Impala Bullets pin jags and .22 LR dummies / snap caps

**oafpatroll** · 03-08-2023, 18:48

According to some I am an anal retentive of the first order. On second thoughts that should be 'to most'. Amongst the very many things I find difficult to get past are bare brass jags and dry firing .22s. The former because they leave marks on cleaning cloth that make it difficult for me to determine when a bore is really free of fouling and the latter because I don't like the idea of damaging my guns and dry firing my mint Hi-Standard Citation makes me cringe hard enough to risk a neck injury. There's no way to relieve the hammer spring tension on the pistol with it assembled other than dry firing it and fired cases are too tight a fit in the chamber to eject with a lot of force.

Both of those problems were cheaply fixed by a visit to Impala Bullets in Centurion earlier today. Jack, the helpful and friendly guy that answered my call when I was on my way, had my jags and dummy .22LR rounds ready for me when I arrived.

The jags are nickel plated and of the pin variety where you pierce a bit of cleaning fabric with the pointy end of the jag and once you've pushed it through the barrel and withdraw the rod the cloth is pulled off the jag and falls out on the muzzle end. The 22LR dummies are solid brass functional stand-ins for cartridges but don't look anything like a live round.

The jags are a perfect fit to our cheap local Ram brand rods in the skinnier .22/.223 and under thread size and the thicker one that is used for everything bigger. This is a win for me as another one of my kinks is that I hate having to fuck about with my grab bag of rod adaptors to match a rod to the tool I need on the end of it. Their nickel plating means that they don't react with cleaning fluids and don't leave 'pencil' marks on cloth so you know when the colour on the cloth is from the bore.

The dummies run flawlessly through my pistol and allow for me to drop the internal hammer without peening the breech, having to drop the slide on a case in the chamber risking an extractor break, kakking a baksteen to extract a swelled case and most importantly not looking anything like a live cartridge.

Very long spiel about simple bits but they are well priced and do exactly what they say on the tin and are locally made. For all of those reasons I can wholeheartedly recommend them. While you are about it have a look at their bullets.

The jags are R75 each and the .22 dummies are R50/5. Shop is at 241 Jean Ave Centurion and phone number is 012 664 7628.

**Heath Robinson** · 03-08-2023, 19:16

Not trying to knock anybody or anything here, but I am surprised that such a high quality target weapon doesn't have a recess in the chamber rim to prevent dry-firing damage.

All three my .22's have them, and while they are not junkers, they certainly aren't in the same league as yours.

I do like the idea of nickel-coated jags. I always wonder whether my patches are telling me that my jags are brass or that my barrel isn't clean yet.

**oafpatroll** · 03-08-2023, 19:36

Originally Posted by Heath Robinson

Not trying to knock anybody or anything here, but I am surprised that such a high quality target weapon doesn't have a recess in the chamber rim to prevent dry-firing damage.

All three my .22's have them, and while they are not junkers, they certainly aren't in the same league as yours.

I think the issue with this one is that it's an oldy. It's of mid 1950's vintage and it doesn't have any firing pin relief on the chamber end. Not sure when that became more common practise but it wasn't a feature on this one. The pin does impact the flat of the chamber end when dry fired but even if it didn't the anal retentive hand wringing Karen inside me would fret over the peeining that might, or more likely probably isn't, occurring on the back side of the breech face. R100 bucks worth of a lifetime supply of CNC turned brass dummies has spared me the agony of fretting and the expense in alcohol to treat the effects of it.

**Heath Robinson** · 04-08-2023, 05:23

To be honest I have no idea how common it is, nor when people started doing it.
One of my three almost certainly pre-dates yours (BSA Martini), and the second one's design pre-dates the manufacture of yours (1949).

If it was me, I would look. Just because I would want to know.

But certainly there is no harm in continuing to use the caps either.

**oafpatroll** · 04-08-2023, 07:19

I did look. The pin impacts the barrel flat when dry fired. I verified that with some carbon paper.

**Heath Robinson** · 04-08-2023, 10:36

In that case you must use the caps.

My concern is this: on some of the ranges I have shot recently, people are taught to unload, show clear, close breech and ease springs by dry firing.
This seems to be becoming more prevalent. This seems to have carried over into other areas of gun-handling, and in the last few years a couple of times guys have dry-fired some of my firearms before handing them back after having a look. Sometimes this happens faster than I can stop them. The old ethos of handing a gun over with the action open seems to be disappearing.

Oh, and lastly, I like dry-firing for practice. And while I am sure these caps will allow you to ease springs for many a year, I doubt they will stand up to regular dry-fire practice?

**oafpatroll** · 04-08-2023, 10:49

I'm perfectly happy dry firing all of the guns I have that are set up for it. My dedicated sport shooting CZ has been dry fired 10s of thousands of times and is perfectly happy doing it. I don't use the Hi Standard in any sort of 'live' competition so fortunately the show clear and pull the trigger routine isn't an issue. The trigger on the thing is so ridiculously light and short that I haven't bothered with dry fire practice with it. A press on the 'dead' trigger pretty much covers it.

**oafpatroll** · 04-08-2023, 11:04

Another reason for having the dummies is for function testing. While working on restoring my Brno Model 2 I had issues with some of the mags which I had to troubleshoot using live rounds as the shitty snap caps i had at the time weren't dimensionally accurate. One of the four mags I have for the Citation is also slightly tweaked and I'd much rather do the diagnosis and testing on that with inert rather than live rounds.

**Messor** · 04-08-2023, 11:26

A primer is something that absorbs impact AND give way.
Old cars = tough and hard, all the shock goes into your body.
New cars = crumble zone, shock absorbed by the car.

A solid brass dummy will not see the inside of any of my weapons.