TargetTalk

I was looking to pick up some more snap caps for my sons Walther, when I ran across some aluminum snap caps. I was wondering if anybody out there has ever seen them or used them??

Thanks

Never heard of that before.

I would be concerned that after a few hits, small pieces of aluminum would start to flake off in the rifle.

It might be worth a try but I would inspect very carefully after each use.

'Dude

I have seen blue aluminum .22 caps, if that is what you are speaking of. If you read the packaging they are actually dummy rounds, for practicing loading drills, not for dry firing.

The orange ones sold by most retailers have issues in the Anschutz rifles I own: the extractor rips off the rim of the plastic while leaving a "carrot" in the chamber.

For what it's worth, I use spent cases, rotating them to avoid the original indent at 12 o'clock, for dry firing. I have found that a bit of blue tack carefully stuck into them will prevent debris in the case from being expelled into the newly cleaned bore, which used to be a slight problem - and puzzle - for me. I use such cases anything up to six times each. No problems with ejection in my experience.

I've heard of people using dry wall plastic plugs that are used to anchor screws into a drywall. I think the yellow ones are the right size.

I've used the blue aluminum dummy rounds. They are the best for ball and dummy training. They do wear out quickly though.

The plastic ones suck. They don't feed in ball and dummy. Wear out quickly. More quickly than the aluminum.

I have heard people use a thick rubber band over the chamber to soften the impact.

I have also heard the one about the drywall screw anchors. Never tried it. Sounds like it would be a chap alternative if all you want to use it for is dry fire.

I use #4 plastic drywall anchors. Cheap, effective, and a completely different color from anything resembling a live round of ammo. They're also easier to load than a spent casing.

I use the #4 anchors too. You can get a box full for next to nothing at your local hardware store. They even feed from a magazine and eject like a real round.

+1 on the drywall anchors. We had the same experience as the rest of you with the expensive aluminum snap caps. The red plastic ones don't last very long at all. I don't intend to buy anything but drywall anchors in the future.

Champions Choice sells 22 cal snap caps. They are red, come in packs of 20 or so for about $7. These work great. We shoot each one about 10 times, eject it and rotate a little and go again. Easily get 70 to 100 shots per snap cap.

These are sold as snap caps, they are not the orange dummy rounds which are made of soft plastic. These are a hard red plastic. I have used them with no issues for many 1000s of shots in Anshutz and Walther rifles.

Guys... just dry fire the gun. I have thousands of rounds dry fired steel on steel and there isn't any deformation of the barrel and my firing pin has never broke. The gun itself has 60,000ish rounds through it. Also the snap caps are for reloading only.

Dan L wrote:Guys... just dry fire the gun. I have thousands of rounds dry fired steel on steel and there isn't any deformation of the barrel and my firing pin has never broke. The gun itself has 60,000ish rounds through it. Also the snap caps are for reloading only.

Sorry Dan,

but this is not a good recommendation, especially not for a .22 match rifle. You can easily damage the chamber this way and the firing pin can also break. It depends much on the head space of the action. And this is not a legend, i have seen some broken pins and damaged cambers. There is more than only a marketing reason why Anschütz sells a dry firing pin for theirs match rifles.

The point that your own gun - what gun? - isn't damaged after that long time is no proof for no damage on other rifles. And are you really sure, there is no damage? A damaged camper can be the reason for a lost in precision.


For the other posters here: Used cases will do the job.


Regards

Frank

GGibson wrote:I've heard of people using dry wall plastic plugs that are used to anchor screws into a drywall. I think the yellow ones are the right size.

I've used these as well. It is the yellow ones you want. They're very inexpensive and work well.

I've also used the red nylon (?) dummy rounds and they work well. I forget the brand, but they seem to be made of the same material that inertial bullet pullers are made of.

I made a set of 60 dummies out of fired brass cases with wooden dowel "bullets" - these work well also.

One problem I noticed with the aluminum caps is that I found a gray sludge on the ramp after repeated use. I think the aluminum wears off and mixes with the lubricants to form the sludge. The stuff is fairly thick - almost like clay.

I would not dry fire my rifle.

This is why you use something in the chamber, previous owner disregarded this idea of using a dummy round.

I dealt with the problem in my Anschutz by purchasing a dry firing bolt from Champions Choice: It has no extractors, and has a shortened firing pin. It works beautifully, switches quickly with my regular bolt, but does cost money.