TargetTalk

Like to hear recommendations for snap caps for dry fire practice in a 1911. Noticed some of them have a brass primer under spring tension and others have a rubber primer. Got my laser trainer going so plan to practice every day or so.

Thanks

Don't bother.

Agree, you can't hurt that 1911 by dry firing it.

Hi Matchguy, Here's a way that goes way back(in the wayback machine).

When I first started shooting Bullseye, a very experienced Master told me about

a device called a dotter. They were available commercially but they also could

be conjured up from materials found at home. You insert a bore fitting(loosely)

wood dowel that has a needle inserted at one end and a bumper at the other end.

I used a 1/16" styrene circle epoxied onto a crudely cut 3/16" hard rubber disk.

The hard rubber surface was expoxied to the other end of the wood dowel.

I also marked the dowel at the needle end with a registration dot, to orient

the same position under use. Okay the idea is to mark a series of blurry dots

approx front blade width, across a sheet of paper, attached to a piece of cardboard.

The dots are used as simulated bulls. Insert the dowel in the barrel, bumper

first, needle at the muzzle end; assume shooting stance so that the needle is approx

1/2"-3/4" from the paper, cock hammer align and shoot.

You not only get dryfire training, you are getting incredibly effective slowfire

training. The point of the training is to shoot the needle into the same hole as

often as you can. after some time all those scattered needle holes will coalesce

into one single hole. If you just want dryfire training, use rubber bands to restrain

the dowel when struck by the firing pin.

I still have the dotter that I made in the early 1970s; The firing pin is fine and

the styrene disk is dirty yet has absolutely NO INDENTATIONS!

Try it...you'll like it.

Tony

Love to see a photo of your dotter

Hi lxvnrsw, I was afraid the simplicity would be lost in my explanation. Ok,
it is simply a wooden dowel, that's been sanded down to loosely fit in the .45
bore. It is about 7" long, with a cute bumper glued onto the breech end and
a sewing needle centrally sunk and glued on the muzzle end. I may have brushed and sanded
several coats of nitrate dope to seal the wood. That is all there is to the dotter.

Tony

paw080 wrote:Hi lxvnrsw, I was afraid the simplicity would be lost in my explanation. Ok,
it is simply a wooden dowel, that's been sanded down to loosely fit in the .45
bore. It is about 7" long, with a cute bumper glued onto the breech end and
a sewing needle centrally sunk and glued on the muzzle end. I may have brushed and sanded
several coats of nitrate dope to seal the wood. That is all there is to the dotter.

Tony

I am pretty new here, and probably couldn't shoot better than the worst shooter here, but I think you all just read a note or two from Tony that is a dang good bullseye one. Thumbs up.. happy shoots.
2EagleEyes

Fire hydrants may be referred to by other common names, such as "fire plug" or "Johnny pump" depending on the locality. In the old days, before fire hydrants were invented, firefighters had no choice but to use bucket brigades or hand pumps to deliver water for putting out fires.


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