I know your not suppose to and I never do. However my buddy did! Just once he cocked my RWS 350 Mag and he dry fired it. Could not get to him on time.

Question..... Could he have broken or damaged something just doing it once? What do I check? Thanx really worried.....

Very Very Unlikely with just one dry shot.

If it still feels the same when you cock it and sounds the same when you fire it. It should be OK.

Crunching when it's cocked, usually broken spring.
Hard metallic clunk when shot, piston or seal damage.

But I've never seen one shot cause any harm.

Thank you

Two ther things can lead to short spring life with the "magnum" type springers; using the felt cleaning pellets and using the really light weight pellets. Neither have sufficient mass to offer enough resistance to the air pressure. Thus the piston reall slams forward and is not cushioned by a sufficient amount of compressing air.

Larry Gibson

ya, always put a pellet in behind the cleaning wad if it's a springer,

Not that I've ever found them to be any use.
I only ever clean an airgun barrel if there is a problem with accuracy or I'm not going to use it for a LONG time and oil it up to fight rust.

RWS literature says dont clean em as pellets leave a residue that acts as lube. Of course they sell cleaning pellets too. I seldom clean mine, but when the urge overcomes me I use a piece of real heavy weed eater line to push a small patch through. (You folks that also shoot bigger bores--you can take smaller weed eater line and double it and push the loop through and put a patch in the loop and you can drag a bigger patch than you can push).

quote:

Originally posted by The Specialist:
Very Very Unlikely with just one dry shot.

If it still feels the same when you cock it and sounds the same when you fire it. It should be OK.

Crunching when it's cocked, usually broken spring.
Hard metallic clunk when shot, piston or seal damage.

But I've never seen one shot cause any harm.

I recently purchased a low end Gamo Bigcat with a claimed MV of 1000fps will regular .17 cal lead pellets and 1200fps with the lighter PBA pellet. Just wanting to determent the cocking force required, I did dry fire it before I installed the scope. Loud, almost as loud as a 22 short. The first 2 or 3 rounds I fired made the same loud crack, but subsequent shoots made more of a "thump" sound. From measuring the penetration of the first two shots with those making the slightly different sound, there was no differance. Quit frankly I was glad to be rid of the sharp "crack" but after read these posts I now wonder if I could have possible damaged something.

One thing for sure, airgun technology has come a long way since I bought my first "pellet gun" many years ago. This thing is dangerous.

F. Prefect

Mite have just been burning off excess oil.

A friend used to put a drop of oil in the back of his pellets, made a great crack, not too accurate but every now and then he'd hit a Pigeon at well over 100 yards with it. Didn't do the seals in the gun much good though.

quote:

Originally posted by The Specialist:
Mite have just been burning off excess oil.

A friend used to put a drop of oil in the back of his pellets, made a great crack, not too accurate but every now and then he'd hit a Pigeon at well over 100 yards with it. Didn't do the seals in the gun much good though.

Thanks. I didn't think it could be anything too serious as the rifle will still shoot completely through a 3/4" paper back and part of the way through a second one.

It's little wonder why out over 80 reviews of the rifle at Gamo's website complain about problems sighting in the scope. The markings on the windage adjustment knob are bassackwards!

F. Prefect

quote:

Originally posted by Larry Gibson:
Two ther things can lead to short spring life with the "magnum" type springers; using the felt cleaning pellets and using the really light weight pellets. Neither have sufficient mass to offer enough resistance to the air pressure. Thus the piston reall slams forward and is not cushioned by a sufficient amount of compressing air.

Larry Gibson

Although I've shot air rifles since I was a kid, I was unaware of the overall improvement in the technology and the changes that have ocurred over the years.

Question. When you refer to 'light' pellets, in what range are you referring to? I have some cheap Daisys that tip the scale at about 7.4, and a pellet made by Gamo that has a copper colored steel nose that weighs in at about 9.55. Is 7.4 too light?

F. Prefect

7 to 9 gr is pretty much middleweight.
I'd avoid the 5.7 gr and lighter ones they use in CO2 pistols.