Dry firing can hurt some guns, to be safe I would purchase a "snap cap". It is the same size as the actual shell but is made of hard plastic/rubber, some are metal with a spring loaded "primer". They give resistance to your firing pin just like an actual primer and prevent possible damage. They are cheap and easy to find at any gun show, gun shop, or on the net. It is also safer, if the snap cap is chambered you know a live round is not. "Snapping In" or dry firing is an excellent way to eliminate flintching and to work on your sight picture, trigger control, and breath control this is a proven fact.
take-em take a 22 to the range and practice your technique. Do so until you feel you have trigger/breathing control, sight picture, etc down. Then switch to your rifle do the exact same thing you did with the 22. It might not be a bad idea to take your rifle to a gunsmith and have him measure the trigger pull if factory and excessive (which most are now!) have him reduce it to crisp 3lbs trigger, this will help in flinch and jerking of the trigger. Then practice as much as possible but don't wear yourself out in any 1 session, if it ain't work pack up and start over on a new day.
Many folks believe dry firing is not damaging. I personally have broken firing pins on shotguns but never on a centerfire rifle. Play safe and use snapcaps or at a minimum fire on spent cartridges or better yet on cases with live primers in them.
Im a police range instuctor, and we teach the new recruits how to handle a firearm, and we have them dry-fire them, and in my 8 yrs i never had a firing pin break, but then again shotguns/rifles maybe differnt
With that said, if you are fighting a flinch, then having someone load the gun for you -- sometimes loaded sometimes not -- and observing your behavior is an excellent exercise and one we do all the time -- without snap caps. This is with bolt action centerfire rifles.
IMHO, the "gain" of dry firing by far out weighs the possible "downside". If doing an "away from home/remote hunt", then one should have a back up rifle in camp anyway. Given the never ending mantra of "shot placement" dry firing better be okay. It is a key element of observable simulation as a flinch is lost in the recoil of the rifle and cannot be observed, sensed by the shooter perhaps, but not readily observed.
EKM
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I don't believe that dry firing will hurt a thing with centerfire rifles or handguns. However, I never dry fire a rimfire as the firing pin can peen the face of your chamber.
Dry firing will not hurt a centerfire rifle/pistol. Some rimfires are OK to dry fire also- read the owner's manual before dryfiring rimfire- most are going to have a firing pin stop to prevent damage to the breechface, though some may not.
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I dry fire all my weapons prior to putting them away after cleaning. I like to keep the stress of the springs in the uncocked/fired position.
With my rimfires, I usually keep a few fired empties around and, after cleaning, pop one into the chamber and drop the hammer.
I regularly "practice" with my revolvers at a target in the basement by dryfiring. This gives me a better feel for the trigger. Haven't broken a firing pin yet.
__________________ PLEASE NOTE THAT DUE TO THE RISING COST IN AMMO PRICES I WILL NO LONGER BE FIRING A WARNING SHOT.
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I once heard that it was a problem in older .22's and not a problem with newer guns. This was several years ago and no idea if true or what is considered 'older'. But as the others have said, I dry fire mine everytime before putting it up.
dry firing
