Do you do dry fire practice at home in your spare time? If not, why not? It’s one of the best, easiest ways to improve your shooting. One of the problems some shooters have with dry fire, though, is they either 1) don’t want to pull the trigger on an empty chamber, or 2) don’t like chasing ejected snap caps around the room.
Lyman has a solution for both objections. Their new A-Zoom StrikerCaps don’t have rims, so won’t be launched by your semi-auto pistol’s extractor. They also have a rubber O-ring to keep them in the chamber as you move the pistol around (just pop the StrikerCap out with a cleaning rod when you’re finished).
Here’s Lyman’s press release . . .
Lyman® Products A-Zoom StrikerCaps Makes Dry Fire Training a Snap
Dry fire training is the best way to become familiar with a firearm and A-Zoom is the best choice.
Middletown, Conn. (April 2019) – Lyman® Products is pleased to announce the addition of A-Zoom StrikerCaps to their popular line of safety training, function testing and dry firing practice. For traditional snap cap dry fire practice in striker fire type pistols, the slide must be drawn back to cock the pistol, which then extracts and ejects the snap cap from the pistol. Lyman’s new A-Zoom StrikerCaps are made without a rim and are equipped with a centering O-ring which grips the chamber walls and keeps the snap cap in place in the chamber.
Trevor Mullen, VP of Global Marketing and Business Development for Lyman Products, explained, “You simply chamber the A-Zoom StrikerCap, then rack the slide to cock the pistol and the StrikerCap absorbs the firing pin hit just like our other standard A-Zoom Snap Caps. But the StrikerCap stays in place, so you can keep on practicing your trigger control and sight picture without having to stop your practice and find your snap cap and rechamber it.”
Using A-Zoom StrikerCaps while practicing dry firing or function testing a pistol after repair or cleaning will prevent damage to the firing pin and/or the barrel breech block with repeated trigger work. The A-Zoom StrikerCaps are precision machined from aluminum with a cushioned primer for repeated cycling and shaped exactly like an actual loaded round for accurate loading and feeding, yet finished in a bright training orange color to clearly discriminate it from a live round.
The new Lyman A-Zoom StrikerCaps are available for .380 Auto, 9mm, .40 S&W and .45 ACP in two per packs starting at $8.98 retail.
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About Lyman® Products:
Lyman Products, founded by avid outdoorsman, William Lyman, has been innovating firearms and reloading accessories and gear for over 140 years. Today, using advanced technologies, Lyman is in the forefront of meeting the needs of shooters and reloaders across the world. Whether pioneering the use of digital technology in reloading tools or reintroducing “antique” calibers and bullet molds, Lyman continues to improve and innovate the tools and accessories used by serious shooters and reloaders.
Lyman products and brands, are available nationally through firearms and sporting goods dealers and mail order companies. Pachmayr, TacStar, Trius Traps, A-Zoom Precision Snap Caps, Butch’s Gun Care and Targdots are also Lyman brands.
Do I load this striker cap in the magazine , rack it into the chamber and carry on with my dry fire practice???
Or, load this cap manually with my hand into the barrel, rack it and do my dry fire practice??? Thank you
Romeo
Sorry this is a follow up to my inquiry above. I normally dry fire my S&W M&P Shield compact by loading 13 snap caps into its magazine. Snap it to the magazine well and start my dry fires. I rack to eject these caps each and after shots and resume my shots. I was doing Single action shots the whole time.
Jus a while ago I , I rack the slide with the empty magazine, release the mag; loaded the striker cap into the mag; snap mag into the pistol; rack the slide to chamber the striker cap; pull the trigger; rack the slide; release the mag; rack the slide; insert the mag; pull the trigger; rack the slide;release the mag; rack the slide insert the mag; pull the trigger. WHEWW this is triple more work compared doing with the snap caps.
If I’m understanding your practice correctly, the certain solution is: don’t put a magazine in the gun — then a full cycle will not lock the slide back. Rack – trigger – rack – trigger – rack – trigger – etc. Forget about the magazine for this method. You don’t need to feed the snap cap from a mag — lock the slide back, drop the cap into the chamber, lower the slide, begin your drill. Sounds like you’re making it harder than it needs to be.
What I like may work, depending how your gun resets the trigger. I don’t know the Shield. A “regular” M&P will reset with a very short partial cycle of the slide, essentially a press check — maybe 1/4″ to 1/2″ of slide movement. I use a laser cartridge (no rim, just like the A-Zoom) in the chamber, and a magazine full of brass dummy rounds to simulate the weight and balance of a loaded pistol. The short cycle of the slide does not go far enough to pick up the next round, so you can reset – shoot – reset – shoot – etc without interruption. If I rack too far, I basically have a double-feed malfunction. Then I have to pull the mag and set things to running right again (I can’t practice clearing this jam the normal way because the extractor will not pull the snap cap without a rim from the chamber).