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Blessed with a wife most men cannot relate to, I received a laserlyte target and gun combo for Christmas. unfortunately, having large hands I quickly wore a blister on my trigger finger due to the smallish size of the gun. A light filing of the trigger corners helped but is really designed more for my little finger.
Yah, I tried that but extremely uncomfortable.
I since have purchased the laserlyte universal laser trainer to use with my regularly heated guns and suited to my hands. The device senses the hammer movement and works well with the several calibers I have tried thus far.
I am not an advocate for dry fire, though admittedly hard to resist, the only time I have, is when fixing or adjusting triggers or during the acquisition of weapon. And of coarse, checking out this laser.
I'm not wanting to continue as is.
So now my quest is to safely dry fire. (if not mechanically, then for peace of mind)

I am finding many brands with quite the spread in price and likely quality.
I rather purchase them individually but see many in large multi packs, Two of my intended have hammers so no slide work, I only need one. Do they come in ten packs because of a short life span?
Any recommendations as to which dry fire cartridges may have the longest life span and functional cushion would be appreciated greatly.
I'm sort of at a indoor shooting respite till I pick some up.
Not getting to bad with my left hand and the blue gun though.
Thank you kindly
 
I like Tipton Snap Caps.
I've got some extra .45 acp laying around if you want to try one.

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I agree on the snaps.

Tiptons are nice, you may find them rebranded with the Pachmayer name too, same thing though. A-Zoom caps are good quality also.
Magpul makes a solid polymer one that it decent though it doesnt have the spring loaded primer like the others.

At times Ive used spent brass... though thats probably not much better than full dry firing
 
Plus one on the Tipton's, 'bout the only brand I use!

Also, if you look at the owners manual and it says dry firing is ok, I tend to believe the manufacturers!
 
Plus one on the Tipton's, 'bout the only brand I use!

Also, if you look at the owners manual and it says dry firing is ok, I tend to believe the manufacturers!

The only time you're likely to have an issue with dry firing is with older guns specifically older rim fires where the firing pin will strike the edge of the chamber when they are dry fired which in time work hardened the metal there resulting in it breaking.

Most modern firearms are 100% safe to dry fire and regular dry fire practice is a huge help to training. That being said snap caps are always great to have around to aid in malfunction drills at the range.
 
I've never had a problem dry-firing a quality centerfire pistol.
I've dry-fired revolvers DA 100,000's of times and only had a firing pin retaining plate break on a Browning Hi-Power but that was after great gobs of dry-fire and 50,000 rounds down the pipe of that gun.
 
I'm surprised no one hs mentioned airsoft. You get realistic reactions, can practice reloads safely. and can practice indoors. All you need is a towel to stop the rounds with a box underneath to catch them. Very safe and realistic and more fun than dry firing.
 
No offense ... But I just can't "get into" Airsoft guns.
On one hand they are too much like toys for me to take seriously.
And on the other hand some look so real that they might get you in trouble.

Not knocking anyone who likes 'em , nor think they need to regulated , just not for me.
Andy
 
I'm surprised no one hs mentioned airsoft. You get realistic reactions, can practice reloads safely. and can practice indoors. All you need is a towel to stop the rounds with a box underneath to catch them. Very safe and realistic and more fun than dry firing.
Do they kick like a 3" K-frame .357 magnum? lol
 
I figure when you dry fire, somewhere there are metal parts being hammered against each other that wouldn't otherwise be, or at least with less force.

So yes, I use snap caps regardless of what the manufacturers say. I don't know of any negatives.

Yeah, I'm a bit anal when it comes to my guns. What of it. :p
 
I hear the encouragement betwixt modern guns and dry fire ability. I was also privy to some gun manuals allowance of the same. Nonetheless with nearly a half a century of experience cold forming and hammering various metals, I'll error on the side of caution and protect my assets to the best of my ability. Hence this post.
Thank you all for the Tipton advice, that was what I was looking for. I'll pick some up.
P/S
Thank you for the offer Jeff, but with my luck, my R1 would follow suit with HuckelberryFun's M1a
and destroy your Tipton so I would have to buy them anyway to replace it.
I'll cut out the middle man if you please and save me angst, but it was kind of you to ask.
 
Plus one on the Tipton's, 'bout the only brand I use!

Also, if you look at the owners manual and it says dry firing is ok, I tend to believe the manufacturers!

Having been an armorer and having to do multiple quarterly services on dozens and dozens of M-16's and 1911's, I would tend to agree. Those things got dry fired hundreds of times a day by bored Cav troopers when out in the field or any time they had the weapons signed out. Not once did one ever malfunction when at the range nor did I ever find one firing pin out of spec or showing signs of premature wear or damage.
Think about it, the forces of rounds cycling over and over puts far more stress and wear on not only the firing pin but all of the components. Why would a manufacturer design a firing pin that would only wear faster under a dry fire condition?
If there were a reason not to dry fire it would be in the owners manual. That being said, I wouldn't necessarily go into someone's fine shop and start dry firing the gun's like some kind of trunk monkey. That would just be rude. If you absolutely must know what the trigger pull feels like then ask first.
 
One more comment. The Tipton type of snap cap has metal rims for rimless cartridges and plastic for rimmed. I had an issue on a revolver where the edges of the rims were getting stuck on some sharp edges on the breech face. It would sometimes prevent the cylinder from turning.

I tried rounding the edges on the rims, but I think it was more due to it being the softer plastic material. I ended up getting a set of the A-Zoom metal ones just for that one gun. Otherwise I prefer the Tipton style.
 

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