Dry Fire

[Lewis]

I don't know why it hasn't come up for me before, but I have always used dry fire practice for my powder burners but not with air rifles. I have a RAW HM100x and a Daystate Air Ranger. Does anyone know if they can be safely dry fired or if they should be purged first?

 

[ncrary]

I do know if you dry fire the RAW with too low a pressure you can damage the valve stem/seat. I ordered a used RAW for my neighbor and when it came in I dry fired it with about 800 pounds in the tank. It developed a leak out the breech. When I called Martin he told me I damaged the valve stem. When I got the new stem the problem was fixed. No idea what the lower limit is, but I have had no problems with mine at pressures above 150 bar.

 

[Hynzie]

Its a big no no for the RAW

 

[John "spysir" Blount]

Yup, as long as you have ENOUGH air, " dry fire" away ( on 99% of pre-charged rigs) . Do not fire any of them on empty or even very low on air. Your valve stem is counting on having an air cushion at all times and can slam rather hard w/out that.

John

 

[toku58]

Interesting?
((I don't own a RAW)

I dry fire my guns all the time?
When I'm adjusting the hammer tension I dry fire it to check hammer bounce. (it's about the only time I can tell what the hammer is really doing.)
I'd suppose it's possible if you have a really powerful hammer spring to hit the valve so hard that it might damage the valve?
But then again I'm not familiar with the RAW hammer design?
Anyone have schematics of the design? I'd love to take a look at it.

Good Luck!

 

[Glem.Chally]

Well in some guns if there's no or little back pressure to support the back of the valve the hammer hits the valve with the return spring being the only resistance. Hits it too hard and possibly knocks it past it's normal length of travel, or damages it.

I personally avoid dry firing the gun, no positives to it for me.

 

[john4321]

Some folks with lots of shooting experience say dry firing is THE best training method for accuracy.
I `m gonna do it.

 

[Buckshutr]

I've read one way to "degas" your gun is to shoot it down to empty. Maybe not a good idea in all guns??

 

[Glem.Chally]

"Buckshutr"I've read one way to "degas" your gun is to shoot it down to empty. Maybe not a good idea in all guns??

That's been answered already. Buy an FX or RAW and dry fire it till there's no air left, then call either Martin to fix your RAW or Ernest to fix your FX. Not trying to be a dick here but this has been answered and it says in FX manuals to "not dry fire with less than 100BAR in the gun" and above you heard a direct story of someone that damaged their 2k+ gun by dry firing it with 800 PSI in the tank.

If John wants to dry fire to get his groups tighter than more power to him.

 

[Lewis]

Thank you all for the input.

I find dry fire is a valuable exercise. You can practice follow through, trigger control, sight alignment, natural point of aim, build needed muscle strength and on and on.

I will make sure there is plenty of air in the gun. Maybe I can make some sort of a "silencer" to provide back pressure and to reduce the noise to a level that won't disturb the 51% in the other room. (any ideas?)