No reason too dry fire a 336 unless you would like trigger practice or to break in a trigger assembly.

I will dry fire ONCE at the end of the season to take the tension off bolt action rifles, but hammer fired...never.

If you want to practice, my opinion, use the snap cap.

DR

 

Dry firing: Not a good thing to get in the habit of IMHO.

 

X2 :biggrin:

 

It's NOT ok to dry-fire a 336 unless you like to replace firing pins. It is ok to dry-fire a 336 in most cases if you use snap-caps.

 

I never dry fire anything. Get some snap caps. They are fun to run thru the rifle.

 

That is actually a really great idea.

Because if one is wanting to break in a Marlin's action, including the moving parts of the action itself, by which feeding, chambering and ejecting the cartridge comes into contact with, using either a dummy round/snap cap cartridge will further enhance the break in of all in the moving parts involved , instead of just 'making friction" between the moving parts alone to break it in.

Keep in mind the smoothest working marlins are the ones that have fed, chambered, shot and ejected lots of rounds.........it breaks in the route the actual cartridge "follows".

And why I like to use and prefer the A-Zoom metal "snap caps" as opposed to the plastic ones.

 

In my opinion....
Not an issue with a 336, 444, or 1895.
The firing pin and bolt design are pretty decent, and the hammer fall is a non-issue.

I wouldn't make a habit of sitting in front of the TV while cycling and dry-firing the rifle; but a little dry-fire here and there shouldn't hurt anything. (And if it does, the part was defective to begin with.)

 

FWIW, if you are 'cycling the action" with the lever to break in the action/make it work more smoothly,, and you need to let the hammer down,....

let the hammer down by holding the hammer carefully and firmly with your thumb, pull the trigger with your finger, and *let the hammer down easy* using resistance with your thumb. Works like a champ.

Otherwise, buy some snap caps ( a "snap cap" is a dummy round that is same diameter and overall length and in the general shape of an actual loaded cartridge.

But it is actually a "dummy round" and has no actual bullet nor gunpowder in the cartridge)

Load them in the loading gate, and cycle the action, pull trigger, eject them by working the lever, just as you would when firing live ammunition.

Never point an unloaded gun , nor a loaded gun at anyone nor anything you do not wish to kill or damage.,

FWIW ..."unloaded guns" have killed lots of people

 

I learned my lesson back in the 60's when I dry fired an old single barrel shot gun in my bedroom and a piece of the firing pin shot across the room and hit my dog in the face.

Never did it since.

 

or do like I did I took a empty shell casing and pop the primer out and took a eraser of a pencil and cut to fit the primer hole and a cast bullet crimp back in and boom a DIY snap cap

 

:dito: and, Welcome to the Forum from New York

 

Dry fire practice is a great way to practice trigger control.

Some weapons aren't able to deal with the stress. Avoid it on collectibles. Any "newly" manufactured arm I expect to be able to do it. Consult your owner's manual, they often say, or ask the manufacturer.

 

Gee, I thought that's why Marlin added the cross bolt safety. ;-)

 

NO, NO , NO!.....................The CBS is meant to be used as a SAFETY ONLY..............It is NOT meant to be used as a dry fire stop.

Take a good look at the distance between the Hammer Pivot point and the CBS, and the distance between the Hammer Pivot point and the Firing Pin stop area in the Breech Bolt.

You'll see the distance between the CBS and the Hammer Pivot point is much shorter, making the act of the CBS stopping the hammer much more difficult...........This translates to much higher forces on both the CBS AND the Hammer Pivot point in stopping the Hammer strike.

Use the CBS as a Safety aid ONLY as intended, and DON'T dry fire the Marlin actions without using a Snap Cap of some type.............


Tom

 

On the other side....I dry fire everything except my rim fires. Some owners manuals even recommend dry firing to practice.

 

I had to replace the firing pin because of dry firing my 1955 336 RC.

 

I bought a 1955 RC in 32Special caliber that had a broken firing pin when it was delivered. A new firing pin fixed it right up. Energy in a firing pin can not be abruptly stopped without doing damage. There has to be something at the end of it's travel to absorb that energy before the firing pin slams into the end of the bolt. That is why snap-caps and primers were made. Otherwise, minute cracks develope in the firing pin and the firing pin will break at some point in the future if the behavior is not stopped.

