Shoutout to that random guy at the Denver gun show who told me about dry firing

I was at the Denver gun show last fall and this older guy selling surplus ammo told me I was ruining my Ruger by dry firing it without snap caps. I just laughed him off because I read online it was fine for centerfire guns. Fast forward 6 months and my firing pin broke right in the middle of a competition at the local range. Cost me $85 for a new pin and a gunsmith to install it since I mangled trying to fix it myself. Turns out he was right even if the manuals say otherwise, some guns just have weak pins. Has anyone else had a random vendor call something out that turned out to be true?

2 comments

2 Comments

blairsanchez5d ago

That $85 bill hurts but honestly you got off cheap compared to some people I know. I had a buddy with a Taurus 24/7 who dry fired it ONCE without snap caps and the firing pin snapped clean in half. What make and model is your Ruger anyway? I'm asking because the older security six revolvers have a totally different pin setup than the new mark IVs, and I've seen both fail at the range under dry fire. The gunsmith who fixed yours did he mention if the pin was a known weak point or just a random defect?

diana_park5d ago

Oh man, a $15 set of snap caps saved me a $90 repair bill once!