Dry Firing?

No, the occasional dry firing of a centerfire firearm will not cause excessive damage. Rimfires are where the problems come in.

Any dry firing will wear on the shoulder of the firing pin and the internal body of the bolt. The infrequent action does not need to be worried about. Heck, when adjusting the trigger pull on a firearm, I may snap it a dozen times. On the other hand, I don't make a practice of dry firing repeatedly as an exercise or just to hear it snap.

the rare exception is with Ruger, they come out and say dry firing any of their firearms, including rimfire is fine and you will do no harm the the fireing pins. lot's of things/designs have changed over the years and when in doubt play it safe, but if the mfr says it's alright then i have to give them the benifit of the doubt. just don't apply what one mfr says about their product with what the other mfr says on theirs.

Jim H said:

the rare exception is with Ruger, they come out and say dry firing any of their firearms, including rimfire is fine and you will do no harm the the fireing pins. lot's of things/designs have changed over the years and when in doubt play it safe, but if the mfr says it's alright then i have to give them the benifit of the doubt. just don't apply what one mfr says about their product with what the other mfr says on theirs.

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+1, the manual of a 10/22 says it is a-o-k, and it is encouraged for proper trigger pull training.

I constantly dry fire everything I own.
IF, and mind you I said IF it was possible to wear something out, in a routine of regular, small instance dry firings; they wouldn't use THAT method to discharge the gun anyway.

If you are concerned, don't do it.
I routinely sit in front of the tv, working the actions, and dry firing my guns. Never had any wear issues in 15 years....

Dry fire in front of the tv??

Darkker, do you dry fire at politicians on the tv?

Just wanted to add a comment. When I was at the gun store yesterday buying my bolt action 204 the guy had me pull the bolt up about 3/4 of the way and dry fire. He said doing this prevents firing pin damage.

I have dry fired most of my guns with exception to my shotguns and rimfires. If my centerfire rifles can't hold up to a dry firing..... I want something else.

On a side note, I use to sell guns and talked to the Glock and HK guys about slamming the slide closed on an empty chamber. They said fine, no problems.

I was in a gun store in Colorado Springs and closed the slide on a new HK pistol and the guy acted like I killed someone and immediatly asked for the gun back. I said what's the problem... he said doing that recks the gun... I said according to Glock and HK they are made for it..... He didn't care and I proceeded to leave and never have been back.