 

Agree with RPH don't dry fire rimfire guns. The others you will probably get away with but would not make a habit of it. A lot of dry fires have gone bang also.

 

I dry fire mine - still shoot. If it's a crossbolt safety model the firing pin can't be touched anyway.

 

nooooooooo!

 

Was cleaning my revolver before going on duty as a LEO. Put it back together, dry fired it and watched the firing pin exit the barrel. Had to leave for work with a non working sidearm. First stop on duty was a gun shop which thankfully gave me a loaner while they fixed mine. Now use snap caps or fired brass in a pinch.

 

drinva, you can relieve tension on bolt action rifles by lifting the bolt and pulling trigger (continue holding pressure on trigger) and closing the bolt while trigger is being held....this will relieve firing pin spring pressure so firing pin will not snap forward hitting bolt. I think all bolt actions are like this...I know all mine can be relieved of the firing pin pressure like this. Others may not know this so thought I would post.

 

Well thats neat! Never thought of that....I'll give it a try next cleaning.

THANKS!!
DR

 

Mosin has a de-cock, I have never tried my other bolt actions, where you rack the bolt forward but don't lock it down then depress the trigger and it puts the bolt home but the spring is no longer under pressure (not to be used with a round in the chamber).

 

I gotta say it, because no one else did.

Ever put a really sharp pencil in a 1911 and dry fire it?
I shoots the pencil clean clear across the whole room.

Just make sure there is no one in the room. That pencil falls where it feels like falling.
I used to stick them in the false overheads on the ship.

 

Yep.
Under the right circumstances, it can be good fun.
My brothers and I, at one point in the past, used to have contests for, "Whose CC pistol will launch a pencil [or pen] the highest." :ahhhhh:
My Ruger P95 often won, unless the Springfield Compact 1911 was present. ...Until my brother's .327 Federal Ruger SP101 became a daily carry piece. That thing was ridiculous (Ruger-strength springs, plus added power for detonating rifle primers). Stuck a pencil in a 12-foot sheet-rock ceiling.
"You won. Now go get it." :hahaha:

 

I don't make a habit of dry firing I just can't bring myself over the safety part of the ordeal I treat a gun as if it's loaded at all times regardless. Ruger may advertise their guns to be able to be dry fired, but a GP100 22 lr will peen the cylinder face if done so... in as little as 1 time !! I know this due to having to send a new in the box GP100 22 lr back to ruger for other reasons than a peened cylinder. Another note most firearms manufactures will either tell you, or have it in the owners manual if their product can be dry fired... beware however in the above situation of the GP100 22lr.

As to the 336 the two piece firing pin models should be able to be dry fired with no harm done to the firing mechanism at least in order to test the trigger, or test function etc. On the bolt action rifle pulling the trigger while closing the bolt should allow the firing pin to decock on the rear of the bolt cocking cam just a reverse order of cocking on opening... if you do this often I would sure add a little grease to the bolt cocking ramp on the rear of bolt.

I would suggest taking the bolt apart and look at how the firing pin is made to see if it had a firing pin stop built in, and how much spring pressure is on the firing pin... while your at it clean the swamp out even NIB firearms look horrid inside the bolt with metal shavings, machining residue, rust or blueing solution... just all kinds of gunk.... I use a light oil on some of my BR type bolts, and use a dry lube on my hunting bolts either eezox or dry lube like moly... also make sure to lube the cocking ramp with a grease or dry lube depending on hunting rifle or BR rifle, one more note the back of the lugs should also get a bit of grease or dry lube... hunting rifles needs are different than range rifles as function and clean are the main concern, on a range rifle that gets shot a lot you want to protect these moving parts.

 

Just to emphasise whats been said.. NEVER DRY FIRE ON AN EMPTY CHAMBER!!

Spent case or better, a snap cap....

 

Seems like this subject has been beat to death........ Lots of comments. If he`s interested in committee advise, he hasn`t learned a thing.
Dry fire..........Don`t dry fire. I`d say it`s a personal choice.

Plus, the original poster could have helped himself by simply doing a search on his question. This forum aside. J s/n.

 

I don't even dry fire my cap n ball revolvers or rifles

 

I use the pencil trick on all my striker fired handguns, I usually shoot it up and catch the pencil on its way down.....kinda fun :smokin:

DR