Was in the gun store the other day looking around and saw that the guy next to me was looking at a used Colt SAA. He was dry firing it without snap caps and I have read that these guns are not like other center fire guns that too much dry fire can hurt the pin on the hammer. Is this true? I looked at it after him and decided I didn’t even want to haggle a price after seeing that. If it was never dry fired before that though I’d imagine a few times wouldn’t matter though would it? How many times would be excessive? I guess not knowing the history of the gun one wouldn’t know for sure. Would you still buy it knowing this?
I think it would depend on what generation it was. The early ones, from what I'm reading, had solid firing pins that don't handle this well. Later generations with floating firing pins, it wouldn't bother me as that's a part that should be easily replaced by a competent smith if it does break.
I think if I ran across a nice late Colt 1873 in .357 mag with a 4 3/4" barrel and nickel plating for a great price, I wouldn't care that some nitwit before me dry-fired it a few times. Now if he was fanning the hammer, I wouldn't have even looked at it, but that's about where I fall down on it.
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Originally posted by LincolnSixEcho: Was in the gun store the other day looking around and saw that the guy next to me was looking at a used Colt SAA. He was dry firing it without snap caps and I have read that these guns are not like other center fire guns that too much dry fire can hurt the pin on the hammer. Is this true? I looked at it after him and decided I didn’t even want to haggle a price after seeing that. If it was never dry fired before that though I’d imagine a few times wouldn’t matter though would it? How many times would be excessive? I guess not knowing the history of the gun one wouldn’t know for sure. Would you still buy it knowing this?
Depends on the price. $1500? No. $800? Yes.
Dry firing the newer ones doesn't hurt anything. It does wear the finish off the cylinder bolt stop leads though, just as shooting it does.
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It's rude at the very least. My LGS zip ties the hammers down on SAAs to keep people from doing exactly that. They'll cut it off if you want to examine the action, but they don't want random folks dry firing them repeatedly without asking first.
I’ve seen some at gun shows zip tied so that just be why. Good to know it doesn’t hurt the newer ones. Not sure how old this one was, it looked like it was in great shape. Maybe 3rd Gen I’d say at least.
This has been discussed before, albeit with different guns in question, and, with much contention. Speaking as a gun salesman with experience selling Taurus to Parkers and everything in between, anyone dry-firing a modern revolver without asking in the shops I have worked in has been asked to not do that again. Anyone dry-firing a classic like a SAA or Smith Registered magnum has been promptly thrown out.
Posts: 1639 | Location: Winston-Salem | Registered: April 01, 2013
1st gen with the guy dry firing but it's all original, I'd hand over 1500 in a heart beat. Find one elsewhere and prove it hasn't been gun store F'd with by a million "lookers". 3rd gen, that's a bit high for used but also you can't really hurt the 2nd/3rd gen's by a few dry fires. Hundreds of dry fires may warrant a timing inspection/fix but, for the most part, you won't wear anything out.
Posts: 852 | Location: Alaska | Registered: April 29, 2015
