O-ring for dry fire effectiveness

[mr5parkle]

I recently paid for a pack of o-rings from a member here to practice dry fire because ejecting snap caps to rack the slide was getting annoying.

Out of pure curiousity, I took my SP-01 to the range and loaded the pistol with the o-ring. To my surprise, it shot my 124gr plated RN reload with Winchester WSP and 5.6gr Alliant Power Pistol with no problem.

I understand the o-ring and snap caps soften the blow, but was hoping to hear some thoughts of it's overall effectiveness in preventing firing pin related damage.

[Boris_LA]

Where did you put the O-ring? Are they still in the bag?

[1SOW]

It may be more or less effective depending the hammer spring you're using.  The stock spring will launch a torpedo.

[mr5parkle]

Where did you put the O-ring? Are they still in the bag?

Ha, see the photo below

It may be more or less effective depending the hammer spring your using.  The stock spring will launch a torpedo.

I have the CGW pro package installed with the blue 13# hammer spring and 14# recoil spring if that matters.

[Vinny]

Ahh, that looks like a 70 durometer O ring (silicone?) which is softer than say a 90 durometer.

[jDeLaBay]

Do you have the extended firing pin? I have a laser training cartridge, and with the stock firing pin, it wouldn't go off with an O ring covering the firing pin. Now that I have the extended one, the cartridge will still light up with an O ring covering it.

A little cushion is better than no cushion. The main purpose of the O ring is to prevent the firing pin from hitting the retaining pin with so much force. My stock roll pin had a little gouge in it from dry fire.

[mr5parkle]

Ahh, that looks like a 70 durometer O ring (silicone?) which is softer than say a 90 durometer.

Not sure of the exact material but the seller said it's similar to the ones from Home Depot.

Do you have the extended firing pin? I have a laser training cartridge, and with the stock firing pin, it wouldn't go off with an O ring covering the firing pin. Now that I have the extended one, the cartridge will still light up with an O ring covering it.

A little cushion is better than no cushion. The main purpose of the O ring is to prevent the firing pin from hitting the retaining pin with so much force. My stock roll pin had a little gouge in it from dry fire.

The CGW Pro Package comes with the 61050 Extended Firing Pin so yea, I does have the extended firing pin. Thanks for sharing your experience. Maybe that's why it still fires? But like you said, any cushion is better than no cushion.

[Ruber]

With both factory and cgw extended firing pins I get no ignition, even after repeated tries forgetting that I left the o ring in place. 

I don?t know which o ring I use, but they are thinner than yours and black and from the local ace hardware.

[Vinny]

I think the red-orange o-rings are a silicone that's softer like 70 durometer. The black can be a variety of materials, like rubber or a synthetic rubber blend, but undoubtedly firmer like 80 or 90 durometer and not as squishy as the red ones.

[mr5parkle]

Guess I'll just have to have faith the o-rings are preventing any dry fire damage

[ClangClang]

Guess I'll just have to have faith the o-rings are preventing any dry fire damage

An O-ring definitely helps cushion the impact to the retaining pin.  How much? It's hard to say. Too many factors to calculate.  Rest assured though, any dedicated USPSA/IPSC competitor is putting 10k-20k (or even 50k-60k!) rounds through their gun per year, and typically 5 TIMES more dryfire hammer strikes (so 100,000 trigger pulls per year). The guns are built to withstand it. And remember, springs, slide stops, and yes, even retaining pins are consumables.  The cost of a gun is almost inconsequential in the total cost of ammo and parts over a gun's lifetime.

[Boris_LA]

You may try to see the effectiveness of O-Ring with the pencil test.
Unload the gun. Put the wood pencil with eraser (down) into the barrel. Point gun up and pull the trigger. Without the O-ring pencil may jump up 2-3' on the stock pistol. More with extended FP. Less or non with the O-ring.

[mr5parkle]

You may try to see the effectiveness of O-Ring with the pencil test.
Unload the gun. Put the wood pencil with eraser (down) into the barrel. Point gun up and pull the trigger. Without the O-ring pencil may jump up 2-3' on the stock pistol. More with extended FP. Less or non with the O-ring.

I'll give this a shot. I tried it with the back of a ball point pen and the pin punched a hole in the pen 

Guess I'll just have to have faith the o-rings are preventing any dry fire damage

An O-ring definitely helps cushion the impact to the retaining pin.  How much? It's hard to say. Too many factors to calculate.  Rest assured though, any dedicated USPSA/IPSC competitor is putting 10k-20k (or even 50k-60k!) rounds through their gun per year, and typically 5 TIMES more dryfire hammer strikes (so 100,000 trigger pulls per year). The guns are built to withstand it. And remember, springs, slide stops, and yes, even retaining pins are consumables.  The cost of a gun is almost inconsequential in the total cost of ammo and parts over a gun's lifetime.

Thanks for the reassurance. I don't dry fire much and did invest in snap caps, but got tired of picking them up when racking the slide figuring out the trigger reset for my over-travel screw. I did order a bunch of consumables like the ones you listed with CGW during their black friday deal.

[1down]

I'm not a dry fire fan but the o-ring placement looks to be a good solution to firing pin pounding. 

[GRU7_Mike]

The Tri Star C100 I traded in on my P-07 was used with the o rings for dry firing every night for about 10 days. Hundreds and hundreds of trigger pulls, and it made a great deal of difference to the trigger....although the stock, new trigger was by no means a problem on the C100.