The Pros and Cons of Dry Fire [MUSIC PLAYING] Hello, and welcome to “Make Up Your Mind Monday,” where we here at Lucky Gunner tackle the biggest debates in the shooting world and then break them down into their basic arguments so that you can make up your mind. Today we’re looking at the fun and exciting topic of dry fire. This may be not that exciting. But it’s something we have to talk about because it’s something we’ve all dealt with. At some point or another, if you’ve been around shooting for any length of time, you’ve probably been yelled at for dry firing somebody else’s gun. It’s something that new shooters just tend to stumble upon and don’t really know that it’s kind of a big deal to a lot of people. For whatever reason, it’s something that a lot of people don’t like and something that other people just insist on doing anyway. So we want to look at dry firing your gun and whether it’s OK to do or whether it’s something you should avoid at all costs. What’s happening when you fire your gun is that you pull the trigger, and through some mechanism or another, depending on what kind of gun it is, you’re causing a firing pin to strike the primer at the base of a cartridge. That makes it go off, makes the bullet exit the barrel. If there is no cartridge there, the firing pin still stops, but it stops through some other mechanism. Something else causes it to stop. People who are against dry firing will say that that is causing too much shock to the gun. That’s too abrupt. The gun was not designed to work that way. It was designed to stop on a primer, and anytime you dry fire it, you’re causing the gun to do something it was not designed to do. It’s an unholy and unnatural thing, and it can hurt the gun. It can cause that firing pin to break, or whatever the firing pin is hitting against, it can cause that to wear down and eventually just cause damage and wear to your gun that’s not necessary. A lot of these folks will recommend dummy rounds, snap caps or some other inert substitute that you put in your gun instead of ammunition, something that doesn’t go off, so that when you dry fire the gun, the primer is still stopping against something that’s cushioning it as if there were a live round there. Now dummy rounds are not very expensive. So people will say there’s no reason not to do it. There’s still a chance you could be hurting the gun. And so why take the risk? Just use a dummy round. Now another kind of variation of that would be people who say it’s OK to dry fire your centerfire guns all day long, but never, ever dry fire a rimfire gun, a .22 or some other rimfire. It’s a terrible thing to do. And that’s because the mechanism there is a little different than with centerfire. Instead of a firing pin just hitting nothing where the cartridge was, the firing pin is hitting the chamber or the barrel. And that’s a lot of force on a very tiny area. So you can really wear out the tip of the firing pin, or all of that force can just cause the firing pin to snap. And it’s causing a lot of force against the face of the barrel there, and you can actually wear it down enough so that you can no longer properly chamber a round. And it won’t sit flush in the chamber and can cause your gun to not work or become unsafe. So there’s a very good case to be made against not dry firing a .22. And a lot of people will swear against never doing that, even if they’re OK with dry firing other guns. So with all of these risks of dry firing, why would anybody ever want to do it? Well, there are a few good reasons. The first is as part of a safety procedure. And you see this a lot in competition. You’ll have someone completed a course of fire, and at the end, the judge will come up and ask them to show their gun clear, show an empty chamber and no magazine. And then they’ll have them dry fire the gun down range. And this is just to show that the gun is not loaded, that there’s nothing in the chamber, and put the gun and the safest possible condition before the competitor holsters that gun or they put it away. It’s just a normal part of competition. And everybody has to do it. So in those cases you have to dry fire. There’s nothing wrong with it as long as you do it safely. And a lot of people use it as a normal part of their ritual and just occasional dry fire. Another reason to occasionally dry fire a gun is just to check out the trigger. If you can’t actually fire the gun on a range before you buy it, the next best thing is to dry fire it. And a lot of people would never dream of buying a gun where they couldn’t at least dry fire it first to get a feel for the trigger, to see how heavy it is, or if there’s any grittiness there. It’s just one of the hallmarks of trying to figure out if the gun is good for you is to try out the trigger. And that’s a very legitimate reason for occasional dry fire. Now on the other end of the dry fire spectrum are people who just love to dry fire all the time. And that could be as part of a normal practice routine. This is very common in the competition world and among certain self-defense instructors and that kind of thing. People will dry fire a lot just to develop muscle memory. