Dry fire or Snap Caps?

Which do you prefer?

  • Dry Fire

    Votes: 29 43.9%

  • Snap Cap

    Votes: 37 56.1%
  • Total voters
    66
Dry firing... done it thousands of times on all my pistols I've ever owned, and never had a single problem.

Still not sure what would break... firing pin? Seems pretty unlikely to me.
 
"...anyone routinely practices trigger control..." Yep. Dry firing is a long recognized training technique for trigger control and sight picture practice. Use snap caps if you want(they're not cheap), but not using them won't bother a centre fire.
 
I have been researching this question and found an interesting tip....will it work?

Anyone think this would suffice?

CZ75B_O-Ring.jpg



http://p201.ezboard.com/fczechpistols82792frm74.showMessage?topicID=474.topic

"........If you are only concerned about protecting the firing pin during repeated dry firing, then a rubber O-ring in the hammer well at the rear of the slide should more than suffice:



However, if you are practising drills that require rounds to be cycled through the gun, then snap caps would still be your best bet........."
 
Sig/Sauer handguns have problems with broken firing pins from dry firing without a snap cap - done it myself and seen several others. Then there are the usual comments about dryfiring .22LR (I know you stipulated centrefire). Do a search and you'll find some threads...
I personally recommend and use snapcaps whenever I'm doing an extended session. A few cranks on the trigger here and there should be fine.
 
I don't think dry firing is that evil. After all, how many times do you dry fire a firearm?

Of course, it can cause a broken pin if done way too often.
 
Breaking firing pins when dry firing a centrefire means A) there isn't sufficient clearance for the pin, ie its hitting something, and thats probably not a good thing or B) the firing pin is made of poor quality material.

There is no reason for a good quality firing pin to ever break if everything is operating correctly. Dry firing or not.

Besides in most centrefire firearms I've seen, a firing pin is cheaper than a snap cap.

I know of IPSC shooters who put tens or hundreds of thousands of dry fires on their guns without failures.

My vote is its meant to be used, so dry fire it and if a pin breaks keep a spare handy. At least you'll know you weeded out a crappy one.
 
Just spend $20 on a set of A-zoom snap caps. What's the big deal? If you can afford guns, ammunition, and club membership, $20 probably won't kill you. And while dry-firing centerfire pistols is not as bad as drifting .22, there is still a possibility of a broken spring, especially if you do it often.
 
Don't worry about dry firing a centerfire handgun , In IPSC you will do it all the time and a snap cap is not an option .
For dryfiring practice I use a snap cap in each magazine so it has the shape of a loaded magazine when doing mag swap drills .
Just my 2 cents
 
I'll just reiterate about the Sig's. The OPP has thousands of P229's and hundreds of them have had broken firing pins. The company itself has asked instructors to institute a check procedure at biannual training to ensure this doesn't go unnoticed. Their original advice was to dry fire away - but not anymore, they specifically support the use of snap caps. Sig is generally known as a high quality producer of firearms and I don't think its just a matter of clearance or material issues.
If you're going to snap off a few hundred in front of the TV - put in a snapcap.
 
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