So do you dry fire, or leave it cocked?

[bushmeister]

Whats worse? dry firing, or leaving the load on the spring? or pulling the trigger on a previously spent cartridge? Is there a preferred storage solution before putting it in the safe? Not bi, but curious.

[Colohunter]

I don't know if one is better than the other. Most of the guns that I keep in the safe I dry fire to leave them with the hammer down. But I keep my 6.8 and a work rifle "cruiser ready," which is an emptry chamber with a loaded magazine. When I do that I leave the hammer cocked so that I can leave the safety on. That way when I charge the weapon it is already on safe.

[randyf]

I don't know if its the best way or not but I always take the load off the spring......which in many guns is done by dry firing.

[thebrassnuckles]

i usually keep all my handguns with a round chambered and cocked in my safe, my AR's a magazine in, but no round chambered, and uncocked...

[JCoop]

All of my ARs (and pistolas) are locked and loaded. They are just paper weights otherwise. The 450 is ready in case I need to slow down a blue helmet piloted hummer first

[bushmeister]

Thanks for the replies folks. I thought dry firing it would do more harm than good, but it seems not so much.

[commander faschisto]

THE THREAD RISES FROM THE DEAD!....Ok, so, does anyone feel there's any real problem with dry firing the 450b to take the load off of the hammer spring?

(We in the U.S. Chair Force used to dry fire our "lovingly" maintained range rifles (clapped-out A1s with the triangular handguards, yet) after more-or-less cleaning them..?)

[Larrys1911]

not saying you cant ruin some part by dryfiring but if its a quality part.......Its gonna take a LOT of it.

I used to shoot IPSC/IDPA/Threegun/Steel Im a Huge dry fire advocate....

Ive replaced the firing pin in my S&W 629 Classic 4 times
Ive replaced the 1911 Firing pin springs I dont have a clue how many times
Ive replaced 4 Glock Firing pins and was told that my dryfiring regimine attributed to the breachface failure in my GLock 35
and last but not least I have replaced 3 mag button springs (well actually they have to go back to the factory when they break most of the time) in two glocks due to practicing mag changes.....

Point is Yea you can hurt ANY gun by dryfiring if you do it enough I was doing about 1-3 hrs a night for about 3yrs.

On the AR I havent done enough to see anything but my guess would be trigger parts wearing and firingpin problems....

IF youre just doing it to put it in the safe......unless you have a bad part to begin with.... I doubt you will live long enough to see a part break from dryfiring once everytime you store your weapon.

Larry P

[wildcatter]

Thanks for the replies folks. I thought dry firing it would do more harm than good, but it seems not so much.

Nope, doesn't hurt to dry fire them at all, in fact "Snapping-in" is a prerequisite to learning good trigger control.

As far as springs go.. Since WW-II spring technology took a big leap forward and certainly since Vietnam. With today's springs you can leave the mag loaded and the trigger cocked with no ill effects at all. Where folks get into trouble, is when they decide they can get a little extra if they just stretch their spring a little. Yup they will get better effects, but only for a very short time. The reality is, they've just wrecked the spring and quite soon they will experience really negative results..

..t

[commander faschisto]

That's what I thought too...just a VERY occasional snap, maybe. Didn't think it would be a problem like that. Too much of anything can be bad...mashed potatos are pretty innocuous, unless you eat 100 pounds at one sitting, right?

(Not sure if that's true about bacon, though...)