Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Gun Fun - New Shooters

SIL made it to the gun show Sunday and came away with a Ruger SR-22. Eventually she plans to add an SR-9 to the collection on the premise that practice with the .22 will pretty much transfer to the 9mm. The 9 is physically a bit larger and heavier, but all the controls are in the same place so this should work well enough.

I told her to not practice dry-firing the .22 without either a plastic snap cap or a spent piece of brass in the gun to protect the firing pin. Figuring I had one rolling around in the center console of my truck, I tried to find one outside the show. I had 5 pieces ranging from 9mm to 8 ga but no .22. I asked if her gun came with a threaded barrel and she wrote back:

Yes it does. It comes with a little wrench and a black piece to thread in. We'll have to go over it together. Not sure what it's all about. Haven't had time to read the manual yet. It says not to use a cheater bar, can cause damage to the gun. Of course I know what a cheater bar is cause my brother in law taught me that years ago. haha Also enclosed was a small brown sealed envelope with a label and a signature across it. It contained a spent 22 casing. I assume for you to practice with before you try live ammo. They think of everything.
So there is a use for those things. I wrote back explaining that the NYPD or the state of Mass would want it for their collection, but otherwise she's got it right. Normally I don't encourage firearms discussions at work as the person in the next cube might get the vapors or something. I suspect the issue is overrated. SIL works for the government.
I took the manual in to show a few peeps at the office. The older grey haired lady that sits beside me nodded her approval and smiled. The red head on my other side won't like it. The deputy sheriff liked it. The most smiles came from ( her boss). He was all excited about it. He has a 45 with a kit to change caliber. Oh & I have already pinched the skin on my hand with the slide. Duh. Happy New Year & happy anniversary!*
It's her first gun and it still hasn't been fired. She's liking it.

* Five after midnight will be my 34th wedding anniversary. I used to throw some great new years parties.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I told her to not practice dry-firing the .22
without either a plastic snap cap or a spent piece
of brass in the gun to protect the firing pin.


Why? Page 17 of the Ruger SR22 manual explicitly says:


DRY FIRING

Going through the actions of cocking, aiming and pulling the trigger on an unloaded gun is known as “dry firing.” Dry firing can be useful to learn the “feel” of your pistol. Be certain that the pistol is fully unloaded (both the chamber and magazine are empty) and that the pistol is pointing in a safe direction at all times, even when you are practicing dry firing. The RUGER® SR22® pistols can be dry-fired without damage to the firing pin or other components as long as the magazine is inserted.

CAUTION: The RUGER ® SR22 ® pistols cannot fire with the magazine removed.

Brad K. said...

Happy Anniversary!

Billll said...

It's not my gun so I don't have the manual. Lately all the chatter (everyone knows...) tended to favor the idea that center fire guns could be safely dry fired, but rimfire guns could not. There may be something different about the Rugers, or maybe everyone is wrong.

My brother had an old break-action shotgun with a floating firing pin that was held back by the shell in front of it, or not if there was no shell. The hammer hit the pin and drove it forward either into the shell, or if it was empty, the shoulder of the pin bottomed out in the action. At some point, the smaller end of the pin broke off right where I would have expected it to where the shoulder hit the end of the cavity. Note that this rig had no spring holding the pin back.

Presumably a modern firearm would have a spring that either acted as a shock absorber or actually prevented the pin from bottoming out.

The rimfire guns put the pins off to the side where they could hit the breech face in dry firing. The breech face being much harder than a cartridge, would transmit a more severe shock back up the pin. Evidently Ruger has found a way to overcome this. Good for them. You learn something new every day.