TargetTalk

What's best way to dry fire without ruining my rifle? Spent brass? Snapcap? I'd be grateful for any advice.

Greg

Spent brass is always safe. Supposedly 54 action anschutz's are designed to be dryfired empty which is what I do and have had no problems.

pdeal wrote:Spent brass is always safe.

I often use spent brass if I have no snapcaps available, but be careful as it will deform the more it is hit and it may be wise to replace them every few shots. Same goes for snapcaps.

Be very cautious in dry firing too much without a separate dry firing pin.

Using a spent round will work for a little while, but after some time it may not eject properly, and you'll have to use a cleaning rod to push the round out from the muzzle.

Not using a spent round and you run the chance of "pinging" your chamber. Basically if your firing pin is long enough it will slam into the rear of the chamber enough to slightly push the metal downward, making the chamber no longer round. Murphy's law states, this will happen right before a match when try to insert the first round. You'll need to use a jewelers file to make the chamber round again.

Obviously I've had these problems before. Therefore I use have a separate dry firing pin which I insert when I am going to use a SCATT, or dry fire for a long period of time. My dryfire pin is actually a broken pin that I created by doing just that, dry firing. But you can buy one from any of the shooting equipment companies and learn from my mistakes.

Dave Cloft

Using a file to 're-round' the chamber isn't all that good an idea.

Anytime a pin breaks -- which WILL happen sooner or later on European rimfires -- and you peen the breech face and produce a small lump that protrudes into the chamber area, all you have to do is get a large, long-taper pin-punch, slightly round the tip so it can't damage the bbl and GENTLY tap it into the chamber while keeping it as straight as possible.

Done right (if you use a 6 lb sledge and a full-arm swing all bets are off) this will return the chamber to round by simply 'ironing' the lump out -- and without removing any metal. You may have to push a cleaning rod in from the muzzle to remove the punch but this can usually be done by just allowing the rod to drop onto the punch nose from several inches away. (Remember -- you're not driving the golden spike into the last tie on the railroad!)

I've got Winchester 52s that have been dry-fired a gazillion times without a problem but I've replaced pins on my Anschutz 54, Walther KKMS and two Kricos. Interestingly, only the Anschutz broke while dry-firing. The others all let go during live fire...

I use spent cases, dry-fire a couple of times, rotate the case, repeat the process about three times and toss that case. Frankly, .22 snapcaps always seem to me to be too soft to be effective. I've also tried plastic wall anchors from the hardware store. (They come in various sizes and a bit of shopping will find the right one -- they even eject!) IMO they're every bit as good as plastic snapcaps -- and much cheaper -- but I still prefer fired cases.

The only problem with fired cases is that they look no different from live rounds when chambered. Caution is advised...