Do snap caps actually prevent damage?

[jwpzx9r]

I’m possibly days away from handing a bloke in a shop £2000+....

That's chick feed, before you know it you will be strapping an Ergo on it at the same price. I paid €3500 for a new XTR trapgun used it for about 3000 carts and it has never been used again a Beretta silver pig less than a 1000 carts .. wanna buy them ?

 

[MartynB]

Thanks to impulse purchases, you can get a lot of gun for your money for £2000 . The racks are full of traded in bought on a whim , VAT gone second hand shooters .  I’ve just picked up a lovely GD5 MK60 Universal 20g for 2 grand.  Buying right , and used , around that mark Rocky  could get minimal depreciation shooting ,  

Of course you can also sink 2 or 3 thousand into     A new VAT laden , niche bit of kit and take a real kicking . 

Looking around lots of gun shops in the past two months , the big trend seems to be Turkish guns as entry level in the £600 to £900 bracket  . Great on face value , but probably 70% depreciation on first trade . 

 

[rocky]

The thing is if you shoot the gun there is no need to worry about any springs . With modern coil springs compression set would take years.  So that removes the reason on most guns to drop the hammer on an empty chamber

With true mechanical triggers being a rarity on the majority of “ consumer guns “ , dry firing a shotgun  for practice as “ click-click “ to simulate bang -bang “   Isn’t possible  . So it’s a non situation 

That’s a good point, you can’t ‘click click’ without a ‘bang’ anyway can you... so in reality it would only be the odd click when you’re fiddling with the trigger mech etc.

All in all then (for modern shotguns) it does appear to be an unnecessary worry based on nothing of any relevance, probably largely perpetuated by adverts for snap caps.  

That's chick feed, before you know it you will be strapping an Ergo on it at the same price. I paid €3500 for a new XTR trapgun used it for about 3000 carts and it has never been used again a Beretta silver pig less than a 1000 carts .. wanna buy them ?

No thanks you might’ve dry fired them

*runs*

 

[FreeShot]

Now you lot got me go and read the Browning manual...nothing there on dry firing, so shouldn't be a big deal...still, since my 725 has sort of mechanical triggers that go "bang-bang" I do have and use snap caps on odd occasion - at home, where (at home) they are destined to stay for good.

 

[Charliedog]

Thanks to impulse purchases, you can get a lot of gun for your money for £2000 . The racks are full of traded in bought on a whim , VAT gone second hand shooters .  I’ve just picked up a lovely GD5 MK60 Universal 20g for 2 grand.  Buying right , and used , around that mark Rocky  could get minimal depreciation shooting ,  

Of course you can also sink 2 or 3 thousand into     A new VAT laden , niche bit of kit and take a real kicking . 

Looking around lots of gun shops in the past two months , the big trend seems to be Turkish guns as entry level in the £600 to £900 bracket  . Great on face value , but probably 70% depreciation on first trade . 

very little depreciation so far from what ive seen on Turkish guns in the second hand market as relatively cheap in the first place

 

[MartynB]

In a shop , buy for eight hundred new , or  you could pay £450 used . So someone  has probably received  £ 200 to £300 max for the gun . That’s up to 75% depreciation , you don’t lose that on a new Browning as a percentage of capital employed . 

 

[rocky]

In a shop , buy for eight hundred new , or  you could pay £450 used . So someone  has probably received  £ 200 to £300 max for the gun . That’s up to 75% depreciation , you don’t lose that on a new Browning as a percentage of capital employed . 

The reason I’ll most likely buy new is because I don’t know enough about what I’m looking at. For over 30yrs I’ve been buying using & selling fairly high-end guitars (privately) and I’m pretty competent at it, likewise cars, I can pretty much value them soon as look at them but guns are new to me and buying a new one is basically a costly cheat. It’s about knowing a good bit about the whole scene and weighing up likelihoods, budgeting for what ifs etc. Having a relative or close friend on hand to do it for you would work but isn’t always possible. The exception would be if I went into a shop to buy a gun and there was a hardly used example of the same model there which was still tight. Ignorance of clay guns will cost me a few hundred quid but hopefully the next one will be a steal. 

 

[Charliedog]

In a shop , buy for eight hundred new , or  you could pay £450 used . So someone  has probably received  £ 200 to £300 max for the gun . That’s up to 75% depreciation , you don’t lose that on a new Browning as a percentage of capital employed . 

