Is Dryfiring affects Rimfire Rifles?

[Pumpkin]

Browning Buckmarks can suffer peening from the firing pin.

[44 AMP]

I put dryfiring in two groups.
Dryfiring (for training) and dryfiring (snapping) for storage or most commonly when you run out of ammo...

Everyone who shoots .22 repeaters will or has snapped on an empty chamber. Very few lock open when empty, so its a very common thing and should not damage the gun. Many of the more modern designs are made so that the firing pin will not hit the barrel with nothing in the chamber. Many, NOT all.

Dryfiring for training is a different animal. Snapping with nothing in the chamber once in a while is one thing, doing it hundreds to thousands of time, or tens of thousands of times is something else again.

Fired cases are "free". Drywall anchors are cheap. Actual snap caps aren't terribly expensive. If the maker says its ok to dryfire, then its ok to dryfire. If not, its not. it's really that simple.

If you don't KNOW, assume its not ok.

And always assume its a bad idea on anything made pre-WWII. Just in case.

And, be aware that even on guns where the firing pin does not hit the barrel when snapped empty, SOMETHING is stopping the firing pin. Most of the time, that means a steel on steel impact. With nothing cushioning it, the firing pin striking steel CAN (and has) become damaged or broken.

Not always the tip, some pins have broken "further back" due to the metal crystalizing and becoming brittle from repeated steel on steel impacts.

Particularly vulnerable to this are older designs.

If you are going to deliberately snap for practice, I feel not using something as a snap cap is negligence. Some might even consider it abuse. Your gun, your $, your call...

[Ricklin]

I use the yellow dry wall anchors always when dry firing my rimfires. Except of course that occasional click when I was anticipating a bang.

I figure the extra cushion will not hurt anything. If I don't know with certainty I use snap caps in my center fire guns too.
I do know with certainty my Glock 19 does not need a snap cap. My trigger really improved with extensive dry fire practice. Kinda weird, but I have heard of it, likely right here on TFL.

[44 AMP]

My trigger really improved with extensive dry fire practice. Kinda weird, but I have heard of it, likely right here on TFL.

It is not at all unusual for a trigge pull (and other functions) to smooth up after a few thouand cycles, sometimes even less. Dry fire or live fire after enough cycles the parts "wear in" and its often a noticeable improvement, without any work being done to them.

Often people will get a new gun and think it needs a trigger job right away. Sometimes, it does, but there is also wisdom in the old advice to shoot or cycle it a few hundred or even thousand times, and THEN decide if it needs any work. There is a twofold benefit to this, first, it "wears in the parts" and second, it gets your trigger finger accustomed to the job it needs to do.

DA guns, especially often benefit from this.

[Shadow9mm]

read your manual. Some 22s say never to dry fire, some say it is fine. I always understood it to have to do with the tip of the pin striking the breach face and becoming brittle. A lot of newer guns have designed around the issue. Again read your manual, and if you don't get a clear answer, e-mail the manufacturer.

[Picher]

The Rem 514 had really soft barrel steel that eroded ahead of the case mouth when firing a lot of Shorts. After that, regardless of cleaning, long rifle shells would stick in the chamber and had to be either pried out or pushed out with a cleaning rod.

Perhaps the extractor may have also been deficient.

[hub1home]

As someone else said above, NEVER dry fire a .22. Period! That's my rule!