Why is dry firing a .22 revolver harmful?

[werewolf]

Call me whatever you want, but if a person is so bereft of understanding the difference between a rimfire and a centerfire they have no buisness pulling any trigger. Put the gun down and get education.

Uh, that would be, "Put the gun down and get an education."

[DougO83]

I have a question, I have never had the urge to dry fire any weapon. What is the point behind this, apparently destructive, practice? I can see needing to maybe after reassembling a weapon to make sure everything is kosher. Any other reason?

[Hafoc]

It's good practice. Shooting actual ammo is better practice, but dry firing is good when you can't shoot.

[werewolf]

Dry firing. I very rarely do it. People sometimes get in trouble doing this forgetting there's a round in the chamber. You need to check and double check and triple check. But I wanted to get the feel of the new gun - a type I'm not used to - and maybe break in the trigger action a little.

[JohnKSa]

Shooting actual ammo is better practice...

If the goal is to reduce flinching, dryfire is actually better practice than shooting.

It doesn't teach one to manage recoil, but it's pretty good for everything else.

People sometimes get in trouble doing this forgetting there's a round in the chamber.

True. I'd say that the majority of negligent discharges happen when a person intentionally dryfires a gun that turns out to be loaded.

Dryfire practice should be done only with the utmost care. Most experts recommend that it be carried out with an backstop that will stop the bullet in the event of a discharge, that all ammunition be moved to another room, that the gun be triple-checked (action operated, chamber visually inspected, chamber manually inspected with a finger) before dryfiring and that if the gun is put down or the dryfire practice is interrupted, the gun should be triple-checked again before practice resumes.

[the357plan]

I don't dry fire any of the rimfires I currently have. However over the years, I have only occasionally (never made it a habit) dry fired every rimfire I have ever owned. And that would include 2 Ruger Super Single Sixes, 1 SP101 (22 LR), 1 Ruger Mark I, 1 Ruger Mark II, 1 Browning Challenger, 1 S&W 617, 2 S&W 648s, 2 S&W 651s and a 55 year old S&W K-22 Masterpiece. Only the Browning ever showed marks or peening. All of the rest, looked brand spanking new (no peening) and I have never experienced any problems with them. I grew up with the S&W K-22 Masterpiece. One of the most accurate I've ever shot. As a teenager, I totally abused it. Today there's not a mark on it (I'm 52). When I was young, I dry fired them. As I grew older I quit doing it because of what it might be doing to them. I started getting concerned about them maintaining their value.

The Ruger SP101 I described in the previous post was a centerfire 357. The hammer peening the frame is purely cosmetic. I use it to practice with a laser. Built like a tank, it's my work horse/toss around gun. I don't care if it looks beat up. It's a tool to get the job done.

So, what has the last 35 years led me to recommend? And this is just my personal opinion.

Follow the manufacturer's recommendations otherwise...

If it's a rimfire don't make a habit of firing it without using plasti-caps.

If it's a centerfire and you value it, use snap caps.

If it's a centerfire and a toss around gun, have at it. It will most likely depreciate anyway - cosmetic scratches and etc. (probably not a manufacturer's recomendation).

[the357plan]

Oh ya, I forgot, a Walther P22 - no problem. But I didn't have it very long and seldom used it.

*** THE DISCLAIMER ***

Just because I never had any problems doesn't mean that you won't (ah, bad English). And I have no real idea how the others (Colts, H&R, Beretta, S&W autos and etc.) will hold up.

Cheers.

[zippyfusenet]

Doug083: I have a question, I have never had the urge to dry fire any weapon. What is the point behind this, apparently destructive, practice?

Like the other guys said, dry firing is cheap practice. It's especially good practice to overcome flinching. Working a new trigger a few thousand times tends to smooth it out. I can't field strip my Ruger 22/45 without dry firing it, 'cause there's no de-cocker. If I'm checking a gun out, to buy or just for the fun of it, I want to try out the trigger. Yes, you sure want to be careful that the gun's unloaded and pointed in a safe direction. Shouldn't you always?

[the357plan]

USE FOR DRY FIREING: practicing trigger control.

You spend all afternoon shooting off a bench at the range getting your laser aligned with bullets. It is now smack on. And you're good, the dot is held in the center of a bullseye and your groups are small. You’re proud of yourself. Now it's time to move off of the bench to the next range and try this on a silhouette from a weaver stance. You're now trying to simulate something closer to real life than a bench. As soon as the dot gets to center mass, bang, you let the silhouette have it. After a couple of magazines, you head down range to check out your prowess. WHAT!!! Not a round hit the silhouette. In your haste, you've been yanking the trigger, pulling the pistol off target as it's fired. This scenario is common for some new laser users. Dry firing helps overcome the problem.

In real firing, recoil moves the gun away from the aiming point and it's hard to determine what's wrong if you’re missing the target. Dry firing removes the recoil aspect. And, dry firing with a laser really helps. If you're yanking the trigger, supporting the gun with the trigger finger or some other problem, the laser will make the problem visible during dry firing. Get some advice on how to properly pull the trigger. Your goal: to insure the dot remains motionless at exactly the same spot throughout and after the trigger pull. Practice, practice and do some more practicing (dry firing with the laser). When keeping that dot motionless is second nature, head back out the range and try that silhouette exercise again. Odds are there'll now be a lot of center mass hits.

When I took Advanced Marksmanship training in the Army (many years ago), they used a dry firing trick to check you out before they let you out on the range with a 1911. Take a nice sharpened pencil with an eraser and wrap two bands of 1/2" masking tape around it. The first one should be about an inch up from the eraser and the second 4" up from the eraser (or it could be one band at about 3" up from the eraser - don't remember). Each band should have a diameter such that it easily slips through the barrel with no slop. In another words, they should be about 45 caliber. Now tape a sheet of paper to the wall with a small dot (or several) in the center of it. This is your target. Take the pencil and insert it eraser first into an UNLOADED (CLEARED) 1911. The sharpened end of the pencil should be sticking out of the 1911 and the eraser seated all of the way in. Now aim at the dot and dry fire using the pencil as your bullet. You should be very close to the wall when doing this. The sharpened pencil tip should be about a 1/4" to 1/2" away from the wall before you dry fire. The firing pin will smack the eraser knocking the pencil towards the wall. The goal here is to practice sight picture and trigger control. The tiny groups the pencil leaves on the target taped to the wall will indicated how you are doing.

Cheers.