Dry Firing

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TDIGZ

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Hi guys,

I am sure this has been raised before, but I was unable to find it in the search function.

I just got an LMT as my first AR, and wanted to know if dry firing is okay. The owners manual doesn't say anything about it so, I just wanted to see if anyone has had any bad experiences with dry firing their AR, if it's okay, and if anyone has had any experience with LMTs.

Thanks,
TDIGZ
 
Dry firing

Although I don't own any complete LMT rifles, most of my ARs are built with LMT parts among others.

There was a similar question asked a couple of days ago on another forum, and some military/former military, including armourers, stated that they had seen hundreds of rifles dry fired thousands of times without any issues.

There should not be any problems dry firing any quality AR, including LMTs.

Regards.

Mark
 
What difference (aside from the obvious one) is there between rimfire and centrefire that allows for dry firing to be okay for one and not the other? (Why is dry firing a rim fire bad?)
 
Rimfire firing pins strike the rim of the case, and when the case is not there, they will strike the rim of the chamber and can be damaged, as it will not be cushioned by the soft brass, but will strike steel.

Centerfires obviously do not have this problem, but may be damaged due to their bolt design.

Regards.

Mark
 
I remember someone told me dry fire will make the #### fall off. So don't do it. proflui
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Thank you for your contribution to this thread.

I'm sure that all of us found it extremely helpful.

Regards.

Mark
 
I don't dry fire my AR's...I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with it but I didn't mind spending a couple bucks on snap caps and doing it that way.
 
I'm not very familiar with the ar-15 platform, but for center fires in general it should be fine. Open up the bolt, look at your firing pin retainer spring, if it looks like it can take full compression no problem, go for it.
 
AR15s do not have a firing pin retainer spring.

The firing pin free floats inside the bolt, which sits inside the bolt carrier. The bolt is held in place inside the bolt carrier by the gas rings (either 3 standard rings or one-piece Mcfarland ring) and cam pin. The firing pin is retained by the firing pin retainer that goes through the bolt carrier and holds it from falling out of the bolt, but allows the bolt and firing pin to move more or less independently inside the bolt carrier.

Regards.

Mark
 
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Snap caps at home but on the range before packing the centerfire I always point the muzzle down range and dry fire.
Brordo said:
I don't dry fire my AR's...I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with it but I didn't mind spending a couple bucks on snap caps and doing it that way.
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How can the firearm tell if the trigger finger resides with a dude or doll?
proflui said:
I remember someone told me dry fire will make the #### fall off. So don't do it.
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TV-PressPass said:
Weird. I was taught never to dryfire my guns. Its part of the reason I buy snap caps for everything.
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When metallurgy was not as advanced as it is today and/or wartime production cut a lot of corners in certain weapon manufacturing, there was some well founded fear of metal fatigue due to repeated dry firing and weakening of the firing pin spring as well. Now, as stated already, AR-15's and many other types of semi-auto rifles don't have springs and theoretically the firing pin coming to an abrupt stop against its limit of travel, without the primer cup to cushion and reduce the force on the pin, they could suffer metal fatigue. However, modern metal is far more resilient and there has not been any evidence that extensive dry firing will damage them. Using snap cups is good practice and certainly it does not do any harm.
 
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