Is it ok to dry fire military rifles?
Hello, my friend told me that you can dry fire military rifles, as they’re designed to be rugged. Is this true?
My gun is a Norinco M14.
Tagged with: hello my friend • Military Rifles • norinco m14
Filed under: Military Rifles
Typically the modern ones are, but I am inclined to avoid anything that may strain or unnaturally wear. There are "Snap Cap" type artificial cartridges that are made to take the firing pin impact. I use those.
I know some champion shooters and they spend a lot of dry fire time, particularly the off-hand shooters. Form is very important for that and constant practice is necessary for them. That much actual shooting would be very expensive and wearing on equipment and shooter. Of course for them, sacrificing extra wear on some older equipment is well worth the precision training.
For your purposes, I assume you have little to gain sacrificing yours. The Snap Caps will serve you and your gun well. It’s cheaper and less trouble to just wear those out. Keep the gun lubricated with a little gun grease or oil in appropriate places, where components rub, and there shouldn’t be too much wear with even a good bit of dry fire.
PS: As always, never pull a trigger unless the muzzle is pointing in a direction you want to shoot. That goes any time. The hard rule is all guns are always loaded. Even when you are sure they aren’t, that’s how they are to be treated.
no, you will wear out the bolt and firing pin.
You CAN just like with any other rifle but doing so often will only speed up the process of wear and tear, with an M14 they are good accurate guns but they have been known to jam easily if misused or not properly lubricated. My recommendation is to just not do it.
Dry firing anything is not good for the firing mechanism. Even though a military rifle such as your M14 is very rugged, over time it will still put undue wear and tear on the firing pin. Preserve your weapon and get yourself some "Snap Cap" rounds and you won’t have to worry about it anymore.
keep it lubricated and it should be fine. ive yet to see a bolt or firing pin fail for excessive wear when i inspect a rifle before it goes out the window.
it will be some addl stress, and as others have suggested, inert rounds would be best, but if you cant get any, its not gonna be some huge deal.
they can hold up fine to the daily functions check/proper clearing procedures but i wouldnt sit there and do it for hours on end.
Yes you can. We do it all the time, at the clearing barrels, steady fire drills, and weapons functions check. You do not do this with machine guns though such as the M240B or any other 240 variant, MA2 .50 Cal, or the 249saw.