DO NOT DRY FIRE RIMFIRE GUNS!

Dry firing a gun, (Pulling the trigger on an empty chamber), is an often performed and often misunderstood practice.  People do it for various reasons with many different types of firearms without thinking twice.  This practice can be completely harmless, as is the case with the AR platform.  It can also be damaging to some guns because of their design.

It is generally accepted that rimfire guns should never be dry fired.  This includes all of your .22 rifles and pistols.  .17 hmr /VMag etc.

If you think about how a rimfire works, it makes perfect sense.  In a rimfire, the rim of the cartridge is actually pinched between the firing pin and the surface of the barrel or receiver.  This causes no damage to the pin or barrel/receiver because the cartridge takes the brunt of all this pinching.

However, when you dry fire one of these, the pin moves forward and smacks the receiver/barrel causing damage to the pin and whatever it hits.  Over time this can lead to serious damage,  The pins can become bent and whatever the pin hits can erode away.  All of this damage causes misfires and poor extraction.

So, DON'T do it.

Problem is that many rimfire rifles do not have a last shot hold open.  This makes it very difficult to not dry fire.  The only way that I can think of is to count your shots.  Good luck getting the kids to do it.

A typical flat style firing pin on a rim fire rifle.