Snap Cap Advice Needed

[Rogue River]

New kid on the block needs advice about snap caps for .40 S&W, .45 ACP and 12 gauge.

Midwayusa has:

A-Zoom solid aluminum

Pachmayr blue polymer with brass base

Tipton red polymer with brass base ($5.00 cheaper than Pachmayr for 5)

Which ones do you recommend and how many of each?

Thanks again for your input.

[smoke-wagon]

anything with a spring will do fine, i have a-zooms in .45 and pachmayers in .357 and they both work perfect. i did have a set that was just orange plastic and the rims broke off sendin the snap caps into my barrel. .45 i only need one because i just cock the hammer again.

[Rogue River]

Ooops, should have mentioned that .40 and .45 are S&W M&P with no external hammers.

[smoke-wagon]

i'm sorry i'm not familiar with those models are they DA by any chance? if so you only need one of each unless you wanna manually cycle the action for the SA pull. well, hope this helped.

[Tomcat088]

I use A-zoom snap caps in my Springfield XD 45 and have not had any problems with them. I really like them alot. I have like 5 of them, but I never use more than a couple. When I am dry firing, I usually just barely pull the action back far enough to reset the trigger, not far enough to eject the round. This won't hurt your extractor or anything as long as you cycle the round from a magazine how you would any normal round. Then you just don't pull it back quite far enough to eject and fire away. It's a good way to smooth up your trigger, break bad habits like flinching, and just practice.

[Lycanthrope]

A zoom.......brass one's tend to peen in a lot after a time.


Lycanazoomguynowthrope

[ScaredOnce]

I use A-zoom snap caps in my Springfield XD 45 and have not had any problems with them. I really like them alot. I have like 5 of them, but I never use more than a couple. When I am dry firing, I usually just barely pull the action back far enough to reset the trigger, not far enough to eject the round. This won't hurt your extractor or anything as long as you cycle the round from a magazine how you would any normal round. Then you just don't pull it back quite far enough to eject and fire away. It's a good way to smooth up your trigger, break bad habits like flinching, and just practice.

Good alternative. It provokes me to ask a question... How does the trigger reset travel of various XD rounds relate to the length of the snap caps? Can you do this with the other XD cals too?

[Pooch15825]

I have a buddy that made his own years ago before they started selling all the new types. He just punched out the old primer of a few fired shells, loaded a bullet in the empty case and squirted bathtub caulking into the primer pocket. He says they work fine, the caulk has enough give to absorb the firing pin hitting it and then he works the slide to eject and chamber another. In revolvers he can just keep dry firing.
Pooch15825

[LittleRedToyota]

Ooops, should have mentioned that .40 and .45 are S&W M&P with no external hammers.

do you even need snap caps?

i'm not sure about the m&p, but i've dry-fire my glocks without using snap caps tens of thousands of times and never had any problems. (i also dry-fire my ARs without snap caps and haven't ever had any problems.)

you might not even need them.

having said that, though, i sometimes think about getting enough of them to fill up a magazine to simulate the weight and balance of a loaded mag in the gun while dry-firing.

[Tomcat088]

From what I have been told, "striker fired" pistols don't require snapcaps. Firearms that have hammers, need firing pins. Something else that I know reloaders have been doing for a long time; instead of using caulk, you can just cut a small piece of pencil eraser and glue it in the primer pocket. It will also absorb the shock of the firing pin without any problem. I also use snap caps in my life ammunition to simulate a malfunction so that I have to do a clearance drill. I also use them in live ammunition as a "flinch check". ScaredOnce, I'm not sure how the other pistols work in terms of not fully ejecting the round because I have only used snap caps in my .45. I have shot other calibers of XD's, and I honestly don't know of any reason why you wouldn't be able to do the same thing.