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Thread: hammer down

  1. #1
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    hammer down

    I guess iam old school in thinking dry firing is bad??? and i dont know of any way other than that to drop the hammer on an m-4 so its not cocked all the time during storage. Would leaving a spent casing in the chamber be a bad idea? long term???or will dry firing not hurt???

    I dont like leaving the hammer back for a long time,cant be good for the spring. Altho i will admit some of my guns are 50 years old and they have been cocked for most of that time, and they still look and shoot like brand new. I havent had a chance to shoot a lot lately,so my guns stay stored,cleaned every once in a while to check for rust.
    Last edited by texasgunhand; 02-28-13 at 00:31.

  2. #2
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    Dry firing will absolutely not hurt, and is absolutely required if you plan to reach your potential. Nor will leaving the hammer cocked wear out your spring in any way.

    With springs, the act of compressing and decompressing is what puts the wear on a spring. Prolonged compression only harms it if it is compressed beyond it's yield limit.

    http://www.ohio.edu/people/bayless/s...mplereport.pdf

    Considering that it's a steel spring, the only thing that will harm it is fatigue and stress...actions caused by firing/dry firing. It's also under stress at both points in it's cycle, but both points are well within the yield limit so long as they are quality springs.

    In reality, it's absolutely nothing to worry about...let's say you dry fire enough to wear them out prematurely, they are very cheap and very easy to replace. It will take tens of thousands(if not more) of cycles to achieve this.
    Last edited by thopkins22; 02-28-13 at 00:33.

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    Ive been outa the scene for a while , and ive been reading here on spring life. In mags etc, Ive got an old old colt .32 acp that has had the mag loaded for longer than i have been alive. "my grandfathers hes 95 AND HE BOUGHT IT NEW...LOL" and the spring still works, I shot a clip outa it a couple years back, and it still worked great, thats why i asked this... i guess that it also will not hurt the firing pin etc???? When i went through my LE trainging 20 years ago they bitched about leaving mags loaded, but like i said that old colt has been loaded for 40 years..lol and it still worked like a champ.really over 40 years iam 45 and its been around longer than me..even the 40 + year old ammo was still hot...like i said, i just dont want to break a hammer, firing pin etc. being dumb.so i thought i would ask..... thanks
    Last edited by texasgunhand; 02-28-13 at 01:08.

  4. #4
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    If dry firing damaged ARs, then the Army (and I suspect the Marines) would be going through thousands of spare parts every Basic Training or OSUT cycle. During Basic Rifle Marksmanship you will dry fire your rifle everytime you aren't actively engaged in something else. Hundreds of times a day for a couple weeks. At least. And everytime it's reassembled a function check is done. Then when it's turned into the arms room.
    Last edited by Unicorn; 02-28-13 at 01:00.

  5. #5
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    Things have changed. When I looked for firearms info the last place I went was to someone in LE. Many officers have very little real experience with firearms.

    Some of the worst types of WECSOG I have seen were with LE weapons- AR's in particular.

    We also don't call them clips. They are magazines.

    Quote Originally Posted by texasgunhand View Post
    Ive been outa the scene for a while , and ive been reading here on spring life. In mags etc, Ive got an old old colt .32 acp that has had the mag loaded for longer than i have been alive. "my grandfathers hes 95 AND HE BOUGHT IT NEW...LOL" and the spring still works, I shot a clip outa it a couple years back, and it still worked great, thats why i asked this... i guess that it also will not hurt the firing pin etc???? When i went through my LE trainging 20 years ago they bitched about leaving mags loaded, but like i said that old colt has been loaded for 40 years..lol and it still worked like a champ.really over 40 years iam 45 and its been around longer than me..even the 40 + year old ammo was still hot...like i said, i just dont want to break a hammer, firing pin etc. being dumb.so i thought i would ask..... thanks



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  6. #6
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    If I may... I'd suggest a complete tear down of the weapon when not in use. This will give the springs some MUCH needed relaxation time.
    "You people have too much time on your hands." - scottryan

  7. #7
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    Store it with the hammer cocked.

    Do not put a spent case in the chamber and dry fire it before you store it.

    Do clear the gun and check it twice, or more times, before you dry fire it.

    Old School is fine and dandy when it comes to tattoos and cars. Anything else and you're just being a hard-headed dumb-ass.

  8. #8
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    Re: hammer down

    Just a quick question: do snap caps offer any protection while dry firing, or are they basically just for simulating malfunction?

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jdbl14 View Post
    Just a quick question: do snap caps offer any protection while dry firing, or are they basically just for simulating malfunction?
    Snap caps offer limited value in safely function checking feeding or something.

    But in the AR... they're not needed for dry firing at all.
    "You people have too much time on your hands." - scottryan

  10. #10
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    I use snap caps for my dry fire practice.

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