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dry firing a colt official police .38 special

6.2K views 23 replies 12 participants last post by  JohnnyP  
#1 ·
I am new to firearms in general. My father gave me his 1966 official police .38 special revolver. I want to clean and oil it and would like to dry fire it. Is it safe to do so? I do not want to do something that will damage it. Your thoughts please. Just looking to be educated. Thanks
 
#2 ·
gserve, welcome to Coltforum.

I have dry fired center fire Colt revolvers dozens of thousands of time, with no damage. Use snap caps, if you are worried about damage.

Rim fires are a different story. Dry firing rim fires results in peening the cylinder face, damaging the revolver.
 
#3 ·
Dry firing may stretch the firing pin rivet. I know on a Single Action Army that I had, and thought I was Clint Eastwood, that considerable dry firing sheared the rivet.

Therefore the best thing would be to get some snap caps. I'm only familiar with A-Zoom, but there are several brands available. I'd check on Midway USA as they usually have enough reviews to make a pick and choose decision from.
 
#7 ·
Also note that there's a difference between a dummy round and a snap cap. A-Zoom makes solid aluminum dummy rounds, which are great for checking feeding and ejection, doing loading/unloading drills etc. However, I don't think they'll hold up to much dry firing. I use Tipton snap caps, which are not very good for trying feeding, ejection and such, but they have a spring loaded "primer" that's especially made for dry firing: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tipton-38-...ining-Safety/190952311213?epid=710137383&hash=item2c75a509ad:g:W~MAAOxyXDhScsAU
 
#9 ·
Most modern .22 firearms do have some system of a positive firing pin or striker stop to prevent damaging the chamber mouth.
A more likely failure is a broken firing pin.
Colt's like the Mark III and later .22 and centerfire models can be dry fired without harm to the chambers, but they are known to suffer broken firing pins.
The sticky point is that some modern .22 firearms do come with cautions not to dry fire them. Whether this is an actual mechanical hazard or the company just being careful is a question.

While you can dry fire most any revolver or auto made since 1900, you may notice some protrusion around the firing pin bushing in the frame.
One shot will correct that, but over time there may be wear and enlargement of the actual hole in the bushing.

However, better safe then sorry so to protect a nice pistol, snap caps are cheap insurance.
 
#11 ·
When I was young, my dad would teach me about firearms and one thing he told me to never do was Dry Fire any firearm. I did not know why, but I thought my dad knew everything about guns and I did what he told me to do or not to do. After a 4 year stint in college getting a degree in Mechanical Engineering, I now know why. Dry fireing can induce what is commonly called "Cold Heat Treating"..... this is caused by one piece of steel "hitting" the same spot continuously on another part and will act like a forging hammer would to hot steel.....it changes the grain structure over time. Do I dry fire, yes, but only a few time when needed. I use Snap Caps when I want to dry fire. Just my opinion, but not good to do over time.
 
#15 ·
I believe this phenomenon is similar to (or maybe the same as) work hardening, and it can very well happen. The big question is what it takes to make it happen, but it's one of those things you don't want to find out. It may also vary from gun to gun, so while some say that "they have dry fired it a thousand times and it didn't hurt it", others may say that "they dry fired it ten times and it broke". Again, you don't want to find out how much it takes.

Your gun may very well hold up to hundreds, maybe thousands of dry snaps, but better safe than sorry: Use snap caps.
 
#12 ·
I dry fire rarely & only to check something --

The RF chamber issue sent me back to my files for this:

"Fix Chamber on .22RF Dinged by Firing Pin

A simple fix I have never seen mentioned is this. A #1 drill, is .228", the same as many .22 chamber IDs. On a #1 drill, grind a flat half an inch long or more, maybe .040" deep, along the side of the drive end of the drill. Smooth the transition edges from flat to round and polish them. Lube the chamber and your tool, insert it 3/8" or more and turn it to lift or iron out the ding in the chamber.

Sounds 'quick and dirty' but it works."
 
#16 ·
I fixed a Star model F .22 pistol, that I had replaced the firing pin in and it was a bit long and dinged the chamber, with the #1 drill bit. This happened years ago with my Dad's Star too, but I used a file back then. The drill it works quite well imo.

While a bit of a thread drift, a LGS sent an older Ruger 22 pistol back to the factory to repair a dinged chamber. Ruger told them they didn't have parts for that model anymore and wanted the gun shop to pay return shipping. I mentioned the drill bit to the shop owner. It would have seemed to me Ruger could have repaired the old Ruger but probably wanted the owner to just buy a new one.
 
#13 · (Edited)
In the past, dry firing was an important part of firearms training. Target shooters did it, military recruits did it, and so on. If you look around you'll find dry firing recommended in many shooting instructions by top shooters throughout the 20th century to today. We did it in the Navy when learning to shoot the 1911.

Any machine that is used can eventually show wear. From motorcycle engines to electric can openers. A primer slows down the firing pin somewhat, softening the blow. Or actually, ensuring the firing pin stops all the blow - when you dry fire the pin doesn't stop the action, some other hammer block or such does. I'd say breaking a firing pin is most likely if it is hitting live cartridges, not just flying "in air." Wear on the hammer or other parts that are much more robust and might wear, or even be battered or break, after hundreds or thousands of dry fires. But a few times won't hurt. I'd wager MOST old guns we cherish have been dry fired at least a few dozen times. DA revolvers and 1911s that may have been in the military or police: hundreds.

I won't dry fire rimfires, where the parts to prevent the firing pin from hitting the chamber rim are much less robust. Some modern .22s, like High Standards, are known to batter the chamber if the firing pin is slightly long, stretched, worn.
 
#19 · (Edited)
Like a claw hammer hardens from being struck right?! Wait, those don't work harden. Bending a nail is doing a lot more than just striking two pieces of hard steel together. Hmmmm...must depend on the design and type of steel. Machines are full of things that are intended to be struck against each other. In the gun world, a transfer bar comes to mind, which is meant to be struck every time a gun is fired, dry our not. I'm not saying to go around dry firing thousands of times on antique guns. I am saying dry firing was commonly done to most of these guns anyway, and I don't find many that have large, brittle pieces breaking off!
 
#20 ·
Your claw hammer it's hardened, but it's also tempered to be "soft" enough so it doesn't chip or break. If you harden it too much it can break, if you don't harden it enough it will peen. Gun parts are engineered the same way, the hardness is optimized for the use, and if you change it you may see stretching, bending, breaking etc.

The reason why your claw hammer doesn't work harden is that you normally hit objects that are softer than the hammer (nails, wood, your thumb etc). However, if you start hitting rocks with it, you may very well induce some hardening that will make it chip. And just like you pointed out, there's different kinds of steel as well. There is actually a dizzying array of alloys and treatments, just to make sure that steel parts are optimized for their purpose.

So it's not an urban legend, gun parts can actually break if they're not used properly. It doesn't happen very often, but it can definitely happen.
 
#23 ·
Firing pin stop plate from Springfield Armory Model 1911 which was dry fired until stop plate cracked.
Poor heat-treating? Misshapen hammer face? During the 1970s, I had a Colt Combat Commander converted to Double Action by Seecamp. I took it to gun shows for years soliciting orders for conversions. I encouraged interested parties to dry-fire the pistol to test the feel of the trigger. I have no idea of the number of times the pistol was dry-fired, but it had to be in the tens of thousands. I rarely pick up the pistol even now without pulling the trigger a few times to marvel at the genius of the Seecamp design. The firing pin stop shows little wear yet today, and certainly no damage like that pictured.