25 Trigger Pulls a Day....

[JTH]

Excellent article.  (But then again, I'm a big fan of dryfire.)

http://blog.beretta.com/25-trigger-pulls-handgun-training

Important point:
"The thing is, just like any training, you have to do it correctly in order to see improved results."

[abbafandr]

He said the "P" word, again!

[Mali]

Simple and to the point.  Well written article.

[DenmanShooter]

Good article and good points.

However, I may have missed it in the article, but they also need to point out:

When doing dry fire, keep all ammo IN ANOTHER ROOM or LOCKED AWAY somewhere away from your firearm.

If you stop dry fire and come back to it ALWAYS CHECK your weapon.

Also here's a tip for dry fire.  If you don't have snap caps and are uneasy about repeatedly dropping the firing pin/striker on an empty chamber, you can load up some cartridges (if you are reloader or know one) with no powder and instead of a primer, drip some hot glue into the primer pocket.  Or cut some mechanical pencil erasers to size and super glue them into the pocket.

The weight is about the same as loaded cartridges so the feel is right.  Just make sure you keep them well marked as "snap caps".

[OnTheFly]

Also here's a tip for dry fire.  If you don't have snap caps and are uneasy about repeatedly dropping the firing pin/striker on an empty chamber, you can load up some cartridges (if you are reloader or know one) with no powder and instead of a primer, drip some hot glue into the primer pocket.  Or cut some mechanical pencil erasers to size and super glue them into the pocket.

The weight is about the same as loaded cartridges so the feel is right.  Just make sure you keep them well marked as "snap caps".

I had thought about doing this with cases that still have the spent primer.  However, I would want some way to mark the case/bullet to distinguish it.  The reason I say a spent primer instead of filling the hole with some material is that it would be possible that the cushion benefit of the material would be diminished even after just one hit.  I have read (on the internet so I know it is true) that if you are truly concerned with the wear on the striker/firing pin, then you need to use one of the spring loaded inert practice rounds.  The reasoning, which seems to make sense, is that what you are trying to do is keep the striker/pin from reaching its limit.  By giving it something to strike, you are preventing this.  However, I'm not sure how many strikes a spent primer could take.

Fly

[depserv]

I was under the impression that as long as your gun isn't a rimfire dry fire doesn't hurt it, no matter how many times it's done.  But apparently there is disagreement on that, or no one would be talking about snap caps.  You'd think the gun community would know for certain one way or the other by now.  All I know is I've dry fired my Glocks hundreds and probably thousands of times and they still work.  Any old experienced gunsmith or gun engineer out there who knows one way or the other? 

[JTH]

I was under the impression that as long as your gun isn't a rimfire dry fire doesn't hurt it, no matter how many times it's done.  But apparently there is disagreement on that, or no one would be talking about snap caps.  You'd think the gun community would know for certain one way or the other by now.  All I know is I've dry fired my Glocks hundreds and probably thousands of times and they still work.  Any old experienced gunsmith or gun engineer out there who knows one way or the other? 

The answer is:  For most guns, to most levels of dryfire, it is completely harmless to practice.

That being said---I know three people directly (and more indirectly) that have had to return slides to Glock due to significant amounts of dryfire over time cracking the breechface.

Other pistols will demonstrate similar issues.

However, it took tens of thousands of dryfire reps to cause this to happen.  If you dryfire 10 minutes a day for a year, you should be using a snap-cap.

If you dryfire once every couple of months, chances are it will cause no problems.

But of course, since you ARE dryfiring daily (at least 5 minutes a day, right?) you should probably use a snap-cap.

Example: 


Bottom line is that dropping the hammer on a modern weapon isn't a big deal.  If you are going to do good dryfire practice, however, a snap-cap is a good plan.

Fly, I'd suggest just buying spring-loaded snap-caps.  (My biggest pet peeve of snap-caps for Glocks is that you then practice only partial slide-racking to reset the trigger, which is a bad idea.  Unless you have a whole mag full and you rack out all of them then reload them for the next set of 17 trigger pulls, which wastes a LOT of time...)  I made a bunch of dummy rounds with silicon in the primer pocket, but I don't really think that is enough resistance to protect from eventual damage.  So, actual snap-caps for me.

[OnTheFly]

For the XD/XDm pistols, the rumored wear for repeated dry fire is on the roll pin which retains/captures the striker.  People insist that without a snap cap, the rear of the striker slot that the roll pin goes through bangs into the roll pin, eventually breaking it.  I purchased a much more sturdy spiral roll pin and have not had an issue since.

It seems to make sense on most all modern firearms.  The firing pin/striker is pushed forward by a spring.  It will travel until it stops and the only way it does that is by striking metal on metal.  Dropping it at a match to demonstrate to the RO that it is empty and hammer down/striker forward, is not enough wear to worry about.  But thousands of trigger pulls for dry-fire, which is what you have to do to get better, will cause some wear.

Fly