Got my lad a KOFs for £450 new, second hand were selling for nearly £400, if i got nothing for it i would only lose £450 but thats unlikely, if youre going to lose money its about pound notes not a percentage

 

[Wonko the Sane]

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/100706345/galazan-horn-striker-block


This sort of thing was likely a standard bit of kit for every bespoke British game gun.  I have seen them in the cases of new Churchill, H&H, and Purdey guns and they were available for sale separately by Purdey at several guns shows.  In addition to shotguns I have read and heard recommendations over the years to never dry fire rifles or pistols without a snapcap of some sort either.  Perhaps the CLANK of metal on metal is found offensive in those ranks as well.

Perazzis are noted for fragile hammer springs and firing pins breaking.  That has not been my experience at all.  Over the last near 30 years I have had one spring and one firing pin fail.  Those were both in an early 70's gun that just by me had tens of thousands of carts thru it and it was 20 years old when I got it.  AFAIK those pieces were original to the gun as the prior owner was meticulous in the care of all of his guns.  So did that effort and mine make any difference to the condition/longevity of the gun?  I believe it did.  Others may not.

And it has never been my perception that simply stating facts constitutes condescension.  I really don't GAF how anyone treats their guns and that is just a simple fact.  It may in some way affect my opinion of a person but otherwise it doesn't seem to intrude on my existence in any measurable way.

have a nice day

 

[jwpzx9r]

Perazzis are noted for fragile hammer springs and firing pins breaking.  That has not been my experience at all.

Aye right ! Don't you know all the real Perazzi shooters rely on all the non Perazzi shooters who knowing the pathetic weaknesses of the gun carry spare trigger unit's, spare spring sets and firing pins just waiting for a failure to occur. This of course is not philanthropy... rather it gives them the chance to say Don't you know these guns just eat springs and firing pins as they hand over the spare parts to the forlorn Perazzi shooter ...  The warm fuzzy moments they get there are worth every penny of the outlay 

 

[Maca]

I asked my local instructor at the shooting grounds if I was going to break something from dry firing the shotgun and he just said try not to do it all the time club guns have been dry fired thousands of times and he's never seen one break.  

Having said that I use them sometimes.  Sometimes I'll store my gun without releasing the pins and sometimes I put in snap caps and release them.  My theory is to sometimes have the ejector springs released and sometimes the firing pin springs are released sort of balancing it out a bit.  I have a 725 sporter so can fire both barrels without a bang but if you don't have the mechanical mechanism you can just bump the stock with your hand to replicate recoil, you don't need to do it hard.

 

[Stigger]

I asked my local instructor at the shooting grounds if I was going to break something from dry firing the shotgun and he just said try not to do it all the time club guns have been dry fired thousands of times and he's never seen one break.  

Having said that I use them sometimes.  Sometimes I'll store my gun without releasing the pins and sometimes I put in snap caps and release them.  My theory is to sometimes have the ejector springs released and sometimes the firing pin springs are released sort of balancing it out a bit. 

I have a 725 sporter so can fire both barrels without a bang but if you don't have the mechanical mechanism you can just bump the stock with your hand to replicate recoil, you don't need to do it hard.

No need to bump the stock, just use the barrel selector.

 

[Martinj]

No need to bump the stock, just use the barrel selector.

Barrel selector eh? well at least I have learned something from this thread

I vote snap caps for dry firing and I do GAF :smile:

 

[thebigH91]

well that's me b***er'd then my Beretta doesn't have a barrel selector

 

[Martinj]

let me guess, it's a semi auto?

 

[westley]

let me guess, it's a semi auto?

Possibly not, a lot of Trap guns have a non-selective trigger. In fact some of the old 'live pigeon' guns did not even have a safety catch.

In answer to the original question " Do snap caps actually prevent damage "  I would have to say NO.  I have witnessed 3 incidents where  'snap caps' have actually caused damage. 1 putting a hole in the clubhouse wall, 1 blowing the end off a gunslip and 1 where 2 people were injured by ricocheting shot. That is why I banned them from the shooting ground that I ran. I use snap caps in my old English S x S, BUT they stay in the gun cabinet when the gun goes out. Using fired cases as a substitute for snap caps is positively idiotic. 

 

[thebigH91]

Martinj, no its an O/U SO5 Skeet gun, fixed choke both the same constriction

 

[bostonmick]

I release the trigger spring on my dt10 before putting in the cabinet. V springs left under stress have slightly more chance of breaking if stressed all of the time and unlike coils will definetly not work so shooting for that day is lost. 

 

[ips]

I release the trigger spring on my dt10 before putting in the cabinet. V springs left under stress have slightly more chance of breaking if stressed all of the time and unlike coils will definetly not work so shooting for that day is lost. 

In 30 plus years and dozens of guns i have never released the trigger springs incl 4 DT10s i have never had any issues with springs

 

[Charliedog]

In 30 plus years and dozens of guns i have never released the trigger springs incl 4 DT10s i have never had any issues with springs

Never kept them long enough by sounds of it