Virginia Gun Owners Forum - VGOF

I'm testing out the different backstraps supplied with the G17 G4. I thought that I really liked the smallest size, but am finding that it's not easy to get a good grip and place my trigger finger well. While dry firing the gun, I was wondering if it was OK or do I have to use snap caps?

Its always safer to use snapcaps. That being said I never use them. The square part of the striker around the pin will hit the inside face of the slide, but I have never heard of any broken strikers or anything else. Always point in a safe direction even if you "know" its unloaded.

mut617 wrote:Its always safer to use snapcaps. That being said I never use them. The square part of the striker around the pin will hit the inside face of the slide, but I have never heard of any broken strikers or anything else. Always point in a safe direction even if you "know" its unloaded.

+1

It isn't good to dry fire any gun that doesn't have a spring to absorb the firing pin impact. How bad it is really depends on the gun. Striker fired guns (generally a semi-auto with no hammer) all have springs that force the firing pin forward to strike the primer. If there isn't something relatively soft, they slam into the inside of the bolt. Repeatedly doing this can eventually cause them to break as firing pins are hardened.

Striker fired guns, like your Glock, generally need to be "decocked" in order to disassemble them. This involves a dry fire, so it would seem reasonable that their designs/materials would be capable of handling some dry firing. Dry firing/trigger training would be considered accelerated wear and tear.

Hammer guns, like a SIG or 1911, have a firing pin spring that pulls the firing pin away from the primer. The falling hammer overcomes this spring to fire the gun. It is generally considered safe to dry fire these as that spring absorbs the hammers energy and there is no abrupt steel on steel strike.

I would recommend snap caps for your Glock if you are going to do a lot of dry firing. A broken firing pin on the range is just a ruined shooting trip, a broken firing pin for a CC gun is bad news. I don't bother with snap caps for my SIGs/1911s though.

Your Glock will be good to go for years and years of dry fire practice. The armorer's manual indicates that dry firing them is perfectly ok.
If it gives you piece of mind, then get snap-caps. As others have already said, they definitely won't hurt. However, they aren't necessary.

I noticed this issue when I got my S&W Sigma many years ago. The only way to cock the gun is the rack the slide back. The only decock is the trigger. That can make testing and cleaning a pain in the butt. It also defeates the purpose of snap caps, because in order to take pretty much any pistol down you will need to clear the chamber, which requires racking the slide, WHICH COCKS THE GUN AGAIN!
Then I read that most striker systems are designed to be dry fired safely. So I stopped worrying about it. I have some .380 snap caps for my Ruger LCP but I only used them a few times, just to cycle the weapon.
When I unload the gun for the night I just leave it cocked, without a round or magazine. To the best of my knowledge its not a bad thing to do.

Along those lines, are there any striker guns with a manual decock?

From what I know, the general rule of thumb is that any modern centerfire weapon is safe to dry fire unless the manufacturer says otherwise. Rimfire weapons tend to not be dry fire friendly.

Lots of competition shooters use Glocks and frequently model 17s. They dry fire their pistols literally tens of thousands of times. All those that I know use dummy rounds to practice reloads and malfunctions; but, I don't know any who use snap caps when dry firing their Glocks -- just not necessary and way too burdensome.

RocKor wrote:From what I know, the general rule of thumb is that any modern centerfire weapon is safe to dry fire unless the manufacturer says otherwise. Rimfire weapons tend to not be dry fire friendly.

Pretty much this. Or, to put it most succinctly - RTFM.

Chasbo00 wrote:Lots of competition shooters use Glocks and frequently model 17s. They dry fire their pistols literally tens of thousands of times. All those that I know use dummy rounds to practice reloads and malfunctions; but, I don't know any who use snap caps when dry firing their Glocks -- just not necessary and way too burdensome.

Snap caps are, as you mentioned, GREAT ways to simulate failures in a weapon and eliminate flinch. Just load a magazine and randomly add a few snap-caps or dummy rounds and when they come up you can notice if your flinching or follow-through is not where it needs to be, plus you can practice clearing a malfunction. But for dry-fire? They're nice to have but not necessary.