Is there a safe way to dry fire a percussion revolver?

[Old-Duckman]

I like the idea of the vacuum hose.
Thanks all for the advice and and suggestions.
I have dummies for my smokeless powder firearms, I never like to dry fire any gun without the firing pin striking something.

 

[PathfinderNC]

Yes! I read somewhere that there is a very good but often neglected method of dry firing a percussion pistol. It is ironic in that this method involves water! Simply submerge the revolver under water (a bathtub would suffice) at a comfortable temperature. The hammer blow will be lessened by the resistance it encounters in the water, thus impeding any damage to the uncapped nipple!
You can use slightly soapy water as well, which in turn will clean the gun!
This has to be a good method because it was posted on the internet !

 

[hawkeye2]

Wow, that's great to know. If I got back into scuba diving I could take my revolvers along and dry fire at the fish.
Oh wait, that's not dry firing is it?

 

[TrapperDude]

No! Striking a nipple, solid or regular, with the hammer repeatedly will deform the nose of the hammer.

Putting something like an aluminum or otherwise empty cap on the nipple will still have the same effect as above.

How does using blank caps result in the same effect as striking unprotected nipples? Wouldn't the blank caps provide the same level of cushioning as live caps?

 

[hawkeye2]

There's nothing there except a thin piece of metal which isn't going to cushion anything, just transfer the blow. Strike yourself on the head with a claw hammer. Now put a 1/4" thick piece of metal on top of your head and strike that with a hammer. Notice any difference?

 

[TrapperDude]

There's nothing there except a thin piece of metal which isn't going to cushion anything, just transfer the blow. Strike yourself on the head with a claw hammer. Now put a 1/4" thick piece of metal on top of your head and strike that with a hammer. Notice any difference?

I just tried it. I didn't feel a thing! I'm going to patent my new light-weight helmet!

But seriously, is that thin layer of primer compound all that much of an improvement over the thin metal? And aren't those blank caps, crimped as they are when they come from the puncher, already slightly spaced from the ends of the nipples so that the crimp has to be stretched before the metal actually reaches the tip of the nipple--just as is the case with live caps?

 

[hawkeye2]

I personally doubt that the layer of priming compound or the stretching of the cap absorbs a significant amount of the hammer blow. Try the previous experiment but this time put a cap on top of the plate before you strike it. Let me know if there is any difference.

 

[M. De Land]

The title says it all.

Here are a few shots of the neoprene glass block pad and where it goes in the gun. The glass block is actually 4 inches long instead of the 3 inches I mis-remembered formerly.
You can cut them to size then sand the thickness down to fit the reset height of your revolver action. They will spring compress when hand cycling the action so make them a bit thicker for actual dry firing. The hammer will never touch the cone and the action will reset itself when adjusted correctly then you can dry fire to your hearts content without any harm to your revolver.
Do remember to remove it before loading at the range or you won't be doing any shooting. Click on the frames to enlarge.

 

[TrapperDude]

I personally doubt that the layer of priming compound or the stretching of the cap absorbs a significant amount of the hammer blow. Try the previous experiment but this time put a cap on top of the plate before you strike it. Let me know if there is any difference.

 

[French Colonial]

cut one of the soft foam ear plugs and put it under the hammer

 

[Old-Duckman]

M De Land, those photos really helped. I didn't understand what you were describing in just your written post. Actually I work in the window industry (Vinyl Extrusion Company) and I can get some of these shims from our fabrication shop ! I think I'll pick some up the next time I am in the office...

 

[rdungan1918]

This a question I was thinking about asking. Thanks

 

[J. Paul]

Might try a length of aquarium air tubing slipped over the nipple as a "snapcap" of sorts

 

[ryoung14]

Removing the nipples may lead to other issues. It could let the breast of the hammer strike the frame and doing this repeatedly could work harden the hammer. Back in the 60s I used to hang out in a gun store where a friend who shot competitive pistol worked. He knew of 2 club members who had broken the hammers on their S&Ws from work hardening after dry firing countless times.

Hawkeye, two points on those S&W hammers:
1) they were on double action revolvers that were probably dry-fired double action. As such, they saw a lot more dry-firing than most SA revolvers would see.
2) S&W hammers are hardened more thoroughly than SA repro hammers to stand up to the DA usage. Therefore they are likely more brittle.

 

[45D]

All my open top revolvers have the frame as the "stop" for the hammer . The reason is to keep the conversion ring/plate from being bashed. The only thing the hammer needs to hit is the mounted firing pin and that's all . . . the frame stops the force.
Of course the main spring tension has been reduced considerably. What started out as 7 -9 lb. hammer draws are now in the high 2 lbs. for the Dragoons and in the mid 3 lbs. for the belt pistols. The massive Dragoon hammers have plenty of "smack" for what they need to do and the '60 Army hammers aren't far behind. The real secret for such "light" hammers is in the action. Reduced friction/tension the hammer has to overcome is how that happens. It allows for easy handling, operation, fast lock time maintained . . .

Mike

 

[M. De Land]

Might try a length of aquarium air tubing slipped over the nipple as a "snapcap" of sorts

Yes, I do that quite a bit on my percussion rifles but usually use rubber air hose with the fabric liner as they last longer. The hammer cushion shown in the pictures work the best of any I've yet tried on revolvers.

 

[M. De Land]

Yes! I read somewhere that there is a very good but often neglected method of dry firing a percussion pistol. It is ironic in that this method involves water! Simply submerge the revolver under water (a bathtub would suffice) at a comfortable temperature. The hammer blow will be lessened by the resistance it encounters in the water, thus impeding any damage to the uncapped nipple!
You can use slightly soapy water as well, which in turn will clean the gun!
This has to be a good method because it was posted on the internet !

It's the sight acquisition on the paper target underwater that I have trouble with ! You do still have to hold your breath though !

 

[Stantheman86]

If you were that serious about dry fire training with a percussion revolver, you'd probably be better off buying a beater off GunBroker or at a gun show for $100 and just using it for dry fire training. There's always a beat up brasser that "doesn't always lock up on half ****" for sale somewhere.

Or get a Denix non-firing prop gun for 50 bucks

 

[TrapperDude]

If you were that serious about dry fire training with a percussion revolver, you'd probably be better off buying a beater off GunBroker or at a gun show for $100 and just using it for dry fire training. There's always a beat up brasser that "doesn't always lock up on half ****" for sale somewhere.

Or get a Denix non-firing prop gun for 50 bucks

The idea of dry fire is to practice with the gun you actually shoot. Getting some beater that has a different trigger pull weight and quality of break won't help much.

 

[Stantheman86]

I feel like you'd be needlessly beating up the internals of a revolver that was never designed for 1000's and 1000's of cycles when they were made originally, and a repro of such would also carry these characteristics over.

Dry firing the percussion revolver you actually shoot is just going to eventually turn your gun into a half-broken beater.

I seem to remember John Wesley Hardin having a pair of Double Action revolvers he used just for dry firing,late in his life because he knew better than to beat on his actual carry guns with 100s of cycles per day.

It just seems like a diminishing return to me, I feel like if you were that serious about your skills with a cap and baller you'd just live fire it and actually train , if improving your marksmanship is something you want to do.

If you want to practice drawing and cocking, such as for CAS matches with percussion revolvers, you wouldn't need to use the same guns you use in the matches and could use a couple brassers just to work on drawing and cocking. There really isn't going to be enough of a difference here to matter from gun to gun unless you're competing at a World Class level against guys like Dr Nemeth with a highly tuned Walker or something.