S&W 642 dryfire question

[ghh3rd]

I will be picking up my S&W 642 .38 snub this week, and have read about several members who dry fired it "thousands" of times for practice and to "smooth out" the trigger.

Does anyone see any problem with dryfiring this wheel gun that frequently? Are snap caps necessary?

Thanks,

Randy

[MtGun44]

I dry fire my S&W revolvers without limitation. No damage that I have ever
seen. I'd be very surprised if anyone had seen any damage, but I'll wait and
see what others say.

Bill

[Lloyd Smale]

me too. About the only guns i wont dry fire are colt single actions.
I dry fire my S&W revolvers without limitation. No damage that I have ever
seen. I'd be very surprised if anyone had seen any damage, but I'll wait and
see what others say.

Bill

[johniv]

I broke a firing pin on my mod 66-2 dryfiring it. Dont know if it broke DUE to the dry firing(no snap caps) or if there was some damage to the pin before I got the piece( it had been knocked around alot before I got it) FWIW.
John

[Blazin]

I dry dire S&W revolvers & 1911's like a madman. Once I broke a chunk out of a Springfield Armory firing pin stop, but the gun still functioned just fine.

[Down South]

Smith & Wesson claims that any of their pistols/revolvers with the exception of their 22 calibers can be dry fired without any problem (This statement is on their web site). Yes, many folks dry fire several thousand times to smooth out triggers. The 642 is DA only and is fairly hard on trigger pull. I’ve dry fired my 642 several thousand times without any problem, and all without snap caps. It has a noticeably easier trigger pull than my daughters 642 which has been dry fired very little.

[S.R.Custom]

I've got no problem dry firing a S&W if it's made of steel.

The aluminum ones --such as the 642 and my 386-- don't tolerate it very well. The aluminum slot in the frame where the hand comes through wears very quickly, as does the hole where the bolt pokes through. The timing on my 386 got noticeably slower and looser after a few hundred snaps, so I quit doing it.


I broke a firing pin on my mod 66-2 dryfiring it. Dont know if it broke DUE to the dry firing(no snap caps) or if there was some damage to the pin before I got the piece( it had been knocked around alot before I got it) FWIW.
John

I broke a firing pin on a minty model 15 doing the same thing. K frames seem to have more of an issue with this; the hammer, firing pin, and the fit with the hole in the frame seem to rely more on the pivoting of the firing pin for alignment than it does on the other frame sizes, so if the alignment of a particular gun is off, it'll break the pin. (The hammer strike of an 'N' frame seems to be more straight on, requiring less pivotting by the firing pin.)

[Blazin]

I dry dire S&W revolvers & 1911's like a madman. Once I broke a chunk out of a Springfield Armory firing pin stop, but the gun still functioned just fine.

Hmmm, some good points made here (I love this place!)...I should specify all my DFing is with non-aluminum competition guns and without snap caps.

[9.3X62AL]

Super Mag--

Interesting observations, in particular the bit about K-frames. I've seen a lot of variance in firing pin tension within the hammer nose of S&W revos, some pivot more readily than others. Might be best to assure that the pin is free to pivot via cleaning or lubrication--a short squirt of brake cleaner frees up most of the tight ones.