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But you might be doing it a few hundred times in an evening. And so this is where the objection against dummy rounds comes into play. If you’re using dummy rounds just every now and then, it’s not really a big deal. But depending on what kind of gun you’re using, if you want to dry fire a lot, you’re going to have to rack the slide or pull back the bolt every single time. And if you’re using dummy rounds, what that means is you’re chucking out a dummy round every time you do that. And dummy rounds aren’t expensive, but they only come in packs of five or six. And you don’t want to have to be chasing them around on the ground all night and reloading magazines just to protect your firing pin. So a lot of these people just don’t worry about it. They don’t think twice about it. They depend on the quality and ruggedness of their guns to stand up to a little abuse of dry fire. And they’re usually OK with that, though most of these guns that people commonly dry fire to that magnitude are fine with being dry fired a little bit without any damage happening. So whether you are a huge I fire fan or you just do it every now and then, there are few guidelines you can probably follow that’ll help you out. The first is to always make sure you do it safely. Follow all of the gun safety rules. Make sure your gun is pointed in a safe direction and that there is a backstop there. Assume that when you pull the trigger, something’s going to come out, even if you’ve already verified that it’s unloaded. Second, if you’re going to dry fire somebody else’s gun, just ask first. Whether it’s a retailer or just a buddy’s gun or someone else’s, just asking first is the polite thing to do. Even if you’re sure you’re not going to do any damage to their gun, just ask them if it’s OK. Three, if you have any doubts about whether it’s OK to dry fire your gun, just ask the manufacturer or check your manual. They almost always say something about it. And you might be surprised at what you’ll find. Like Ruger, for example, in the manual for their 10/22 rifle, say it’s OK to dry fire the rifle. Even though it’s a rimfire, even though it’s a .22 with that kind of firing pin that could slam against the chamber, for whatever reason, the way the Ruger 10/22 is built, Ruger doesn’t believe that it’s a problem for you to dry fire. If it’s an older gun and you can’t get a hold of the manual, just try and do whatever research you can do. If the manufacturer’s not around anymore, you might just have to look around online to find out. But just be extra careful with old guns because they’re not made with the same quality. The metallurgy is not as good. The classic example is this CZ-52 pistol. For whatever reason, it was made with an extra-brittle firing pin. And it’s been known to snap after just a few dry fires. And that leads me to my last point. If you plan to dry file a lot, just buy an extra firing pin, just to have it on hand. Learn how to replace the firing pin in your gun, and have an extra on hand. If it’s a gun that you plan to dry fire a lot, a lot of these guns, like Glocks or AR-15s, the firing pins are not very expensive. And they’re really easy to get to and swap out. If there’s any doubt that you might snap it, just buy another one. And then you’re set no matter what you want to do with your firing pin. OK, I think that should just about cover it for dry fire. That’s everything I know about the issue, anyway. But if you’ve got any other questions, let us know, and we’ll try to find out an answer for you. And if you’ve got any other reasons that I missed for why you should dry fire or why to not dry fire, leave them in the comments so everyone else in the world can just learn from your endless wisdom and knowledge and make up their mind.
It seems that just about every shooter has their own personal “policy” on dry fire. Put simply, dry firing your firearm is when you pull the hammer back and pull the trigger with no ammunition in the chamber. Some gun owners go to great pains to see that the trigger is never pulled on their guns except when loaded at the range under their direct supervision. They believe that dry firing a gun can lead to problems with the firing pin and in a rimfire caliber gun can even cause damage to the mouth of the chamber. Other shooters have no problem dry firing their guns on a regular basis as long as its under safe conditions. These shooters think it’s a cost-effective way to practice shooting techniques without the need for ammunition. If you’re not quite sure where you stand on the subject of dry fire yet, be sure to watch the video above for more on what exactly it is as well as a closer look on what fuels this often-overlooked debate.
What Do You Think?
So does dry fire pose a real risk to the condition of your firearms? Is it only an issue that affects rimfire guns? After you hear both sides in the video, vote this week’s poll and let us know what you think about dry fire in the comments. Have you had a firearm break as a result of dry fire or have you incorporated dry fire practice a regular part of your training routine? Let us know below!
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