Dryfire practice with a rimfire
Ok, so I understand that its bad to dryfire with a rimfire as it can damage the rifle. However I would like to practice dryfiring with my 22lr. to practice trigger control.
My question is this...If I where to use a spent 22lr. brass cassing in the chamber when practicing dryfiring, would this keep my rifle from getting damaged?
My question is this...If I where to use a spent 22lr. brass cassing in the chamber when practicing dryfiring, would this keep my rifle from getting damaged?
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Yeah but you'll need to rotate teh case so it hits on fresh rim..
Or spend the $3 for a pack of 22 snap caps.
There are also some drywall plastic anchor screw thingies that can work
And, some 22s aren't hurt by dry firing.... so it may be best to read the manual for your particular gun.0 -
If your 22 is one of those that has a recess for the rim of the 22 shell, dry firing may not be a problem. Those guns which do not have such a recess end up with the chamber getting dinged, however on those guns that I've seen that have a rim cut, the firing pin does not strike anything. 0 -
Why take a chance? Snapcaps are cheap enough. I have them for all the caliber I have guns. 0 -
Iwannausername has it.
In general, dry-firing rimfires is bad because in most designs, unless a .22 cartridge rim is present to cushion the blow, the metal firing pin will strike the chamber rim hard on firing. This can damage the chamber, firing pin nose, or both.
There are a FEW .22 designs where there is either a notch behind where the firing pin strikes so it won't hit the chamber rim (a few high end target pistols), or the firing pin itself is designed to be so short it doesn't strike the chamber rim (I think the Ruger 10/22 is one such design). If you happen to have one of these guns, you can dry fire all you like, though *MOST* rimfires don't fall into either category.
If you want to dry fire, you can use spent .22 shells as a cushion for the firing pin, but you'll have to rotate them every time you fire because the rim gets crushed.
Unlike centerfire snap caps (which have a spring loaded center), the red plastic .22 snap caps are just made of solid plastic. While these are better than just using spent shells, repeated dry fires will eventually chew up the rims on those too, requiring you to rotate, then replace them.
I don't know of any good commercial .22 rimfire snap caps that don't wear out, though I'd certainly buy a few if I did!0 -
Think I'll have to try both some commercial caps and the plastic dry wall anchors. Thanks for the ideas. In general I've found it much easier to use spent shells in revolvers and even bolt actions where re-cocking doesn't require ejecting the shell and re-inserting for the next dry fire.
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The use of ANY thing in the chamber to help with dry firing practice makes it even MORE IMPORTANT, if that's possible, to make sure that you don't have a live round chambered when you pull the trigger!!
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(i.e. "Yeah, there is something in the chamber but it's just one of my dry fire shells. BANG! Oops. Sorry![xx(][xx(]0 -
Somewhat off topic but if you use spent shells it won't hurt to paint the base so you can see it when you check the cylinder. I used blue finger nail polish (okay, my 17 year old was dating a punk rocker and .....) because in the Navy white indicates live missiles and blue indicates inert.
I can see 6 blue dots when I open the cylinder, I know I dont have any live ones in there.
Dan R0
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