Thread: Simple practice shooting question

Older 22s where the bolt faces are flat generally shouldn't be dry fired as it can cause distortion of the rear of the chamber.

Bolt faces which are rebated to hold the cartridge can mostly be dry fired but check by decocking the bolt and put a straight edge across the face. If the firing pin is not proud it will not hit and damage the chamber rear.

I'm still not a fan of lots of dry firing even if the firing pin doesn't protrude far enough to do damage. The reason for this is most firing pins have a shoulder which when dry firing stops the firing pin travel. (No case to cushion or limit travel.) IMO constant wacking of the shoulder may lead to damage. May take thousands but.....

I once broke the bolt head locking pin on my old Omark dry firing. The shoulder on the firing pin was stopped by the locking pin leading to a crack. A damaged bolt head retaing pin in an Omark is not desirable.

I have 2 Walthers that are safe to dry fire, well not in the true sense. I can cycle the bolts but leave them unclosed and something latches and I can dry fire them as though they are cocked.

The issue also comes up as to how do you leave your semi auto. Both my Marlin and my Browning I just close the slide/bolt and pull the trigger. I don't think minimal dry firing like this is too much of an issue.