Re: Dry firing
lop said:
Snap caps it is. Thanks. Can I make some with just fitting a wooden bullet so it will feed, or do I need to replicate the Primer also? Ptk, how do you make yours?
I suppose a wooden bullet would work (can you find one?), but I just used a regular bullet. Or did you mean to say "cartridge" instead of "bullet"? You need something similar to a primer (soft metal) for the firing pin to hit. Wood would only last a couple strikes here.
I drilled out the primer hole to accept a copper rivet, which I cut to flush with the base of the case, and seated a bullet, with a spring between the bullet and the rivet. Thus, the firing pin is hitting a copper rivet that is spring loaded. The copper rivet wears out after a few hundred strikes, but I just have to cut another one down and replace it when that happens. Others have reported success with gasket compound or similar in an empty primer hole.
The case was sized with a standard .380 sizing die. The mouth was belled with a 9mm Luger expander die. The bullet was seated with a 9mm Luger bullet seater (with some difficulty; it is a forceful spring in there). Finally, I crimped with a .380 ACP taper crimp die. All dies were mounted on my RCBS Rockchucker reloading press.
The dies alone cost a lot more than a set of five A-zoom (or other brand) snap caps. I do not even recommend reloading for the P-3AT unless you already reload for 9mm, which gives you the press and half the dies. I use A-zoom for all my other calibers. I just made these as a project to see what would work.