I am planning to do a lot of dry fire with my newly acquired Ruger GP100 (.357) revolver.

Is there any reason to choose one brand of snap caps, over others?

Truth be told I’ve used everything from cheap plastic molded snap caps to the really nice aluminum models with some spent cases thrown in there as well.

I’ve never had a firing ping break in anything, which is probably more due to the modern firearms designs than the snap caps.

All that said I’ve settled on either a laser insert / working or not for semi autos and the cheap Tipton plastic with a brass rim and cushioned “primer”. No real issues with either.

If you are going to be doing drills where you are dumping / speed loading rounds you might want to go with something tougher like Azoom.

I don't typically bother with dummy rounds for dry-fire with revolvers. One really cool thing about wheelguns is that you can work "ball and dummy" drills on the range without having to use or chase snap caps all over the place...just leave a few chambers empty and spin it without looking before closing and you're all set.

For practicing reloads, I make my own dummy rounds with actual bullets, as I want the weight, balance and bullet profile to match what I'm actually shooting. Most snap caps are really lightweight and don't behave the same way going in and out of the cylinder as actual ammo (fired cases also extract differently than live rounds, fwiw).

If you're concerned about it and just looking for something for the firing pin to hit, I imagine spent casings would serve your purpose just fine.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
Is there any reason to choose one brand of snap caps, over others?

I've always been partial to A-ZOOM.

For the revolver, I make my own dummy rounds.

If your practicing reloads in your dry fire it helps to have something of a similar weight to a live round,

I put silicon in the primer holes, paint the primer end red, then load a copper jacketed projectile using a good crimp

The silicon helps cushion the firing pin

The red paint helps identify that it’s a dummy and not a live round

The copper jacket projectile also helps identify that it’s a dummy round as my live rounds are either black or blue projectiles.

Be advised if you go this route to always keep your dummy rounds and live rounds separated from each other , hopefully in completely separate rooms.

Never hurry into any dry fire until you confirm you are actually using the dummy rounds.

In answer to your orgional question , I prefer Azoom they have always lasted the longest for me over other brands.

Mine are plastic body with brass base and the primer area is spring loaded to take some of strike force.......... drill sgt.