Thread: Dry firing a 22lr

I'm quite often finding myself dry firing my semi auto .22 as it's easy to forget how many are left in the mag.
Any suggestions aside from pulling the mag and checking EVERY time I'm unsure?
Cheers.

Yes - Dont.

Two reasons -

1) you will damage the breechface of the barrel and cause difficult extraction issues .

and

2) Its fuckin dangerous. This is the downside to semi auto actions. Just dont .

A bit depends on the make (it's design) of the rifle but Ruger 10-22's are fine, as are Marlins. Others maybe but I've not looked at them. One I know not to DF is the Unique X51, I've seen two with broken firing pins.

Actually reading @free Knicks post - he read the OP better than me and I agree - don't do as he suggests

Originally Posted by BushChook

I'm quite often finding myself dry firing my semi auto .22 as it's easy to forget how many are left in the mag.
Any suggestions aside from pulling the mag and checking EVERY time I'm unsure?
Cheers.

Do you not count your rounds as you fire? That should be second nature with any firearm, especially semi-auto’s. And no, dry firing .22’s is generally not good for firing pin or breech face.

destroys stirling semi firing pins, rugers seem not to be an issue

Originally Posted by BushChook

I'm quite often finding myself dry firing my semi auto .22 as it's easy to forget how many are left in the mag.
Any suggestions aside from pulling the mag and checking EVERY time I'm unsure?
Cheers.

Yep, it's easy and it's all in the training (thanks NZ Army)...we were taught to count our rounds as we fired.
When you get to 19 (we had a 20 round SLR mag) you stop shooting and whip in a new full mag (leaving the 20th round safely snuggled in the chamber). Then you don't have to recock the damn thing with a group of nasty people coming through the wire at you.
So...count your rounds in as you load the mag (say 10 rounds?). Then as you shoot up those bunnies just count 1, 2, 3, 4, etc each time you pull the trigger.
Doesn't take long to train your mind to do this every time.
Does not work with an M16 on full squirt though!

Using AR platform 22s makes you lazy re round counting with the bolt hold open.

You can't just slip the bolt back a half case length and check for a chambered case?

how about making the first round you load into the mag a snap cap

Rifle is a BRNO 581. I do count as I fire, but occasionally I loose count. This is my first semi auto

Originally Posted by woods223

Do you not count your rounds as you fire? That should be second nature with any firearm, especially semi-auto’s. And no, dry firing .22’s is generally not good for firing pin or breech face.

Even Harry Kallaghan looses count.

Load a snap cap into magazine for last round

Used a stirling years ago.
Ran 2 mags and never emptied them.
Use to stop swap and refill them regular though.
Our spotlighting was the .22 first go then once they moved the shotgun started.

I like the snap cap idea, I have a mate who is a new shooter, keeps dry firing on the range with his bolt action CZ, even with ear muffs on, I can hear the lack of brass being picked up from the mag as he closes the bolt on an empty chamber and have to say 'stop'.