Is it safe to dry fire

[niner]

Is it safe to dry fire when I have a completed lower and only an upper receiver with the BCG in place? I am still putting my guns together and only need the barrel assemblies and fore arms. I know you can do some serious damage dry firing without an upper in place, but does that need to be a totally completed upper or am I fine?

I was dry firing only the lower but I wedged an eraser in to absorb the hammer impact. Not sure if this is totally good, but I haven't had any problems with it either. But since I cannot put the eraser in with the BCG in place I was wondering.

http://p.office1000.com/gmr/73015SAN.jpg

I am taking my time with these as I am going almost a full year on one of them (then my wife decided she wanted one also a few months back).

[spamsammich]

dryfiring a complete weapon is fine, if you want, Magpul makes good dummy rounds. Get out of the habit of dry firing just the lower even if you are cushioning the hammer, it is much more useful to dry fire a complete weapon so you get used to the sight picture and handling.

[Mr Brightside]

What Sammich said, it's fine to dry fire a complete rifle, but you will ruin your lower (hammer) if your dry fire it without the upper.

I wouldn't risk it even with an eraser to absorb the impact. The weapon is way too expensive to play around with.

[niner]

I only have been dry firing when I test the function after putting it together. I haven't been doing it that much.

Also, my question was for a complete lower and a partial upper, not a complete rifle. The partial upper is the upper receiver, the BCG, and charging handle.

But since I asked this on ARFCOM also, they said that the barrel extension holds the bolt in place and so dry firing could potentially cause problems by causing the BCG to extend further than it is supposed to.

Thanks for y'all's help.

[spamsammich]

Manipulating a complete weapon is MUCH more useful in terms of simulating real use than an incomplete one. For me, dry fire without obtaining a proper sight picture is not good practice. You want quality trigger pulls, not quantity.

[Raven_Thunder]

Spend a few extra dollars and get some good quality dummy rounds or snap caps. It protects your investment and you can use them to practice malfunctions drills.

[Quib]

Dry-firing an assembled AR is fine, you will not damage it.

Dry-firing is a part of the weapon function check, and is also used in trigger pull exercises.

Dry-firing a lower which is separated from the upper is where you can run into trouble. If the lower is dry-fired separated from the upper, the hammer can strike the bolt catch or the webbing between the trigger/hammer group and the mag well, cracking either one or both.