Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Snap caps for S&W revolver

Apparently S&W frowns on dry firing their Model 617 revolvers, which didn't stop me from getting one.

So, do you guys who use rimfire snap caps just use the yellow #4-6 wall anchors or do you spring for real snap caps, and if the latter whose do you use? I also have some used .22 cases and foresee getting lots more but they get dented up pretty quickly and tend to leave residue in the clean chambers.

I cannot imagine having any handgun and not dry firing it a few thousand times a year...

I just use wall anchors. Along time ago, I bought some snap caps. They didn't last long, between losing them, and getting wrecked from use.

Well you should definitely not dry fire your rimfires…

I don’t fire for practice so I just keep a spent case in all my rimfire chambers/cylinders

Are the most recent S&W rimfire revolvers somehow different from the older versions? I’ve dry fired this 63 with empty chambers something just short of a zillion times with no apparent ill effects:



The factory firing pins in all of my S&W rimfire revolvers are/were not quite long enough to reach any part of the cylinders. That includes this relatively new 43C:



So, no peened chambers and only one busted firing pin in more than 50 years of constantly dry firing S&W rimfire revolvers. That busted pin was easily replaced 20 years ago.

Other rimfire firearms can be an entirely different matter, however.

I don't know. Just picked up the revolver from the FFL dealer and looked all through the manual and didn't see any warning against dry firing, just dire warnings about how you'll absolutely injure or kill somebody if you don't follow the loading, cocking, firing and unloading instructions to the letter.

I did find this on the S&W FAQ page: https://www.smith-wesson.com/customer-service/faqs

Q: Can I dry fire my Smith & Wesson?
A: Yes, except for the .22 caliber pistols which includes models 22A, 22S, 422, 2206, 2214, 2213 and 41.
.22 caliber revolvers such as models 17, 43, 63, 317 and 617 also should not be dry fired.

Q: Why can't I dry fire my .22 pistol or revolver?
A: Dry firing a S&W .22 pistol or revolver will cause damage to the firing pin.


Oh well, I got a hundred pack of the #4 plastic wall anchors and will just keep them in the chambers. Tried a few and it looks like they'll take lots and lots of hits before wearing out.

Oh well, I got a hundred pack of the #4 plastic wall anchors and will just keep them in the chambers. Tried a few and it looks like they'll take lots and lots of hits before wearing out.

That’s what I use. On another note. I have Ruger government model that I bought with a dimpled chamber. Someone left the firing pin stop out when he cleaned it. There is a little tool made especially to fix this problem. So it must be common on some Rimfire’s. Hasbeen

I always save some empty .22's when at the range just for this purpose. I don't claim to know if it's necessary or not, but it doesn't hurt anything and makes me feel better about dry-firing my rimfires.

617 is completely safe to dry fire. I have had one since the early 2000's, have dry fired it at least 50k times and there's no evidence of any effect. Snap caps are a waste of money, modern guns can take all the dry firing you can give them. High quality rimfire revolvers have been dry fire safe for at least a century now.

The newly manufactured 617-6’s are not safe to dry fire. I’ve seen in person 43c’s 351c’s and 617-6’s that had damaged chambers. I suspect S&W changed something in the last few years to minimize the fail to fire issues of the cheap ammo. The firing pin design on the 43c has been changed at least once. My 617-6 has a few thousand rounds with zero misfires.