Dry firing an old model Ruger 41 mag

[foxtrapper]

Good ,bad or ugly?

 

[Swampman]

I don't dry fire anything.

 

[cat1870]

Best avoided if you can....

 

[contender]

Dryfiring is good to practice gripping & trigger control. However, I'd suggest you get a set of "snap-caps" to put in each chamber first.

 

[Bucks Owin]

Dryfiring is good to practice gripping & trigger control. However, I'd suggest you get a set of "snap-caps" to put in each chamber first.

10X....I do with OM, with NM I dry fire willy nilly. In fact I usually have a NM S6 laying out just for that, or if a pest "volunteers". That's been going on since it was new back in early 80's, hasn't hurt it yet!

Great practice and gun feels as familiar as my....Well, you know :oops: :lol:

 

[Tellico]

My old models, I use snap caps. My New blackhawk got dry fired 2 hrs straight yesterday as I watched Let's Make a Deal and Price is Right. with no snap caps and it took the last tiny bit of creap out of the trigger pull. No harm whatsoever.

 

[Swampman]

Except wear which leads to failure.

 

[Iron Mike Golf]

Except wear which leads to failure.

Better not go to the range, then. :D

 

[BIgMuddy]

I dry fire my guns a LOT! I hope I live long enough to wear them out :D

 

[Bucks Owin]

I dry fire my guns a LOT! I hope I live long enough to wear them out :D

You got that right amigo! :wink: Now I hope my son is able to wear a couple out since I've failed in that endeavor! :lol:

 

[SAJohn]

I thought all firearms using spring loaded, floating, modern steel firing pins could withstand a lot of dry firing with no harm. I believe all Ruger firearms are thus made with the exception of the Old Army revolver. In reading through a number of Ruger instruction manuals, including Old Model revolvers and 10/22's, I did not see any cautions against dry firing.

John

 

[Swampman]

Except wear which leads to failure.

Better not go to the range, then. :D

A lot less wear at the range.

 

[Iron Mike Golf]

Except wear which leads to failure.

Better not go to the range, then. :D

A lot less wear at the range.

Please explain. That's not at all obvious to me.

 

[Swampman]

Most people will never fire the number of rounds at the range during the entire time they own the gun that they will sitting around the house in one evening.

Do you jack your car up and put a brick on the gas pedal to break it in?

I would never buy a gun knowingly that had been dryfired other than accidently a time or two.

 

[Rclark]

My dry firing is limited to after a cleaning just to make sure all is in working condition. Even then I'll usually put my thumb in between for a soft landing or keep my thumb on the hammer... Also if I am showing the gun to some one, I'll allow them to dry fire it a time or two (after making sure it's cleared of course). But in general my firing is all in the field with shells in the chambers :) .

Each to their own :) .

 

[COR]

Can anyone claiming it damages a gun show me an actual damaged Ruger from said dry firing? Surely if it is so egregious an act we would have seen at least ONE damaged gun from this AWFUL practice in the last 60 years. I'll patiently wait and probably pass the time by dry firing my 3 screw 44Spl....

 

[Bucks Owin]

My 35 yr old blued NM S6 has been fired many thousands of times and gets scant care other than sweaty fingerprints wiped off, an occasional "going over" with #9 when it gets a little sticky to chamber/eject, and a little grease on the base pin. I think I've stripped it completely down for a good cleaning 3 times over the years, and I suppose it could stand another. I have no clue how many bricks of ammo it has digested. For awhile I saved some (half?) of my empty rimfire brass in a 5 gal pail that I eventually filled, and I have another 1/2 filled. (I own 4 other rimfires that contribute too I admit, but then I usually let my 10/22 go ahead and "litter" ) It's trigger/action is very nice... 8)

It's been dry fired even more than it's been shot! There is an imprint/outline of the hammer face in the frame and to a lesser degree the T bar. The sides of the hammer have a little bit of a "polish" as well. It's the gun I do the bulk of my dry fire practice with, and I do that with the intention of seeing if I can break/wear something out....Guess what? :wink:

If dry fire hurts a Ruger SA revolver (NM at least) you couldn't prove it by me. Maybe it was an especially well fitted SA Ruger, but I very much doubt it....

PS: It now plays "second fiddle" to my OM as a "shooter" so I guess it'll be up to my sidekick to wear it out! :lol: Maybe if we swap on a 9.5" barrel and get him interested in sillywet... :shock:

 

[Iron Mike Golf]

Most people will never fire the number of rounds at the range during the entire time they own the gun that they will sitting around the house in one evening.

Do you jack your car up and put a brick on the gas pedal to break it in?

I would never buy a gun knowingly that had been dryfired other than accidently a time or two.

It sounds like your objection is simply the number of cycles put on the action. Is that the case? You have not said that the wear on the parts is different for dry firing (with a snap cap) than with a live round.

 

[COR]

I dry fired my Ruger all night waiting for one of you to post the damage it causes...

Much ado about nothing IMHO.

 

[Three44s]

Guns can break during dry fire.

I broke my Smith MG this way.

My gunsmith I bought it from replaced the firing pin for free and told me to KEEP up the dry firing! He explained that the GOOD from the practice FAR outweighed the occasional break down!

What he further explained was that he saw one or two guns in a long span of time break out of a ton of them he had sold and/or serviced.

Now, a Ruger of MN manufacture is far stronger in this regard than my 629-4 MG (has the hammer mounted firing pin) so I don't even wince at the though of smoothing internals and building muscle memory through DF practice.

I don't own any OM's but if I did .......... I'd just religously use snap caps with them if I had any.


And if one is still not comfortable ......... just use snap caps in everything you DF .........

Three 44s

 

[DGNY]

Believe I recall story of a Sturm-Ruger display in era of early OMs in which a machine continually dry-fired an OM centerfire for days on end w/o damage.

Of course, parts are harder to get these days and the OM guns are 39-55 yrs old...

Regards,

Dyson