Dry fire ruined my chamber....

[paochow]

Howdy,

I just bought a .500 S&W Pro Hunter and an extra .22 Pro Hunter 28" barrel.  I mounted the scope rings and scope for the .22 barrel, however was having clearance issues with the hammer hitting the scope. Fortunately rotating the swing hammer fixed that issue....however, unfortunately I managed to dry fire it once when checking the clearance.  I thought all was well until I got out to the range and there I realized the firing pin had dimpled the chamber and the rifle will not chamber .22LR rounds now.  I had read in the manual that dry firing could damage the firing pin, but I didn't see anything about it damaging barrels. The chamber had a cut out on the top of the breech face presumably for the firing pin, but it seems the firing pin strikes below this cutout.

So my question is what do I do now?  Will TC replace or fix this barrel or am I stuck with a $350 paperweight? Any other suggestions?  Thanks.

[torpedoman]

They sell a "chamber iron" to remove that dimple either midway or brownells has it as a stock item and it works great. real easy fix.

[southernutah]

I have made small loading ramps on all my ruger 10-22 barrels with a dremel to make them feed better . Never had a problem with feeding or jams. I would just take a dremel or round stone and clean it up.

[bolewine]

 If you send it back to t/c I'm sure they will repair or replace it.Their customer service is outstanding!

[paochow]

Thanks for the heads up on the chamber iron, I think I will be ordering one of those up seems like a handy tool to have.

I will be trying TC's customer service.  I hope I have the same great service others have had. 

It kind of surprises me that they don't have any kind of warning about this in the manual or with the .22 barrel.  It seems half the manual is bold red warnings, but only a regular font note about using snap caps or you may damage the firing pin.

[jy951]

Except for some Rugers when necessary to take apart, I think it's generally never a good idea to dry fire rimfire guns.

[paochow]

Barrel is fixed!

TC customer service was closed for the Holiday week, but Midway shipped my order to me in two days with standard shipping. 

Chamber iron worked like a champ, taking a few turns to get everything back in working order.  After repairing, at first I couldn't figure out why the rounds were hard to push in that last quarter inch, but then I realized the bullet was actually engaging the rifling.  Should make for one accurate rifle.

Thanks for all of the help.

[Sourdough]

My Contenders have been dry fired several times with both rim fire barrels.  The carbine barrel has a dimple on it, but does not interfere with loading a round.

My son used it for 4-H shooting. and we let other kids shoot it as well during the 4-H program.  Little kids could handle it better and safer than the Chipmunk.

[Merle]

When you dry fire, it sounds like you are actually cocking the hammer & letting it fall.
Here's a trick I learned back in the IHMSA days.
I always just broke the gun to set it, did NOT cock the hammer, then squeezed the trigger.
Same trigger pull, but no chance of damaging the firing pin nor the chamber.

That was with the original model - not the G2, which I'm not positive is the same.

 

[Keith L]

That was with the original model - not the G2, which I'm not positive is the same.

 

G2s don't work the same.  To be able to re-cock the dry fire feature is gone.

[Merle]

That was with the original model - not the G2, which I'm not positive is the same.

 

G2s don't work the same.  To be able to re-cock the dry fire feature is gone.

OK thaniks for the update. I've never handled a G2, much less shot one.

 

[SteveHawaii]

I dry fire with a spent cartridge.  I just notice where the pin is striking the cartridge and rotate 90 degrees or so.  Can dry fire several times that way.