Just a quick technical question about pistols.

I've always heard that you are not supposed to drop a cartridge or snap-cap directly into the barrel (with the exception of a Beretta), and to always use a magazine to insert a snap-cap.

Why is it a bad thing to do? I told my girlfriend not to do it with her CZ, but I completly forgot why. So could ARFCOM enlighten me again?

might have to do with the extractor?  i really have never heard this so i'm curious.  i dont use a snap cap anyway, just an empty piece of brass

I have no idea. I usually do it from a magazine anyway.

Double post, btw.

Plus snap caps are made from aluminum.  Although it's fairly soft, the surface of aluminum is coated with aluminum oxide (forms naturally from reacting with air) which is abrasive.

Quoted: Plus snap caps are made from aluminum.  Although it's fairly soft, the surface of aluminum is coated with aluminum oxide (forms naturally from reacting with air) which is abrasive.

Many are plastic with a brass base or brass, it seems.

And you can make your own... I know how, but it's a little complicated.

You cut a mechanical pencil eraser of the proper diameter and place it in the primer hole, coat it with a thin layer of epoxy (the facing side of the eraser only), seat a bullet, and somehow mark it so you can tell it's a dummy bullet. Orange spraypaint is what's suggested.

basically the extractor is meant for the rim of the casing to slide up into it when feeding from a magazine.  When you drop a round into the chamber and then drop the slide, the extractor has to bend all the way out to go around the rim and can also mash the rim so that the cartridge eventually will fail to extract.  The extractor can also be bent or broken if this is done enough as well as the extractor spring can become weakened.  How many times does it take to do this?  Could be 1 in your case, could be never... it's kind of like swinging the cylinder of a revolver closed instead of pushing it closed.  Maybe yours will never bend or get out of timing, but I don't risk it.

it is a very bad thing to do on pistols with internal extractors--1911 for example.  but for a pistol with an external extractor it ain't quite so bad.  the owners manual for my ruger p95 says that it is perfectly fine to load one round at a time by hand without the mag for training purposes like teaching people to shoot.  

Do it without worry.  If dropping a snap cap is going to damage or cause damage to your extractor, you have on hell of a crappy pistol.

SPC Richard A. White, Senior Medic
249th MP Detachment (EACF)
Camp Humphreys, ROK