DIY Dummy / Training Ammo

[Loman]

Good day

I am a first time gun buyer.
As such i would like to get proficient with it as much as i can.

I thought getting some dummy rounds / snap caps would be a good idea but seeing how terribly insane their prices are i thought i would be better making my own. Instead of paying that much for 10-15 dummy rounds i would rather spend that money on genuine ammo or an extra mag
After reading a load of forums including this one as well as a bunch of Youtube vids i am thinking of doing the following:

1) Take normal 9mm ammo and pull the bullet, pour out the propellant and push out the primer. (I'll probably fire the primer filled brass in a safe area before punching the spent primers out, just to be extra unnecessarily safe.)
i have decided against reusing shot brass for this as i've heard the brass needs to be resized before reloading and i don't have reloading tools nor experience with them. ( not sure if this is the case, as i said i'm pretty green when it comes to firearms)

2) fill the case with hot glue and ( using a friends reloading equipment) reload and crimp the bullet.
the hot glue is to ensure the bullet won't push too far back into the case after repeated use.

3) use hot glue in the primer pocket.
I've head of eraser rubber being used but that seems very crumbly to me and hot glue will hold up to abuse much better, also if it deforms all you need is a lighter flame to get it back in prime condition.

Now, undoubtedly many reading this will think of one thing and one thing only, how inherently unsafe it is to do what i propose to do. YES. i know. and i intend to do it with the help of a friend who has been reloading his own rounds for many decades.

There's also another thing that bothers me. How to differentiate these rounds as dummy/training ammo from the rest.
I've head of drilling holes in the case to clearly indicate there's no propellant inside, but even if you load these blind you will still feel the hole and i would like to avoid that.
After using these dummy rounds to get the basics down i would like to mix them with live ammo and do flinch tests. I can load them blind and hopefully won't be able to differentiate them from live ammo as i'm loading.

Now we get to the meat of what i really need advice about. (if you have any suggestions regarding above i would like to hear about them too)
I have thought about painting them the dull baby blue that military training ammo is normally painted. BUT, i doubt one can use just any normal paint as it will flake off during repeated use and make a mess in the gun. So, i was thinking, what about nail polish? not the old stuff but the gel types that cures under UV light.
it is long lasting and a single bottle of gel polish should do more rounds than i ever need. Have anyone every tried something like that? Obviously i will always treat the pistol as a loaded, ready to fire weapon even if loaded with dummy rounds. I just thought it will help me get more familiar with the pistol.

Obviously i will put as much live ammo through it as i can afford, these dummy rounds is just for extra prep & training.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this.

[Toxxyc]

If your friend has a reloading setup, just get a few spent/deprimed cases from him to use?

[Bonedoc]

As Toxxyc said, use fired, resized brass as you need access to a reloading setup anyway.

Colour them with a permanent marker, any paint/varnish etc will flake off. Easy enough to just touch up the marker where it scuffs off.

I wouldn't mix them with live rounds. I understand the idea of the flinch test, but to me dummy rounds and live ammo shouldn't mix at all.

Hot glue works well to fill case and primer pocket.

[Loman]

If your friend has a reloading setup, just get a few spent/deprimed cases from him to use?

He doesn't have any 9mm. he reloads 308 and 243.

[Loman]

As Toxxyc said, use fired, resized brass as you need access to a reloading setup anyway.

Colour them with a permanent marker, any paint/varnish etc will flake off. Easy enough to just touch up the marker where it scuffs off.

I wouldn't mix them with live rounds. I understand the idea of the flinch test, but to me dummy rounds and live ammo shouldn't mix at all.

Hot glue works well to fill case and primer pocket.

Thats why i wanted to use Gel nail polish as it doesn't chip (as far as i know) and it should last longer than permanent marker. At R23 for a bottle of gel polish i am willing to experiment. If it fails then its only R23.
The plan is to mix them, load the rounds, and after firing is done for the day i will sort them and keep the dummy ones separate.
The last thing I want is to get in a Self Defense scenario with a random dummy round in the chamber or magazine. So I will separate them and store live and dummy rounds far apart.

[Bonedoc]

Thats why i wanted to use Gel nail polish as it doesn't chip (as far as i know) and it should last longer than permanent marker. At R23 for a bottle of gel polish i am willing to experiment. If it fails then its only R23.
The plan is to mix them, load the rounds, and after firing is done for the day i will sort them and keep the dummy ones separate.

It will all depend on how thin layer you can get on case, it might interfere with chambering and extracting.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

[shooty]

Just as a note. The reason Snap Caps are expensive is their design.
Your firing pin moves forward under inertia from hammer strike.
A Snap Cap has a small spring in with the fake primer sitting there.
This is to stop the firing pin as it hits it. The spring gives some movement.
So the firing pin is not hitting a solid non moving object.

If you just use an old primer. After couple of dry fires.
The primer might even make a small hole.

This means your firing pin is now moving more forward then intended.
Also if you use a hard item for it to hit. Also like primer already dented.
Your now letting your firing pin slam into a solid none absorbing moving item.
This is not good.

Get Snap Caps. Or you need to insert something else then a primer that can consistently absorb the force and not hurt the firing pin. Like mentioned above some people use hot glue. Not sure how ling this lasts.

A glock can be dry fired safely. So reckon no need for caps any case.

But most other pistols its not always good to keep doing this.

If there is nothing in chamber your firing pin will also move alot more forward under inertia then it would when hitting a primer.

[Loman]

It will all depend on how thin layer you can get on case, it might interfere with chambering and extracting.

I was thinking of just the bullet, but you're right. I didn't consider how thick the gel nail polish can be. Even if i just do the bullet it might be to thick to seat properly. Would need to do some tests for sure.

[Loman]

Just as a note. The reason Snap Caps are expensive is their design.
Your firing pin moves forward under inertia from hammer strike.
A Snap Cap has a small spring in with the fake primer sitting there.
This is to stop the firing pin as it hits it. The spring gives some movement.
So the firing pin is not hitting a solid non moving object.

If you just use an old primer. After couple of dry fires.
The primer might even make a small hole.

This means your firing pin is now moving more forward then intended.
Also if you use a hard item for it to hit. Also like primer already dented.
Your now letting your firing pin slam into a solid none absorbing moving item.
This is not good.

Get Snap Caps. Or you need to insert something else then a primer that can consistently absorb the force and not hurt the firing pin. Like mentioned above some people use hot glue. Not sure how ling this lasts.

A glock can be dry fired safely. So reckon no need for caps any case.

But most other pistols its not always good to keep doing this.

If there is nothing in chamber your firing pin will also move alot more forward under inertia then it would when hitting a primer.

I plan to use hot glue, if deformed i can just use a lighter to quickly get it back in proper shape. Good as new.
I won't use old primers.
Its a Glock 19 so im not too concerned with dryfiring. But like i said, i would like to do flinch tests among others. so i need a dummy round.

[Loman]

Thanks for all the help. I'll give some feedback once i do some tests.
But I've waited 5 months for my competency certificate and i guess my licence application will take just as long, so i think i'll only be able to do these tests in May / June 2019.