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Dry Firing - How Often do you practice

  • I Practice dry firing. Never.

    Votes: 1 33.3%

  • I practice dry firing. Seldom.

    Votes: 1 33.3%

  • I practice dry firing. Often.

    Votes: 1 33.3%
  • Total voters
    3
1 - 20 of 37 Posts
J

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Discussion Starter · #1 ·
I practice dry firing once a week in preparation for my weekly USPSA shoot...I don't have snap caps so I don't do it a lot because I am not sure how it will effect the P99. Does anybody know if this will damage the pistol? I was thinking of getting a Bullite Laser Bullet that doubles as a snap cap and a laser bullet...anybody familiar with this system? So how often do you practice dry firing?
 
ShipWreck

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#2 ·
I have heard that it is ok to dry fire the P99, but personally, I wouldn't do it more than a few times w/o snap caps. I personally bit the big one and spend the $12 on some snap caps for my 1911. I need some 9mm ones now. But, I have found that in my practice w/ that 1 gun, it has helped me a bit w/ all my guns.
 
S

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333 Posts
#5 ·
My thoughts on dry firing without some sort of snap caps is -not good for the weapon over the long haul.

What you are allowing to happen: is the firing pin to over-extend pass the bolt face- not meeting any resistance by striking a primer. This can cause the striker spring to suddenly over travel at the end of its normal range.

Now the striker spring is a very long spring...and many would argue with me on how much over travel- actually occurs and how much "affect" it has on the spring. Many have cut loops from their springs to lighten the DA pull, so apparently this spring has a lot of "play" to work with. I say why chance it -- snaps caps prevents this possibility & adds some loading & unloading practice in with the mix.

Remember: Same rules apply while using snap caps as with live ammo....never , ever point the weapon at a person in fun.
[I know it sounds preachy, but couldn't help myself adding a line about safety]

JF.
 
F

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83 Posts
#7 ·
i use snap-caps to 'break-in' triggers. in fact, my CZ came with 5 of them, and their triggers are notoriously less than ideal out of the box. but i rarely use them to practice my trigger pull. maybe i should.

i don't think dry-firing will damage a P99 or other modern pistols other than normal wear and tear on the moving parts, but snap-caps are cheap insurance. P99 triggers seem to get better with some 'seasoning'.

frye
 
F

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83 Posts
#9 ·
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Jake Starr @ Feb. 04 2006,17:35)]Frye.
Missed you last Tuesday...we had a good shoot.
Click to expand...
yeah, i've missed the last two weeks. lots of stuff going on in my personal life at the moment


i'm definitely coming this tues
. i really need to put some downrange.

frye
 
C

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34 Posts
#11 ·
Any material impacting another material will cause it to breakdown. This is basic mechanical engineering. I have read that dryfiring the P99 is okay, however I might suggest that the frequency that you dryfire your P99 plays a large roll in its longterm health.

If you wish to dryfire, snap caps are the way to go. Although it would be more fun just to buy a box of ammo and really practice shooting. All the fun of dryfiring, but with a bang!
 
S

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1 Posts
#12 ·
I would recomend against it. I'm actually looking for info on the web, because my rock-solid reliable p99 9mm with close to 3000 rounds through it, has a shatered firing pin.

I've never used a snap cap, and I know I've dry fired it numerous times. There is a fracture leading from the jagged point left of the pin end, trough the main shaft of the pin, down beyond the spring retainer. Has anyone else heard of this? Or am I an unlucky soul.

Worst part is, I cary this as a duty weapon, so I've had to carry a co. issued .38 (shudder) But I pickup a sw99 in the morning, and send the walther off for service.
 
T

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232 Posts
#13 ·
I've got alot more than 3,000 rounds through my P99. Actually I'm over 10,000 already, but I've got no problems with my firing pin. I dry fire mine on a very regular basis with no snap caps. I think you may just have a bad pin. Metal on metal contact is ok for that purpose and only weakens the part if it exceeds the materials yield threshhold. In other words, working a spring dosen't actually weeken it as long as you dont squeze it too hard. Same thing with all metal. The greatest force eqerted during dry firing is the sudden stop impulse of the pin at the end. The pin is literally streched as it stops. Fortunatley this is also the vector along which materials are the strongest. Tensile strength. I may actually get my engineer brother to run the numbers for me, just out of curiosity. Anyway, the firing pin failure wasn't likely to have been caused by dry firing.
 
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N

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539 Posts
#14 ·
I thought the manual states you can dry fire the gun all you like. It was certainly 'tribal knowledge' here on the board that when you get the gun you should dry fire it a few hundred times to break in the trigger to make it smoother. I would think that all kinds of parts of the gun wear a lot faster when you use real ammo then when you dry fire. So much more energy has to be transferred and absorbed when you do that. Still these guns appear to last just about forever with proper care and maintenance.

I have snap caps but I dry fire without them as well as I don't want to go look for snapcaps on the floor after I'm done
I use the snapcaps for practicing techniques that specifically require ammo in the clip such as jam clearing.
 
J

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Discussion Starter · #17 ·
I haven't heard a word about Bullite...nobody over on GlockTalk has responded either...I guess one of us is going to have to take the first step and be the test subject so we can give a report to others....
 
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EddieZ
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