• Wesson
• revolver

[7x57mmMauser]

Metal on metal is what happens when dry firing. Unless you have a way to stop physics then there will be damage. The damage may be more miniscule on some style of weapons than others but rest assured there IS DAMAGE. All parts on a weapon have what is called in the industry "cycle life". This is the ammount of times a part can be cycled before it either work hardens, fractures, peens, dimensionally distorts or goes out of tolerance.

[hickok45]

@7x57mmMauser, Yep, every time we fire a gun, it's metal on metal, big time, empty or not. :-)

[1337Flaps]

0:38 OMG THERES SOEMTHING BEHIND YOU!!!

bottom right of screen

[hickok45]

@1337Flaps , Looks like another one of those pesky bears. If it's not Zombies, it's the wildlife around here; good reason to be packing something with power when out and about.

[hickok45]

As you can see, opinions about dry firing are all over the place. No one person is likely to have experience dry firing hundreds of guns thousands of times (I might be close to that, though, come to think of it. :-)). Unless you do it a great deal, you're not likely to have problems with any gun, even a rimfire; however, it might make sense to get some snap caps if you are going to train by dry firing quite a lot.

[panther67100]

I would get snap caps anyway for each caliber that you have

[moderns30]

@7x57mmMauser I don't know that I would necessarily call it damage per say, more along the lines of wear, which I guess could be constituted as damage, but damage would seem to be from an abnormal cause, where as the "Damage" caused by firing a gun happens in a predicable normality, at least we would hope so.

[CSLFiero]

your dog is a great camera man

[imaredeneck13]

i heard that dry firing a fire arm that has a firing pin is bad for it but then again i may be wrong, But just to be safe i buy Special cases called snap caps Witch is cut to cartridge size but has no powder or primer

[jigsaw183]

I called Ruger and they told me I could dry fire ANY of there firearms as much as I wanted. I have to say I have dry fired my 10/22 and Sr40c hundreds of times with no ill effects.

[WoodlandSurvival1]

did any 1 notice the dog lol???

[unstoppable008]

@hickok45 The first and better reason is in case of zombies.

[bronxborn1974]

I am new to guns... I just got a glock 17, and while I am trying to learn all about the safe operation of it from all sources possible(and you're a big part of that, Hickok!) I did read in the owners manual that in order to remove the slide, you must first( After FIRST checking to be sure the chamber is empty!) pull the trigger before you can release the slide... so how can this be bad for the gun??

[charlesvan13]

@hickok45

But it's panting loudly, so it must be a dog instead.

I think black bears are shy about people, but the kind they have in Alaska and Canada will maul you.

[TheMatm12345]

welll i dont think its too bad to dry fire because i do it evertime i shoot with the team im on but maby the match 22s are special