Dry firing - good or bad?
Here is some info from Andy Webber of Armament Technolgy reagrding some questions which have surfaced in the past.
Andy say:
1) Dry firing: On centerfire bolt action rifles, little damage results
from regular dry firing; especially with cock-on-opening rifles such as
most modern types. What does cause damage (to Remington 700's anyway) is
slamming the bolt closed on an empty chamber on a regular basis. By doing
this, the primary extraction camming surfaces slam into one another before
they are rotated to produce sliding angular (camming) contact. This raises
a burr on
both the receiver and bolt handle camming surfaces. My advice is
to close the bolt gently on an empty chamber, and just raise and lower
the bolt handle to cock the action each time you wish to dry fire. The
benefits gained by the marksman by dry firing, with respect to trigger
control and familiarity of the human interface with the rifle, are many.
From my discussions with *very* accomplished Service Rifle marksmmen, I
have developed the opinion that for positional shooting (ie: service rifle
standing, kneeling, sitting) dry firing at an appropriately-sized target
can be more valuable practice than live shooting.
Thanks Andy
Gooch out.
gooch <gooch@stormmountain.com>
USA - Wednesday, December 09, 1998 at 15:20:34 (EST)