Snap Caps....who uses them in their pistols and revolvers?

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Newfoundlandrover

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Like many of you, I grew up around firearms,and the one other thing besides safety that my father always stressed to me,was to avoid dry firing especially on his revolvers. I've recently been turned onto snap caps as a measure to avoid possible firing pin and hammer damage while working actions. Whats the consensus here?....useful firearm accessory or gimmick?
 
I use them to show new shooters the functioning of the gun and how to load/unload safely. Not really worried about pin damage from dry firing on anything but rimfires.
 
I keep my GP100 loaded with snap caps for dry fire practice. As I understand it there's nothing wrong with dry firing a GP100 in terms of damage, but the snap caps soften the sound of the hammer falling. Sensitive hearing and a high pitched snap in close quarters limits me otherwise.

I've used them in a 10/22 and GSG1911 as well, but the rimfire snap caps tend to get crushed quickly (as one would expect)
 
I use Snapcaps in my revolvers. They don't make sense to me in a semi-auto other than making the mag heavier giving the HG the weight of a loaded HG.
That said...I rarely dry-fire my center-fires (usually for cleaning and functions test) and never intentionally with my rimfires:redface:
 
I use them. Can't really speak to whether or not they prevent damage (I only have centerfires right now) but they make me feel better and it's kinda fun cycling the slide and trying to hit my wife with the cap...yah know, cause she's already so thrilled with all my crap lying around :cool:
 
i got them for all my calibers, its nice to cycle them and that beautifull sound of "Ping!" that my 45 makes hitting the snap cap! (ahh the little things in life lol :)
 
Newfoundlandrover said:
Like many of you, I grew up around firearms,and the one other thing besides safety that my father always stressed to me,was to avoid dry firing especially on his revolvers. I've recently been turned onto snap caps as a measure to avoid possible firing pin and hammer damage while working actions. Whats the consensus here?....useful firearm accessory or gimmick?
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Answer: Both useful firearm accessory AND gimmick.

The vast majority of modern centerfire firearms are built to withstand extensive dryfiring, including the vast majority of revolvers. Fact. When snapcaps are sold for this purpose, most of the time it is a gimmick. There are a few exceptions, and for those, snap caps are essential for dry firing. But there are very few exceptions.

Snapcaps are very useful for teaching safe handling and operation, and for training reloading drills when doing so with live ammunition would not be reasonable. For this, I make dummy rounds using reloading equipment. These are superior to snap caps. The weight is more realistic, and they feed and eject just like loaded ammunition (aluminum snap caps get torn up after a while, and plastic ones get shredded). However, they are much more likely to get mixed with live ammunition, so one must be careful.
 
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Always use them, when dry-firing hammer-fired pistols. (Striker-fired guns don't have the same stress issues, even with restrikeable ones like the Taurus.)

Rather than loading through the ejection port, which can damage the extractor, keep one cheap mag in your pistol case, with SNAP written in marker on it, to load your snap cap into your pistol. Never use this magazine for live ammunition.

Dry-firing a couple of hundred rounds will deburr enough to smoothen out a gritty trigger.
 
i bought some for 9mm and they wear out pretty quickly, so i make my own. i just use hot glue and fill in the base of the case as well as the primer. cut smooth and your good to go. if it gets deformed, just reapply more hot glue and your good.
 
Agent666 said:
Always use them, when dry-firing hammer-fired pistols. (Striker-fired guns don't have the same stress issues, even with restrikeable ones like the Taurus.)

Rather than loading through the ejection port, which can damage the extractor, keep one cheap mag in your pistol case, with SNAP written in marker on it, to load your snap cap into your pistol. Never use this magazine for live ammunition.

Dry-firing a couple of hundred rounds will deburr enough to smoothen out a gritty trigger.
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Hammer fired, striker fired, makes no difference. Design of the gun matters, and the list of centerfire guns that can't handle dryfiring is extremely short (rimfires are the opposite).

I don't know anyone who has ever broken anything in their dry-fire-safe gun by dryfiring without snap caps. Do you? Does anyone? Not hearsay, but first hand accounts.

On the other hand, I hear LOTS of accounts of people who insist on using snapcaps, "just in case". The people at the various snapcap manufacturers can't thank you enough. Though it doesn't hurt anything, so more power to those who want to use them.

Couldn't agree more about dry firing to smooth up the trigger.
 
Spawn-Inc said:
i bought some for 9mm and they wear out pretty quickly, so i make my own. i just use hot glue and fill in the base of the case as well as the primer. cut smooth and your good to go. if it gets deformed, just reapply more hot glue and your good.
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Brilliant! I've had to use a super heavy crimp on mine to keep the bullet from getting pushed too low in the casing. The glue would solve that entirely. Thanks!
 
vermintrex said:
I use them. Can't really speak to whether or not they prevent damage (I only have centerfires right now) but they make me feel better and it's kinda fun cycling the slide and trying to hit my wife with the cap...yah know, cause she's already so thrilled with all my crap lying around :cool:
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That's hilarious!....my wife is pretty tolerant when it comes to my stuff,but she does have an "out of sight..out of mind" policy when it comes to my firearms. When I first purchased my snap caps,I immediately came into the house and went upstairs to my den without greeting her (that's worse than telling her that her tuna casserole is horrible...it truly is...ick!)....because I was eager to try these things out. While I was sitting at my desk loading up a mag, I heard a voice ask; Ahh..what are you doing?....I looked at her with my best poker face and replied; Zombies honey!....they've taken too the streets!......she looked at me with a little smirk and said; Oh I see....well,you've got 15 minutes to finish up playing with your zombie friends....you have to pick up our daughter at gymnastics....
 
Centrefire - Generally go nuts with dryfire. Only a select few will recieve damage from dryfiring without a snap cap or cartridge. Modern CF firearms are all designed to be dryfired as much as they are to shoot,so have at her

Rimfire - Generally not good to dry fire as the firing mechanism might strike something and cause damage, so generally always use caps or cartridges. Select few are designed for dry fire use such as the Ruger 10/22

I have dry fired my 10/22 and Glock over 20,000 times each, no issue
 
Agent666 said:
Always use them, when dry-firing hammer-fired pistols. (Striker-fired guns don't have the same stress issues, even with restrikeable ones like the Taurus.)

Rather than loading through the ejection port, which can damage the extractor, keep one cheap mag in your pistol case, with SNAP written in marker on it, to load your snap cap into your pistol. Never use this magazine for live ammunition.

Dry-firing a couple of hundred rounds will deburr enough to smoothen out a gritty trigger.
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why ?

btw...I dry fired my HK45 last night a minimum of 200 times..and then put 100 live rounds through it today....trigger is just as gritty and notchy as the first time I pulled it. Love everything about it....but the trigger sucks balls.
 
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