Dry Firing 1911 ?

smitty901

Dry fired them for 20 years in the Army never a problem part of the training.

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Bait

I have dry fired 1911 variants for years with no problems. Old trick is to "fire" a sharpened pencil onto a target taped to a wall from about 2 inches away. Helps work on trigger pull, grip, breathing, etc.

Stormrider51

I spent a fair part of my life gunsmithing professionally. Don't know how many 1911's I've tuned but it's a bunch. The design of the pistol is such that it's almost impossible to hurt it by dry firing. There's also a big difference between a 1911 super-tuned for bullseye shooting and one tuned as a defensive pistol. The occasional malfunction in a bullseye pistol is acceptable. The minimum standard for reliability in a defensive handgun is 100%. The fullcock notch and sear of a target gun have been reduced to minimum tolerances and this is actually accelerated wear. The parts are subject to possible damage as they are relatively fragile compared to stock parts. Avoiding racking the slide repeatedly makes sense with such a pistol.

As for holding the trigger back when cycling the slide, I wouldn't recommend it. That sounds to me like a recipe for eventual grief. For starters, if he hammer and sear are quality made and properly tempered the possibility of damaging a part is extremely small. You should never have your finger on the trigger unless you are ready to fire and that includes a dry fire. You will do in real life what you do in training. Treat each squeeze of the trigger like the real thing. A tuned 1911 trigger will have little to no take-up, zero creep, and about a 3.25# pull. Such a trigger with a finger on it and a shooter not paying total attention for whatever reason can easily result in a round being torched off unintentionally. I've seen it happen. I don't need to add that once a bullet is launched there is no calling it back and it has no conscience. If you are worried about damaging the sear and hammer then cock the hammer with your thumb instead of racking the slide. That way you can ease the hammer down on the sear. Keep your finger outside the trigger guard until the pistol is aligned in a direction you wouldn't mind sending a bullet.

John

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ShagNasty

Thanks Guys.....I am a dry fireing nut!...Thanks for all the input and responses.

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tgood

As an USPSA /IPSC Shooter, dry firing is a large part of my practice routine.
on a 1911, dry fire all you want,