dry firing?

[Shadow-Thief]

I've heard that dry firing is bad for your gun. Is it?

[Mattman154]

Yes. I don't want to give a reason and sound stupid, but as far as I know, yes.

[Walking_Target]

Bear in mind that dry firing your rifle in Semi-Automatic mode 1-3 times after use is important to empty any loaded BBs and to return your spring to its decompressed state.

[X]

Dry firing will blow the ends off of you gearbox if you do it very often . My cousin blew the front off of two of my KWA's on the same day due to dry firing . Jackal has had two go down on him too over the last few years . Depends on your spring and fire rate how fast this will happen . Don't do it very often or you will pay the price .
Correct on semi a couple shots to return the spring is OK .

[Cap n pickles]

Dry firing will blow the ends off of you gearbox if you do it very often . My cousin blew the front off of two of my KWA's on the same day due to dry firing . Jackal has had two go down on him too over the last few years . Depends on your spring and fire rate how fast this will happen . Don't do it very often or you will pay the price .
Correct on semi a couple shots to return the spring is OK .

Its true, the GB front end will blow off.

BUT! Ive had a Dboys V3 GB go through minutes at a time of dry firing trying to work on my EBB. It also has a hand cut slot in the top(making it weaker), and nothing has cracked, blown up, or caused a problem.

Thus, V3 FTW.

[Shadow-Thief]

oh, okay...I'l remember to put it on semi..I just hold down full auto for half a second, or until all the bbs are all out...

Gotcha, dry firing is BAD (I've already done it a bit...not much, but...)

[Archangel 06]

Yea, just make sure that before you put it away you fire on SEMI to return the spring to a relaxed position, as not doing so can prematurely wear out your spring.

[SlasheI2]

Dry firing is only bad because without the BB blocking the airflow, there is nothing that slows down the piston. This drives the piston full force into the cylinder head transferring extra energy into the gearbox, possibly causing gearbox failure if done enough. Though this usually happens on V2 gearboxes because they are the weakest.
If you put in sorbothane pads or an sts to transfer the shock through to the receiver of the gun then you should be fine.

You can also round off the round off the corners in the front of the gearbox where the cylinder contacts. This will spread out the force over a larger area reducing the risk of gearbox snapping.

After you're finished with a game, remove your mag and fire into a safe distance as there will probably be some rounds left in the hop up. Then turn to SEMI and fire off your gun a few times. The reason you do this is because you don't want the sector gear to pull back your piston for prolonged periods of time as this will compress your spring and theoretically reduce your spring power. It may also wear down your piston and gear teeth with higher powered springs.

If you have an upgraded gun with a juiced up motor and a high discharge battery then this probably won't work because everything is so powerful that the motor will continue to spin, thus pull back the piston even after you've released the trigger. If that's the case, just slightly tap the trigger on AUTO and time it so that the motor stops just after it fires.

The ICS m4's and newly mp5's have this feature input into the forward assist. The F.A. disengages the anti reversal latch allowing the gears to spin backwards, letting the piston return home.

There are also active breaking MOSFETS that will stop the motor from spinning after the gun is fired. The good ones are programmed to gently stop the motor as stopping it suddenly would be the equivalent to slamming on the brakes on a car. It will damage the motor/tires.
As I said earlier, the good AB mosfets will ease on the brakes so that it will not harm the motor.