Whether someone is drawing a stroke or practicing trigger skills, dry firing an air rifle has always been a bone of contention. From experts to newbies, this practice splits the air-gunning community right in the middle. Is it ok to dry fire an air rifle?
Generally, it’s not okay to dry fire an air rifle unless it’s stated so in the owner’s manual. Some air rifles come with dry fire capability while others do not. If you dry fire the air rifles without the dry fire feature, you may damage them.
While some air rifles would require several repetitive dry fire shots to get them damaged, others would take just one dry shot and they are ruined.
The dry firing comes with the bad points and the good points. Also, dry firing is encouraged especially on pneumatic air rifles, and highly not recommended on spring piston-powered air rifles.
You will come to know this and much more right in the next sections of this post. Let’s jump in.
Is It Ok to Dry Fire an Air Rifle?
Dry firing is being practiced among many airgunners but it’s not a generally accepted thing across the airgunning community. This is because dry firing involves shooting an air rifle without any pellet in it, which might damage some air rifles if not all.
The victims of dry firing are spring-piston or gas ram air rifles. What dry firing does to these types of air rifles is quite harmful. When you pull the trigger without a pellet inside the chamber, there is no air resistance to cushion the piston.
It smashes in the front end of the compression chamber damaging internal components. With the quick snapping of the piston against the chamber, you can be guaranteed your air rifle stands no chance of surviving the ordeal.
And the end result is replacing the system entirely, which might be a costly option. Very few modern air rifles are tolerant to dry firing, except for pneumatic types.
With these air rifles, shooters can hone their marksmanship skills by constant practice with the trigger, focusing the sight picture, and grips. Notably, all air rifles meant for 10-meter shooting contests comprise a dry-fire feature for training.
Beeman P1 Air Pistol
is one such airgun you can dry fire safely. Remember before you start doing this practice, check with the owner’s manual to find out if the manufacturer recommends that it’s safe to dry fire a particular air rifle.
Does Dry Firing Damage an Air Rifle?
If your air rifle was not designed to dry fire, then do not attempt to run it through the process. There are certain air rifle types that naturally cannot be dry-fired and that’s okay.
So, does dry firing damage an air rifle? It would damage an air rifle if the rifle was a spring-piston-powered type. However, the PCPs and CO2-powered air rifles are okay to dry fire.
Whether the shots are accidental or not, you definitely need to minimize those for the sake of your air rifle that has no dry-fire feature. Otherwise, you will get lucky not seriously damaging your springer or gas-ram air rifle even with one or a couple of unmeant shots.
Some shooters, especially new ones would wonder what the matter is in shooting an empty air rifle and how that would damage their air rifles. Well, it’s all in the internal system.
Naturally, there is an air cushion created by a leaving pellet in the compression chamber when it’s shot. As the piston in the chamber initiates a forward motion, the air cushion slows it down so that it doesn’t bang or smash against the front end.
In the process, the piston is protected and doesn’t get any damages. In the absence of a pellet, there is no cushion or any sort of air resistance to the forward motion of the piston.
Hence, the piston hits hard at the end of the compression chamber because of the greater pressure being generated. This action can seriously damage the entire internal component system.
Replacing these parts is quite a costly venture. If you do not want to get embroiled in such expenses, just do not dry fire your air rifle unless the manual or manufacturer states so.
Is It Ok to Dry Fire a CO2 Air Rifle?
Today, there is a huge demand for CO2-powered air rifles in the airgun market. These air rifles have been found excellent tools for pest control and target shooting. Some people even prefer them for serious game hunting.
Talking about CO2 air rifles, is it okay to dry fire them? As a whole, it’s very okay and safe to dry fire most CO2-powered air rifles and PCP-powered airguns for that matter.
However, doing it excessively in certain models harbors some potential of causing damage to the gun although this is a far possibility. The risk of overdoing it lies in the outstretched valve stem and the hammer striking the valve and blowing the seals.
Generally, you are safe doing dry firing with target air rifles and there is no need to worry at all. The valves of these airguns have been designed such that they can handle dry firing.
Can You Dry Fire a Springer Air Rifle?
The general advice out there is a big hard caution about dry firing springers. But are there some exceptions, special mentions? Can you dry fire some springer air rifles safely?
Most experts will tell you that springers are not to be dry-fired. It’s actually true – you should never dry fire most springers.
The spring-piston air rifles are mostly damaged by this practice. As you already know, the springers actually rely on an air cushion to protect the piston from hitting against the chamber.
Without a pellet being shot, this cushion is absent and consequently damaging the internal parts. In fact, Whiscombe rifles will get ruined with just a single shot – whether it was deliberate or accidental.
With that being said, there are certain springers that could be more forgiving. The springers include those with leather seals and modern synthetic seals.
They are more tolerant of the effects of dry firing because the leather or tough modern synthetics absorb most of the shock produced.
If you get airguns with PTFE(Teflon) seals, the better. These seals are extremely tolerant and can help protect even the most powerful springers in question.
Dry Firing a Gamo Break Barrel Air Rifle
Nearly all springers cannot or are not recommended for dry firing. But why are Gamo springers unique?
Why is it okay to dry fire a Gamo air rifle without any problems? Gamo is a household name when it comes to air rifle manufacture from several decades ago.
The power plants were tested by dry firing the guns 10,000 times. The effect was observed on the power-plant parts and the results turned out positive.
Today, Gamo air rifles are the only spring-piston guns that shooters can safely dry fire because of the process they underwent. With this kind of reliability, even in case of an accidental dry fire, you wouldn’t worry a little. We wouldn’t recommend dry firing on purpose unless it was accidental.
A perfect example of a Gamo break barrel you can have is this Gamo Swarm Maxxim Air Rifle which comes with excellent overall features. You can check it out.
How to Fix a Dry Fired Air Rifle?
If your air rifle was previously dry fired, you are definitely worried about what to do next. You should already know that once dry firing happens, you can’t do much to help the situation.
If you got lucky, your gun will be standing. In the unfortunate mix of events, you could lose it to the damage.
What this means is that you will have to replace the entire internal component system. Generally, it is a costly process to replace the parts of a damaged air rifle.
However, in the future, you can avoid these problems. Oftentimes, children and novice shooters are the most likely to dry fire.
So, you can train them about the practice and help them understand why it’s not recommended for certain airguns. When you do this, you are safe with your air rifle.
Final Thoughts: Is It Okay to Dry Fire an Air Rifle?
You should not dry fire your air rifle if the manufacturer has not instructed so in the owner’s manual. Dry firing certain air rifles especially spring-piston and gas-ram-powered air rifles could damage them.
However, some air rifles such as PCPs and CO2-powered types can safely be dry fired although it’s not recommended. If it happens accidentally, that would be fine.
On the other hand, 10-meter target air rifles can be deliberately dry fired. They are designed with the dry fire feature.
