Do you dry fire with or without snap caps?

[Por_sha911]

There seem to be a lot of opinions out there. What do you think?

Specifically I am wondering if you use snap caps, what brand works well in Glock semi autos?

[Arizona_928]

Dont think I have, and i've spent months on dime drlls....

[93nav]

I was always told you needed them for rimfire only. Otherwise the firing pin would/may hit the edge of the chamber. A lot harder than the soft brass of the case.

[Jim Bremner]

I only use snap caps to cause stoppages.

Place a few random snap caps in your magazines during practice to learn to clear rapidly

[Eric Coffey]

Yep, not really necessary on a modern center-fire pistol, unless you plan on doing it a LOT. They can be useful to randomly mix in with live rounds to work on clearing malfunctions and/or flinching tendencies.

EDIT: Jim beat me to it.

[Bill Douglas]

Nope. I have some but don't use them.

I don't dry fire other people's guns or guns at gun shows. Some people get a bit sensitive about it.








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[KFC911]

I will dry fire a semi after racking the slide to see if it's empty, but never do on fixed firing pin revolvers. Just how I been doing it forever...

[masraum]

Depends upon the spoon. Some are fine to fire without, some require them.

[vash]

on a glock you need to. after racking the slide to check for emptiness..the firearm, not our souls.

you have to drop the hammer before you can disassemble the thing. but that is relatively FEW dry fires, compared to making PEW PEW PEW sounds with the thing running drills.

[flipper35]

Revolvers I use caps.

[flatbutt]

Originally Posted by KC911

I will dry fire a semi after racking the slide to see if it's empty, but never do on fixed firing pin revolvers. Just how I been doing it forever...

same here. I do use caps to check myself for anticipation.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by vash

on a glock you need to. after racking the slide to check for emptiness..the firearm, not our souls.

you have to drop the hammer before you can disassemble the thing. but that is relatively FEW dry fires, compared to making PEW PEW PEW sounds with the thing running drills.

I haven't had a Glock, but I've had two of it's biggest competitors (Springfield XDm and S&W M&P Shield), and according to everything that I could find, both of them are fine to dry fire.


Per S&W, the only thing that you shouldn't dry fire is a 22. I assume that's for current models. I don't know that it would apply to a 40 or 50yo handgun.
https://www.smith-wesson.com/customer-service/faqs

Can I dry fire my S&W handgun?

Q: Can I dry fire my Smith & Wesson?

A: Yes, except for the .22 caliber pistols which includes models 22A, 22S, 422, 2206, 2214, 2213 and 41.

.22 caliber revolvers such as models 17, 43, 63, 317 and 617 also should not be dry fired.

Q: Why can't I dry fire my .22 pistol or revolver?

A: Dry firing a S&W .22 pistol or revolver will cause damage to the firing pin.

[Por_sha911]

When obtaining a new firearm, familiarization to it is key to being effective. If a person doesn't have a lot of access to live fire shooting it seems to me that snap caps is a great way to know the lay of the land before being able to get to the range. It seems like a small price to pay to know that you aren't doing damage to a new Glock and can get a running start on things.

Here's a FAQ from Glock:

Can I dry fire my GLOCK pistol?

It’s ok to dry fire your GLOCK pistol, but we recommend using a snap cap or dummy round if you will be dry firing for a long period of time.

I've also seen these: https://www.dryfiremag.com/ but IMO the price is way out of line.

[looneybin]

Dry fire empty
Snap caps for function testing the ejector/extractor, etc

[vash]

Here you go. From Glock: no “pew pew pew” sounds. But you will need to dry fire to slip the slide off.

[Por_sha911]

^ Yup posted it last night.
It looks like the snap caps are a have to have for rimfires and good to have for a lot of dry fire with a center fire.

[KFC911]

I finally looked up snap caps .... any benefit over just using spent cartridges? Just asking... I've no need to use either.

[93nav]

I have always used spent .22 cases in my .22s.

Not sure about centerfire, never needed to.

Originally Posted by KC911

I finally looked up snap caps .... any benefit over just using spent cartridges? Just asking... I've no need to use either.

[Por_sha911]

From what I've read, the issues with spent casings: it may
-scratch the chamber or
-not go in straight and jam
-already has a compressed primer and won't cushion properly

[looneybin]

The other issue with using a spent case for a dummy (assuming it has a bullet in it to be of any use) is you could mistake a live round for the dummy round
That’s why snap caps are red