r/canadaguns • u/GapCharming1547 • Apr 21 '26
Fix my gun Can you dry fire
i have a tm22 ria feather ik you cant dry fire most 22s but some you can
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u/Q-Ball7 In the end, it's taxes all the way down Apr 21 '26
Put a piece of paper between the bolt and chamber face, close the action, pull the trigger. If the firing pin doesn’t punch a hole in the paper, it’s fine (the extractors will usually leave marks but that’s normal); if it does, use a snap cap or similar.
Most modern designs, like the TM22, are perfectly fine to do this with.
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u/GapCharming1547 Apr 25 '26
I tried it left a small hole its a ria feather tm22 idk if that makes a difference
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u/Twitch89 AB - CCFR Member Apr 21 '26
Snap caps are cheap
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u/Hotdog_Broth Apr 21 '26
How does that work? I don’t think I’ve seen rimfire snap caps that cushion the firing pin like a normal snap cap does.
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u/black_covfefe_please Apr 21 '26
Use a #4-6 x7/8" drywall anchor. Replace with a new one as it degrades.
However, I just dry fire my TM22. Modern rifles are designed to dry fire.
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u/Twitch89 AB - CCFR Member Apr 21 '26
There are plastic/aluminum ones like this. Your firing pin is built to strike metal, just not the hard metal of your receiver.
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u/Glockinmytacklebox Apr 21 '26
Unpopular opinion, but I dry fire all my guns rim fire or centre fire. Just part of functions test after I clean them. Never had an issue with it, they are a lot stronger than people say
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u/FluffyPlays22 Apr 21 '26
I used to be like that with rimfire until I broke 2 firing pins. But the weird thing is, I have another one of the same models, and I have over 1000 dry fires on it with no issues at all. So it's one of those things where you don't know if it's fine to do it or not until the firing pin just breaks on you randomly.
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u/Glockinmytacklebox Apr 21 '26
Bahahah I’m sure it’ll happen one day. Just gotta learn the hard way I guess
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u/Flashy_Inspector115 Apr 21 '26
Your chamber tends to crater dry firing rimfire. Centrefire is alright
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u/Spydude84 Apr 21 '26
In theory it should be safe to since the firing pin cannot extend past the bolt face due to the retaining pin. Should you? I don't know either.
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u/blakemack Apr 21 '26
When I took CFSC the instructor said dry firing was fine and didn't do any harm to the gun. I know there's other opinions out there, but that's what he said
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u/gspotcowboy Apr 21 '26
Depends on the gun. Ruger says in the 10/22 manual it's okay to dry fire, but doing so on a Winchester model 94 for example will eventually cause damage to the firing pin
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u/theawesomedude646 Apr 21 '26
i don't think you should dry-fire any rimfire, what kinds of .22 can you apparently safely dry-fire?
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u/Hot_Cheesecake_905 Apr 21 '26
Modern rimfires can be dry fired - the TM22 definitely can be dry fired.
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u/_Shorty Apr 21 '26
Some are designed with a beefy stop that prevents the firing pin tip from hitting the breech. That design is intended to allow dryfiring. Some are not designed this way, and dryfiring causes the firing pin to hit the breech and damage itself and/or the breech with repeated hits. This can break the firing pin and peen the breech such that the chamber mouth eventually gets misshapen. You need to know which is the case before dryfiring any rimfire without a snapcap. Dryfiring with a snapcap should pose no issues in either case. Only those with a built-in stop should be dryfired without a snapcap. Some paranoid people still use a snapcap with those that have a stop, but it is essentially pointless in that case. The stop is usually a pretty large flat surface that safely stops the entire firing pin without it being able to cause any damage, rendering snapcaps a waste of time and money. I’ve got silhouette rifles with stops that have been dryfired literally hundreds of thousands of times with no ill effects because that’s what the stop is designed to handle. But even a single dryfire on one without a stop and no snapcap in place would really make me cringe.
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u/Reasonable_Hall2346 Apr 21 '26
Did your TM22 come with a chamber flag? Could use that instead of snap caps.
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u/h3IIfir3pho3nix N E R F G U N S Apr 21 '26
Can't dry-fire on a chamber flag because the bolt is out of battery.
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u/Reasonable_Hall2346 Apr 21 '26
It works fine with my TM22 with the chamber flag that it came with. The downvoters clearly haven’t tried it. If you have a TM22 and that Derya chamber flag (red and 90degrees), give it a try.
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u/h3IIfir3pho3nix N E R F G U N S Apr 21 '26
Good to know that's possible (I don't own a TM22). I'd be concerned dry-firing any gun out of battery though, could end up causing damage over the long term.
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u/h3IIfir3pho3nix N E R F G U N S Apr 21 '26
Check the owner's manual, it may mention it. Modern rimfires are usually better than old ones when it comes to dry firing, but it's still gun-specific.