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To dry fire or not to dry fire?

T

Th1nor

Private
Minuteman
Jul 2, 2021
56
41
Norway
#1
I have always been told not to dry fire rimfire rifles. Because the pin strikes metal. And can be damaged. The other day I wathched a shooter do dry fire on the range said he had been dry firing for years without an issue. Makes me think of the old days when people said it would damage center-fire pins.

So do you dry fire your 22's?
 
#4
If the firing pin is perfectly captured/headspaced then it will not the chamber, it will only hit the rim of the brass. This is how Vudoo does it. So it's safe to dry fire.

For other rifles the firing pin will hit the barrel. There is a possibility of it chipping the firing pin, or chipping the chamber. It is 'rare', but mfg will recommend not doing it.
 
#7
If in doubt, use a snap cap or an empty case or a drywall anchor.

The yellow ones seem to be the right size. They are inexpensive and readily available. They eject too. Rotate or replace as necessary.

 
#9
When I'm packing my .22 away in it's bag, after checking unloaded, I pull the trigger and hold the trigger back while closing the bolt. I've got half an idea that the firing pin won't hit whatever it is going to hit as hard. Does this actually do anything?
 
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#11
Biscuits said:
When I'm packing my .22 away in it's bag, after checking unloaded, I pull the trigger and hold the trigger back while closing the bolt. I've got half an idea that the firing pin won't hit whatever it is going to hit as hard. Does this actually do anything?
Click to expand...

Pulling the trigger with the bolt open and holding it back as you close the bolt, can act as a decocker on some. Which means the firing remains in the fired position.

Doesn't hurt anything, but doesn't really help anything either.
 
#15
I just replaced a broken firing pin on my B14 R. I used to dry fire 4-5 times before beginning to shoot live ( cold shooter 'cure' ). Now I either insert a spent case or fire a round into the berm and then raise the bolt to cock - then lower and dry fire on the spent case.

I do occasionally fire on an empty magazine when I run it dry from not counting rounds - so that does happen still.
 
#16
Wulll, I just got these and they look pretty good.
5A51CD3A-E36C-4963-BD5E-D79E44D06564.jpeg

I cycled these 3 times through the mag and no problems. I’ll be using these until something better comes along. I don’t want any more down time waiting for on new firing pin.
3C958758-8BD5-4985-AAFD-263B693B02C3.jpeg
 
Last edited:
#17
CZ states it's ok to dry fire in the manual. tikka says "NO" Ruger is either way. It all depending on the gun. To be safe I use # 4-6 dry wall anchors. box of 100 is less than $4.
 
#18
I dry fire my pistol at least 100 to 200 times per week when able and my rifle at least 1 to 2 times per every 5 real shots and a lot more during times I am allowing the barrel to cool down I dry fire it unless using a chamber chiller .
 
#22
The other concern besides chipping the chamber rim is denting/peening it, I've seen a lot of old rimfires where the firing pin has peened the chamber rim essentially making it tighter in that area and causing extraction problems, in theory I guess a difference in casing support around the chamber could probably also cause inconsistant ignition/pressure. 10/22's are notorious for this. A snap cap is always a good idea as well just because depending on what stops the firing pin, if it's not hitting anything you can end up shortening firing pin life.

The Browning Medalist had the nicest dry fire mode I've seen. You could side the safety forward in the off position 4-5mm and it would allow for dry fire. Even better when the safety was in the dry fire position you could depress it to reset a "fake sear" to reset the trigger without having to cycle the slide to the normal weight/feel but the firing pin never engaged.

One reason this can happen is especially in old target guns a longer firing pin was thought to improve consistent ignition in rimfire cartridges (and it does) but by building in more firing pin travel to get a harder/deeper hit on the rim the risk of hitting the chamber face is also increased. I've seen several high end .22's that shot inconsistently that improved noticeably after the weak rim strikes were addressed.
 
#23
Hey Chuck - Those Pachmeyer caps look pretty soft, that would be good for lots of 'shots'. I've found the Yellow anchors don't always feed thru mags or catch on the extractor, so I've been using the 'red translucent' Tipton caps and they are pretty brittle. After ten or so shots the rim is gone and the body gets stuck in the chamber - have to push it out with a rod. Once I thought it ejected but didn't and I ran a live bullet up into it. Luckily it didn't fire out of battery, the bullet stuck out too much for the bolt to pass the disconnector I guess. I have a Marlin 60 with LSHO but my other 22s don't and I load all of them with a snap cap as Last Round to avoid the dry-fire damage. I've killed a couple firing pins with D-Fs. I've found that the Tiptons don't always feed out of a Savage rotary mag, tho. It's a PITA to have to always count shots, tho I'm anal enough to usually count them.
 
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#24
@fasteddie - Yeah, I’m really in the very preliminary stage looking at these. Maybe the real deal, maybe not. After more DF’s I’ll have a better take on them. For now I’ll use them just ‘cause I don’t want to be down for a broken firing pin.
 
#26
I tried some of the yellow drywall anchors, Hillman 370326 I never ended up using them. while close to a .22 shell at least in the couple guns I checked them in the plastic rim sat below the chamber face, meaning that you still run the risk of peening a chamber should the gun be capable of doing that.
 
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